WHat would you like to Switch -On?

switched on low?
switched on francisco lopez?
actually, switched on cocteau twins might not be a bad idea

Isn't Low kind of already switched-on? yeah, switched on Cocteau Twins! I would buy that! Maybe we can convince the Moog Cookbook to do it. They have been switching on allot of rock recently.

Switched on Black Sabbath. Switched on Pixies. Switched on Primal Scream. Not only because it would sound good, but also because Bobby G would be so annoyed because it wouldn't be "soulful" or what have you.

switched on sex pistols because the n i would really feel cheated

Oh, Belle and Sebastian. Obviously.

Killing Joke. Honour the Fire.

Switched On Boards Of Canada... oh. wait. nevermind. I actually think Switched On Pixies is a great idea.. I'm already fantasizing about how great Debaser would sound. Switched On Backstreet Boys could actually be quite entertaining as well... trying to recreate all those syrupy five part harmonies.

Switched-on Post-Rock!

oh, wait, no, sorry- that's been the last few Stereolab albums already. ;-)

I'd actually like to see some bands Switched OFF just to see what they could do, like The Orb, Chemical Brothers, Orbital. I'm sure that some of them have enough melodic sense that they could pull something together without the circuitry. I know Bjork did this with the Unplugged session. Let's see who else can do it.

Allot of those bands you mentined , if you switch them off them will be silent. Beware the band that uses expensive effects and synths rather than creativity! Look what has happened to Bowie!

Oddly enough, I'm enjoying those effects and synths on "Lodger" right now.

I meant in more recent years, like on Earthling.

I'm confused, who is Wendy Carlos? Is she related to Windy and Carl...okay then Switched on Windy and Carl, dunno what it means, but that's my answer.

Wendy Carlos, formerly Walter Carlos, composed the S/T to 'Clockwork Orange' and made a mint in the early '70s by producing synthy versions of classical music - 'Switched on Bach" etc. A serious type, as opposed to the Perrey/Kingsley 'Popcorn' school active round abt the same time.

i always liked the idea of 'switching on' hair metal-type stuff. guns n roses would be a lot more palatable if the melodies were put in the foreground. and the vocals banished to the deepest darkest most foul-smelling pit of hell.

Switched-on me. I want to become ONE with the technology. *wibbles into 1986-era cyberpunk idiocies*

"Beware the band that uses expensive effects and synths rather than creativity!"

So, Mike,

A rack of synthesizers isn't creative, but a rack of guitar pedals and a row of Marshall stacks is? Is there a spectrum here? Is Kevin Shields less creative than James Taylor? Is the guitarist from Disco Inferno less creative than Dave Matthews? I mean, he uses a sampler for chrissake--what a heathen.

Perhaps less pointedly than Clarke, but to agree with him -- quite. I don't care *what* somebody uses, I just want it to be good! And if they use tech everywhere, then bring it on! Entertain me and fuck worrying about tradition.

I don't know about creativity, but James Taylor has better melodies than Kevin Shields. He's also a less wimpy singer, God help them both.

I didn't intend to imply use of equipment cannot be creative. One of my favourite bands, Cocteau Twins, have made it their stock and trade. But on Earthling, BOwie sat there behind a massive wall of ninties-sounding drummachines and effects and sequencers. It was disheartening becasue it wasn't very original, it didn't sound like something Bowie would do. I think there are allot of people who use technology to be creative and allot who use technology to make dated gimmicky crap that would be useless without its silicon.

But nineties Bowie is a profoundly lame duck, surely?

Oooh ... "Switched On Pentangle", maybe?

I actually like allot of Bowie's ninties songs, but I wish I had been in charge of production and what instruments will be used and everything. Why wasn't I contacted! Those basatrds.

"I don't know about creativity, but James Taylor has better melodies than Kevin Shields.

Well, then, I guess we'll just have to disagree on that one!

"He's also a less wimpy singer, God help them both."

I don't know--Jimmy's pretty damn wimpy, and he's got that lurkingly sinister pedophile look to boot. Does "sort of high voice" equal "wimpy" in your book? If so, then all I have to say is: Rob Halford. Chris Cornell. Either one could tie James' sincere old balls around his smiling head before he could strum a D7. Shit, I bet even Steve Perry and Geddy Lee could.

