Giorgio Moroder: Search & Destroy

DESTROY: The crap he did for "Flashdance"

Destroy: "Take My Breath Away"

Actually, I don't hate it anything like as much as I hate "Together In Electric Dreams", which is what I meant to say to destroy.

Fun fact -- at a *very* strange supposedly acoustic benefit multiact show in 1992, Terri Nunn did an acoustic version of "Take My Breath Away" to mass indifference. The acoustic version of "Sex (I'm A...)" was equally odd. Not as odd as seeing Ogre do an acoustic take on "Testure," though.

Look for the for album he made with Sparks, the one with Beat the Clock.

As far as loose songs go, "Get on the Funk Train" is good, as is "I Wanna Funk You Tonight."

I remember hearing their LP 666 at school (c.1976): very clear memory paints this as a double LP filled entirely with Roussos (if him) mimicking an orgasmic woman – which at the time I thought mighty fine and avant-garde (of course very clear memory may be mistaken, or at least exaggerating). I heard it the same day I first heard Patti's Horses, and actually kind of always associate them.

You know, for some crazy reason, I'm not sure if I've ever asked you this about the Radiophonic Workshop: by 1972, were they were using true synths -- Moogs, Arps, Buchlas, etc. -- or tweaked organs (as with A Rainbow in Curved Air or Electronic Meditation) or some other kind of electric tomfoolery? I've always wanted to know. The main reason I never put Radiophonic on my synth mix tape was I couldn't find any confirmation that they did.

Destroy: Knight in White Satin *is* awful, what with that Moody Blues disco cover. And don't forget the Metropolis soundtrack (a total disgrace).

Destroy: There are some really bad later 80s 12"s which I've mercifully forgotten the name of.

I actually know a lot less about the *type* of synths used by the Radiophonic Workshop than someone like me might be expected to. However the first RW tracks I've heard using genuine synths (apologies for not knowing a better term), as opposed to creating the sound effects as a one-off for each track, date from 1972 (possibly late '71 or early '72, I don't know). Certainly there's a stark contrast between the '71 LP _BBC Radiophonic Music_ (all done through the earlier techniques) and the '73 LP _The Fourth Dimension_ (all synth-based, and sonically redolent in its weaker moments of Wakeman or Oldfield to whose fans it was possibly marketed at the time as an audiophile's record, though it's far better than that might suggest).

http://www.mb21.co.uk/ether.net/radiophonics has a lot more technical stuff on this. The stuff on _The Fourth Dimension_ might be of particular value to you because it definitely names the synths Paddy Kingsland used for that record; I know they were both British-made.

They got a Fairlight in the early 80s, but that's a sampling thing.

What you say does sort-of confirm the view that the innovation drained out of the Workshop at the time when cheap, off-the-shelf synths became readily available and concurrently seeped through into chartpop (I'd rather listen to OMD's "Souvenir" than any of the similar-sounding Peter Howell tracks from '81). The other great falling-off moment was the RW's appropriation of concept albums ("Through A Glass Darkly") and rock operas ("Rockoco") at the time when Genesis were going AOR and Mike Oldfield going disco; I wonder whether it occured to them that they'd gone as proggish as they ever needed to go on "The Fourth Dimension", just about got away with it, and done it when synth-prog was The Thing.

A great piece of writing, incidentally. Back in '87 / '88 I *was* one of those seven-year-old kids singing along to Roger Limb's songs for Look and Read. Suffice it to say, though, that I've evolved creatively in Radiophonic terms (though moved backwards chronologically) since.

i was watching Sybil today, the one where Gidget has 72 different personalities, and her clown faced guitar playing boyfriend in the movie was the main star in Midnight Express.

And Sparks' Terminal Jive.

http://www.retrocrush.com/archive/records2/giorgioandchris.jpg

Other unnamed Moroder brilliance:

Suzi Lane "Harmony"
Irene Cara "Breakdance", "Romance '83"

Japan "Life In Tokyo", "European Son"

D: that blondie mix he did for there new single "good boys"

But it looks like I'll be alone in destroying E=MC2, which I find incredibly limp, flat and dull.

i dont get einzelgänger u_u

i can't believe there isn't some sort of compilation of giorgio moroder productions beyond the donna summer and the solo stuff. maybe it exists? a fan mix? anything?

fair enough...

http://ugghnicewatch.com/2010/02/26/download-the-giorgio-moroder-collection/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7r6XXI_oX0

!

http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/giorgio-moroder-posts-rarities-soundcloud/

Two weeks ago, Giorgio Moroder, one of the great early pioneers of electronic music and the man who did the score for movies like Scarface and Midnight Express, decided to set up a SoundCloud. He’s decided to use that SoundCloud to post rarities and remixes, which is unbelievably exciting.

download limit reached on almost all of them :-(

At least you can stream 'em.

