You see that? That’s the Synclavier II, one of the first digital synthesizers. Before synthesizers like that, most of them were analog.

What’s the difference?

Well, the sound in an analog synthesizer is created and modulated by the physical movement of its components, while a digital synthesizer creates sound using computer hardware. While some (including me) think that analog synths sound cooler and are more organic, they are a royal pain in the ass to work with. They’re very hard to maintain, and they go out of tune pretty easily. In fact, in some cases the heat that is generated by simply playing them over an extended period of time is enough make them go out of tune. Just imagine how much of a nightmare they must have been for touring musicians at the time. I don’t know how Tangerine Dream did it. Of course, I don’t know how Tangerine Dream does a lot of things.

That’s a hell of a barrier of entry for a lot of musicians. So in the late 70s, companies began to experiment with digital synthesizers and in 1979, the Fairlight DMI became the first digital synth to see widespread use within the recording community. One year later New England Digital’s Synclavier II followed suit.

While the Fairlight probably had a larger foothold in the popular music landscape thanks to its use by artists like Peter Gabriel, New Order, Devo and Herbie Hancock, the Synclavier also played a pretty big part in creating what would become the sound of the 80s. Frank Zappa’s 1986 album Jazz From Hell was composed almost entirely on a Synclavier, and artists as diverse as Paul Simon, Mr. Mister and Trevor Horn all made use of the Synclavier throughout the decade.

And I’m willing to bet that at least a few of those artists, and many others, listened to this record before doing so.

The Incredible Sounds of Synclavier II
Side 1
Side 2
Patrick Gleeson – Summer 

Released in 1981, this blue promotional record is basically one long demo reel that highlights the many strengths of the Synclavier. Throughout both sides of the record you’ll hear synthesized bells, gongs, pianos, drums, bass and various spacey synth sounds that would eventually make their way to countless albums over the next 10 years. It’s not really that musical, but for anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes aspects of the recording industry, digital equipment, or just goofy weird records, then this is probably worth a listen. At the end of the second side the full musical capabilities are showcased via Patrick Gleeson’s interpretation of Vivaldi’s “Summer,” which I’ve included as a separate track.

I know Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones probably listened to this record when it came out. Doubt me? Just listen to side one and skip ahead to about six minute and 44 seconds in. If you don’t want to, fine, you can just beat it.

I haven’t posted an extremely stupid lounge/Moog album in a long time. Let’s fix that.

Richard Hayman – Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine
Richard Hayman is one of those people whose career is so long that it’s nearly impossible to summarize. As just about any page about him will tell you, he’s most known for being the arranger for the Boston Pop Orchestra, a position he held for over 30 years. According to his AllMusic bio, Hayman also served as a music director for a very eclectic assortment of celebrities, including Johnny Carson, Pat Boone and Olivia Newton-John. According to this photo of him, he enjoys large bowties.

He also apparently liked to make really silly early electronic music. In 1969 he released this goofy little record, no doubt an attempt to cash-in on the synthesizer craze that Wendy Carlos started with her legendary Switched-On Bach album a year earlier.

Did I mention this album is goofy and silly? Because holy shit it is.  As the title suggests, most of the songs are electronic re-imaginings of “Latin” songs like “The Peanut Vendor” and “La Comparsa.” But it also has a few mainstream pop songs thrown in for good measure, including “The Look Of Love?”  and “The Girl From Ipanema.” Don’t expect any covers of rock tunes though, I don’t think Hayman was hip to that sound.

It’s not as memorable as other early electronic albums, but its still worth a listen. And I think everyone in the world should take note of that amazing cover.

Exotic Birds
Dancing On The Airwaves
Have You Heard The News
The Meaning Of Love
This Must Be Heaven
Nothing Lasts Forever
Fighting Fire With Fire 

So who the hell are the Exotic Birds and why the hell should you care about them?

I’ll just cut to the chase, lest you skip this post completely from lack of interest. The Exotic Birds were one of the many bands that Trent Reznor was a member of before he decided to strike out on his own with Nine Inch Nails. And when you hear about the Exotic Birds today on blogs and on YouTube, it’s usually because of that fact. While that’s an interesting bit of trivia, I think that does a disservice to the rest of the band. Trent Reznor was barely in Exotic Birds after all, he only played keyboards on one EP (L’oiseau – the album I’m featuring tonight) and he wrote none of the songs.

The Exotic Birds was barely more than a for-hire gig for Reznor, the real man behind the group was Andy Kubiszewski. On L’oiseau he not only plays keyboards and sings, but he is credited as a guitarist, programmer, percussionist and even xylophone player in the linear notes. He’s the sole writer on four of the album’s tracks, with drummer Tom Freer getting a sole writing credit on one tune and a co-writing credit with Andrew on another. While the line-up to Exotic Birds changed a lot during its short time, Andrew remained in the group until he broke it up for good sometime in the early 90s.

But that was only the beginning of Andrew’s musical career. After he was done with the Exotic Birds he briefly joined The The as a drummer, before rejoining with Trent Reznor in 1994. This time he was the backing member in Reznor’s musical endeavor, playing drums with Nine Inch Nails on their album The Downward Spiral. Maybe working with Reznor’s industrial group gave Andy a taste for the harder-edged music, because just a couple years later he was with Stabbing Westward, the NIN-derivative act who gave us the uber-downer alt-rock hits “What Do I Have To Do” and “Shame” and “Save Yourself.” After Stabbing Westward decided to mope their separate ways in 2002, Andy went on to work with a few other bands before turning to production/songwriting work in 2005, oddly contributing music to t.A.T.u’s sophomore album Dangerous And Moving (which, by the way, isn’t that bad!) among other things. Today, Kubiszewski mostly does television work, composing music for Discovery shows like The Colony, Axmen and Monster Garage.

I said before that I’ve always thought that the lesser-known, more workmanlike musicians have more interesting careers and trajectories than the superstars and one-hit wonders, and I really think the Andrew Kubiszewski’s path of synthpop frontman to British alt-rock drummer to industrial drummer to eurodance songwriter to TV composer really proves that point.

All that and I never even really mentioned how the Exotic Birds sounded! Well, they weren’t bad. They definitely sound like a band that really doesn’t know what it’s doing, going after trends in music instead of trying to forge its own way. Some tracks are incredibly radio friendly pop numbers, while others have a slightly harder edge that might have played well on college radio at the time, kind of  Eurthymics meets The Cure meets InSoc (although not as good as any of those bands). It’s dated as hell, that’s for sure, but if I was Andy Kubiszewski I would be less embarrassed about “Nothing Last Forever” (which has a really great instrumental breakdown) than this.

Okay, that was kind of mean. Stabbing Westward had some good tunes too. “Shame” holds up alright, even if it takes miserablism and self-loathing to levels that NIN could only dream of. I mean, “I only see myself reflected in your eyes”? Pathetic perfection.