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STH 2221CD
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"Haack's music is rooted in the idea that humans and electronic machines share a reciprocal relationship that manifests itself through sounds. In order to further explore this dynamic, Haack dropped out of Juilliard to pursue a more experimental course in, surprisingly, educational children's music. Haack released material off his own label Dimension 5 Records in 1962, which allowed him to mix kinetic energy, infuse psychedelic philosophy, and pluck sounds from various genres across the board. Adding to his musical pastiches, Haack used home-made modular synthesizers, proto-vocoders, and the heat-touch sensitive Dermatron to expand his music into the technological realm of creativity. Similar to friend Raymond Scott (who J-Dilla sampled for 'Lightworks'), Haack's facility to create new electronic soundscapes has turned his work into a virtual music library, one whose samples have already been culled by the likes of Cut Chemist. Farad Bruce Haack serves as a glowing primer of Haack's work throughout his career. Touching on the lush, pysch-electronic grooves of the Electric Lucifer period and extending to his more abstract, angular works, this compilation highlights his use of the Farad, one of the first musical vocoders invented at the time. Yet amidst echoey reverb and haunting drones, Haack himself manages to create something primal and human, not necessarily conflating human and electronic but posing them as compatible partners."
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QDK 037CD
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2001 release, repressed. "Bruce Haack is perhaps best known for his innovative and engaging (and extremely hard to find) electronic records for children made from the mid/late 60's through the 70's and even into the 80's. Current 'electronic' acts and collectors seek these albums out for their exciting use of homemade synthesizers (homemade because it was difficult to find much else in the mid 60's), all built by Bruce himself to enhance his and his musical cohorts' (dance instructor Esther Nelson, pianist Praxiteles Pandel and numerous children) fun and instructional songs in which the children lucky enough to hear them were invited to participate, learn, dance and sing. Many of the songs on these albums gave hints of Bruce's intellectual side, but it was his one major label release, The Electric Lucifer, put out by Columbia in 1970 (all other albums were released on Bruce and friends' own label, Dimension 5), that better showed just what Bruce was capable of: a groundbreaking mixture of contemporary rock, futuristic electronic sounds, and high-concept philosophic poetry. To quote Bruce from the liner notes of that album, 'I have unblocked a few media -- both philosophical and technical -- this is a good age of unblocking.' Musically, it was sort of a blend of the Moody Blues and Kraftwerk, four years before the latter would even begin to create the sounds for which they would best be remembered. The album explored the war between Heaven and Hell, with Earth being caught in the middle, and asserted that even Lucifer could be forgiven if only there was enough love in the world. This may have been too much for the mainstream to handle, unsurprisingly, so Bruce continued recording and releasing great albums on Dimension 5. In 1979, however, he would revisit his earlier hallowed ground and record The Electric Lucifer Book 2, which remained unreleased in Bruce's lifetime (he died in 1988), but now, finally, the rest of the world will be able to hear the fabulous sequel, as Bruce intended it to be heard. The context of the sequel is one in which Satan, fancying himself a 'mean ole devil,' tries to tempt a young Jesus by telling him about all the hurt and betrayals he will go through in life before his dramatic death. There are tender moments, funny moments, and frightening moments, but all moments end up catchy or moving or both. The album is no more 'religious' than works by Dante or Milton; Bruce merely uses well-known mythologies and icons to explore his own ideas about a universe that is bigger than anything anyone could say about it -- a universe made smaller by words themselves. And behind the ideas is the best damn electronic album you never heard! While Book One involved 'professional' singers and friends being brought in to sing along with Bruce's homemade electronic voice, which he called 'Farad,' Book 2 is purely Bruce. The entire album is sung using his somehow very moving robot/vocoder vocals. The music is more Kraftwerk this time than Moody Blues -- imagine that the Residents made an album about works by Dante or Milton, and then for some reason had Kraftwerk re-record the whole thing and you will begin to describe the wondrously strange beauty that dominates this album. Bruce was always somewhat prophetic in his works and in predictions to friends (he once described a future age in which all music would be shared by everyone -- though who could have predicted Metallica), and the highly insightful lyrics on this album will give plenty of philosophic fodder to be discussed 'round the ole jukebox, while the music coming from it will set your soul a-tappin'." --Eric Carlson
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QDK 032CD
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Originally released in 1998, this collection of the very best of Canadian electronic composer Bruce Haack's eccentric and unsettlingly eclectic career, spanning from 1968-1974 -- from children's songs to The Electric Lucifer -- is repressed and finally available again. Created and performed on electronic instruments he invented and built entirely by himself, Haack's music is an otherworldly mixture of twisted psychedelic Moog, surrealist collage, acid-tinged pop, droning keyboards, lighthearted lyrics and offbeat, outsider sincerity, all presented with astoundingly innovative production techniques from one of electronic music's singularly quirky pioneers. Most of the music on this album was programmed on a polyphonic music computer built by Haack from surplus parts furnished by Ver-Tech Radio Philadelphia. The machine was made in 18 months without diagrams or plans (Haack never studied electronics), and produced up to twelve simultaneous voices in sequence via a memory holding over 4,000 bits of information. Featured here are songs like "Electric To Me Turn" and "Song Of The Death Machine," originally released on The Electric Lucifer, Haack's legendary major-label debut, originally released on Columbia in 1970; "School For Robots" from The Way-Out Record For Children, originally released on Haack's own label, Dimension 5, in 1968; and "Thank You," a special message to the listener from the composer. Also included are two college radio interviews with Haack. An insightful, if not essential overview of a truly unique musician that serves as, to quote the liner notes, "an electronic musical-poetic treat for children and high school-people revealing more wonders of our earth-ship."
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QDK 032LP
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2009 repress. Deluxe full color gatefold 180 gram vinyl version. Originally released in 1998, this collection of the very best of Canadian electronic composer Bruce Haack's eccentric and unsettlingly eclectic career, spanning from 1968-1974 -- from children's songs to The Electric Lucifer -- is repressed and finally available again. Created and performed on electronic instruments he invented and built entirely by himself, Haack's music is an otherworldly mixture of twisted psychedelic Moog, surrealist collage, acid-tinged pop, droning keyboards, lighthearted lyrics and offbeat, outsider sincerity, all presented with astoundingly innovative production techniques from one of electronic music's singularly quirky pioneers.
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