If you don't mind 128kbps you can download the stream pretty east with a javascript bookmarklet:

See here: https://gist.github.com/1980967

pretty *easy*

There's another soundcloud account he's posting to. http://soundcloud.com/giorgiomoroder2

I'm about 3 minutes in to the 'Underwater Impressions' album and it's super pretty, ambient/new age fluff. Not too dissimilar to some of Vangelis's 80s work.

Other Artists I like:
Donna Summer
Freddie Mercury
Paul Engemann
Blondie
Bonnie Tyler
Jon Anderson
Pat Benatar
Adam Ant
David Guetta
Kelly Rowland
Daft Punk
Jay-Z

13 minutes in and calling it fluff upthread is a bit harsh. This is really great, definite 'Blade Runner' vibe from it.

Didn't realise it was a soundtrack to a Leni Riefenstahl movie.

so glad to find this!

I am all about this

http://www.repertoirerecords.com/?p=7361

playing a dj set in nyc in a few months

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjGqYzAdWO4

To better adapt to the demands of today's EDM culture, Moroder is collaborating with some of its biggest names-including Avicii, who gave him some pointers during a recent songwriting session.

What the fuck is this.

"Oh hi old dude, yeah it's called dance music. I know you're some composer of weird experimental shit but if you want to make the charts you have to really pay attention to your audience."

avicii should have to call moroder "m'lord" and avert his eyes whenever giorgio walks in the room

And MORODER said Where Is Your STACHE and the avicii said 'lo i have shaved it off for it is of an earlier time
And this displeased the MORODER mightily
MORODER said If You Care So Much For Time, Look to Your Machines
And avicii discovered his Serato no longer kept time and he soon was left to survive on bat mitzvahs and frat parties
So it is writ by MORODER: Do Not Discard Your STACHE for STACHE Shall Sustain Your Time

DJ Set tonight was fairly epic and amazing; I've never heard those songs on a mammoth sound system before. He hit pretty much every high note. Also: i have tinnitus in my left ear fairly bad.

"To better adapt to the demands of today's EDM culture..."

New work out shortly:
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/premiere-giorgio-moroder-74-is-the-new-24

"Announced today, the album is set to drop in spring 2015 on Sony/RCA and features a new batch of notable collaborators including Britney Spears, Sia, Kylie Minogue, Charli XCX, and more. Alongside the album announcement comes a new video for the track "74 is the New 24," premiering exclusively on The Creators Project. "

that is an awesome title

is there a decent, comprehensive collection of Moroder's disco productions

Whatever the new GM track was, it was awful.

Yes, but parts of it were excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtAi9BaLmq0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM2Uz8UsWdM

His cover of Tom's Diner featuring Britney Spears is up in full on Spin! http://www.spin.com/2015/04/britney-spears-toms-diner-giorgio-moroder-susanne-vega-song-remake/
(right click the picture of Britney and press play if you can't see the link)
I think it's fantastic.

this is definitively bizarre

D:

meanwhile suzanne vega released an album last year

Seem to be different versions of this, with different speeds. I only like the one with the fastest BPM. Not sure how official that mix is though.

So what does ILM think of the Sia track? I wasn't too impressed at first but I'm warming up to it. The guitar is undeniable.

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

Whisper intro is p annoying, also in general do not like Sia's voice but can ofc appreciate that it's distinctive, throwback disco is cool, the guitar part sounds like get lucky, the chorus is great and I enjoy it more because Sia does less of the screeky-door-voice thing, agree that this song gets better w more listens.

Still i don't think it's fair if this track blows up and the Kylie track doesn't it's so good and he really nails Kylie's aesthetic/style imo (whereas I don't see what the cool disco throwback has to do w Sia)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gZ-11-kOSQ

Probably the Sia one seems like a more likely summer hit.

The Sia song is good, kind of impossibly sweet in a way that could probably be pretty annoying if you weren't in the mood for it though. Wonder if the whispery bits isn't a video thing, can't remember them from the audio only version. Agree it's not as good as the Kylie offering, but the Moroder album is shaping up to be one of my favourites this year.

The Charli XCX collab leaked a few days ago, is now officially up on Spotify. SONG OF THE SUMMER.

these songs are all awful

Will Chic or Giorgio Moroder have the summer album of 2015?

i like the charli song a lot! the mikky ekko song is garrrrrbaaaage

both sides of the chic single were awesome, but this new giorgio stuff is dire.

I just discovered the Cat People ost...I need more like this asap!! What else should I listen to? The Near Dark ost (Tangerine Dream) is another favorite. I vaguely remember being into the Thief ost too but it's not streaming on spotify sadly.

where is the damn Einzelgänger reissue?!?!

i swear i saw it in a store a few weeks ago, think it's a boot though

yeah that's unofficial, the cover is sooo pixelated and the sound sux, I returned one cuz I bought it thinking it was the legit reissue that I heard about

Such a great OST. I sought it out years ago after sourcing the sample used by El-P in Cannibal Ox's Iron Galaxy. Wish I had found the vinyl version haha I'd be a hundredaire

Using falsetto on every song on "E=MC²" was not one of his better decisions.

But having the vocoder read the credits def. was.