Battle of the Synthesizer Giants: Wendy Carlos vs. Jarre vs. Vangelis vs. Tomita

Switched on Bach was not a novelty?

Out of these lot, Jarre undoubtedly.

Switched on Bach wasn't in the 1970s.

Yet it's Carlos' best known work - funny that!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgCejsyS0t8

Vangelis. Hands down. I mean, c'mon... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkqYJ_NDAF8

Is this because of the adult swim thing

What does that mean?

Anyway, a couple of years ago I would've voted for Vangelis no doubt, but for the last year or so I've been on a big Tomita kick, that guy got some ridiculous sounds out of his synths...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyK1TsGSJEo

This is some otherworldly shit!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDFocqYSrfE

And this is just beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD-b6mU3SYQ

In the 1970s, these four pretty much established the synthesizer's place in popular music as something beyond mere ornament or novelty...

Uncontroversial.

jarre and tomita don't feature in "live at the necropolis", but moroder does.

Oh yeah, I saw that video on Facebook, some ILXor posted it. Moroder is in a different genre and category though... His music wasn't instrumental, nor fully synth-driven.

I know you're a fan of Tomita, but did he actually sell that many records? I've never heard him. I recognize the album sleeves though.

While we're at it, when was Oxygene? 1977? I think synthesizers were pretty well established by then.

Can't find any sales numbers online, but the Debussy album was nominated for 4 Grammys in 1974, and in 1988 he was still popular enough to stage concerts like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRcqZhdfIxo

(xpost)

Yeah, Debussy album got to #17 in the UK album charts, but that was his only Top 40 hit in the UK. For reference, in the same period, Tangerine Dream had eight Top 40 albums. It's possible he just wasn't very popular in the UK.

Sorry if this is too silly and/or off topic. But have you guys seen the recent absurdist Adult Swim skit feating Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis and Wendy Carlos?

Live at the Necropolis: Lords of Synth

Dude its moroder

My brain is broken, it was Moroder and not Jarre.

That's great !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXgNo5Smino

Er, I like that "Live at the Necropolis" thing too, but this thread like 20 posts, and we have four different people reminding others about that video. Don't you folks read the thread before you post?

Anyway, it's a cool video, but it's not the inspiration for this thread, I was just listening to Tomita and thinking that these four artists are really the Big Four of a certain type of synth music, so I decided to start a poll. So let's try to keep the discussion to their actual music, and no one needs to post that "Lords of Synth" video again. ;)

hahaha

This video is like the "I'm Rick james, bitch!" for synth nerds. Gets repeated and cited ad infinitum. The "funny" is long gone.

Tomita was pretty popular among prog heads in the late 70s-early 80s - at least in the NYC metro area. My first major synth "turn on" was being lent cassettes of Tomita's greatest hits and Vangelis' "Heaven And Hell" by my cousin's prog-loving best friend. Changed my life and i say that without hyperbole.

write-in for tangerine dream but otherwise vangelis i guess

It seems p obvious tomita sold a lot of records just based on the ubiquity of his stuff in used bins

... in the US.

holy shit @ that Adult Swim video

this is between Vangelis and Tomita for me, hard to decide as they do very different things.

Tomita's classical pretensions and goofy conceptual audacity are v endearing, plus his recordings tend to be filled with surprising twists and turns. But I think I like the overall *sound* of Vangelis more.

I certainly own and listen to way more Tomita, altho that's largely thx to my wife

I thought of including Tangerine Dream, but IMO they're in a bit different category: less melody-driven, more (art) rock-oriented, plus most of their albums have other prominent instruments beyond synths.

when i was a kid tomita was pretty well known- jack horkheimer used one of his debussy arrangements as the theme song for his astronomy show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkJheh1XcAQ

STAR HUSTLER

can i write in synth sorcerers EDGAR FROESE or KITARO? otherwise, VANGELIS!

Klaus Schulze or death... only joking... or am I?

I need to dig into Tomita again I guess, he was one of the first on the chopping block when me and my friends "outgrew" anything that seemed overambitious, but Jarre seems like the easy vote here. Been trying to grok Vangelis since the epic Vangelis/Jarrett throwdown of a few years ago, sometime I can get kinda into him and sometimes it's like "why do people revere this bro?" but Jarre is just bitchin imo

Leaning towards Wendy Carlos here. Switched-on Bach is not a novelty in my world!

Jarre is more often than not all slickness and no substance. Carlos has always sounded calculated to me. Vangelis could create some sublime shit going back to Aphrodite's Child. His cornball stuff really began to take over in the mid '80s so his great - to - crap ratio is pretty high, IMO.

FITE!

what is "substance" in this context?

In my opinion it'd probably be an overall lack of compelling melodies or thematic passages in deference to some often nifty sequencer parts. Oh - and pretty pedestrian sound programming.

Don't get me wrong -- I really like a lot of Jarre's '70s output but it's always just seemed "nice".

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Wendy Carlos by a mile, though her work almost doesn't fit in with the others.

Also, no love for Laurie Spiegel? Guess her work was only known to PBS viewers, maybe.

(Please note that I haven't been back to ILM since embedding was a thing so I bet I'm doing this wrong.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpCHcfZ5Bno

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

what the hell is up with ilm and its army of Vangelis stans

Carlos > Jarre > Vangelis > Tomita

really pretty vangelis-produced pop single from mid 1970s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ2oKn3PP2Y

er, not a single. from a LP. sorry.

That entire album is a pretty strange listen but I love it. Veers from lovely tracks like that one- gorgeous synthy pop songs - to some weird bubblegum-y stuff to meditative cosmic ballads. I wish someone would reissue it since og pressings are ridiculously expensive.

I went with Vangelis due to the fact I listen to him more than the others. Bladerunner and Oxygene are the only albums of the above synth wizards that I listen to more than once a year, and my god do I have a hard on for the CS80. Vangelis' Spiral is another winner, and his bit from Heaven & Hell used on Sagan's original Cosmos (and later mixed with the beats of Pen Expers off of Autechre's Confield at their live/dj gig during 1999's inaugural Coachella) will always stick with me.