Halford and Cornell sing a tad more forcefully than Kevin Shields, I'd say. And of course, James Taylor IS an uber-wimp, so outdoing him in that department is no small feat. It's like having a bigger ego than Diana Ross.

Damn James Taylor. I hate the man. I dont care that he was in a mental institution. He has been smeared on my face like HItchcock's shit for years by my parents. I wish he owuld go far away forever. Argrgr

No more drugs for that man.

I have to stick up for Earthling, too, I thought it was a fantastic record (although I mostly dislike Bowie). The production is pretty well done, if a tad dated. It's interesting because rather than just having him sing over beats somebody else made up in a studio, it felt like the beginning of a real fusion of rock, techno and drum and bass influences, maybe some of the most convincing rock/electronic fusion I've heard. The songs are good too ("Battle Of Britain" and "Looking For Sattelites"). This is, I imagine, an unpopular opinion.

Getting back to Mike's original reply to my post, I disagree that all bands that rely on technology would be necessarily silent if you took away the synths and effects, because a lot of them have a killer melodic sense and the sense of musical development through a piece. That's the kind of thing that a lot of more organic bands often lack, preferring instead to simply bludgeon away at riffs. There's a place for both, granted. I don't know about the Chemical Bros. but I'd certainly venture that Orb and Orbital would survive the transition intact, though the overall style would certainly change to accommodate the change in the way the music was being produced.

And speaking of Wendy Carlos, has anyone else heard her album Beauty in the Beast? When I first heard it, the microtonalities frightened the hell out of me, but now I love the sonics on it. And I'm still trying to figure out if the Beasties ripped off part of it for one of the samples on Paul's Boutique (I think it was in "Hey Ladies", but I'm still at work and can't confirm this).

Switched on Lou Reed; Switched on Nick Cave; Switched on Sonic Youth

I haven't heard Beauty and the Beast , but I did buy TRON. I was dismayed when I realized the Moog only makes breif appearances, on the only minutes of the record I liked. I wish ALL classical music would be switched-on. I hate strings and clarintets, etc. in comparison. So formless and vague, so damn...ORGANIC!

Switched-On Wu Tang Clan. Fer sure.

Tadeusz wins!

... and Mike digs his own grave with his choice of final insult.

"Beauty And The Beast" is one my favorite albums--not much like anything else, being microtonal (see Harry Partch). "Sonic Seasonings" was ambient before there was a word for it. When I first heard "Switched On Bach" in seventh grade, it changed my life--for years I dreamt of owning a Moog even though I can't play a single instrument. These albums and "Clockwork Orange" are essential to the history of electronic music, and I am sorely disappointed that Wendy didn't appreciate Momus's wondrous little ditty about her life history. She showed she had a sense of humor with "Pompous Circumstances," so why not use it? But then if she had, we might not have had "Stars Forever," and besides I understand the two made it up.

If I were to "switch on" anything that hasn't been switched on before or in a long time, I'd just like to go back in time to switch on the Teleharmonium, which occupied an entire building in Manhattan and sent music to subscribers by telephone wire--about a hundred years before mp3.com. Then I'd have it play Cantonese opera very slowly and faintly.

James Taylor is the world's most boring singer! Please switch him off!

Sorry--I meant "Beauty IN The Beast."

To continue... Back around 1977 I have to admit that I was just a tad disappointed in punk mostly because of its rejection of synthesizers in toto--after all, synths seemed much more revolutionary than the same old guitars, you can program them if you can't play, and Kraftwerk and Suicide had surely pointed the way. I didn't want to see yet another garage-guitar band when you might have some girls and guys in Hugo Ball suits and modular Moogs trashing the stage. And then along came Depeche Mode... but they weren't quite what I had in mind.

Also, why not switch on something already switched on? Take Momus's (oh, dear, there I go again) "Little Red Songbook" and somehow multiply the analogue synths and effects--though I'd just as soon hear a version all performed a cappella. Wendy Carlos did re-switch on "Switched On Bach," and as technically adept as "SOBII" is, it still lacks some of the primitive charm of that early custom-built Moog.