Raymond Scott – Manhattan Research Inc.
Perhaps unfairly best known for having his music repurposed into the backing tracks for classic Warner Bros. cartoons, the late Raymond Scott has another claim to fame that often gets overlooked – he was one of the true pioneers of electronic music in America. In this area, Scott was a true renaissance man: not only did he pioneer the sound, but he built his own instruments and early devices that presaged sequencers, and he even did some of the first work on multi-track recording, at roughly the same time that Les Paul was experimenting with similar ideas. In the 1950s and 1960s (at roughly the same time as the ascendancy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop), Scott was carving out his own path in an entire new genre of music.
Not only that, but Scott was trying his hardest to make his experiments pay for themselves: he marketed his unusual new sounds as music beds and jingles for commercials, with some success. The two-disc Manhattan Research, Inc. collection chronicles and archives that material, with a selection of Scott’s finished spots (both with and without announcers/singers) as well as demos and experiments that never made it to radio. The commercials range from obscurely local/regional campaigns (Baltimore Gas & Electric Company) to major national campaigns (IBM, Bufferin, Vicks, General Motors and a Sprite radio campaign that remains famous enough that it’s now become an ironic cover song). In a way, Scott achieved his aim by getting a new style of music into the ears of millions of listeners – but until now, not with any recognition.
While the commercials are a nostalgia trip that goes back even before the writer of this review was born, some of the purely instrumental pieces are startlingly ahead of their time: the “Night and Day” track on the first disc could’ve caught on in the 1980s had it been revived then. “Take Me To Your Violin Teacher” could easily be mistaken for modern chiptunes performed with 1980s video game hardware… and yet it was recorded in 1969. “Ripples (Montage)” anticipates abstract-but-tuneful electronic film scoring. “Cindy Electronium” sounds like late ’80s/early ’90s video game music.
There are a few throwbacks as well; Scott tries out completely electronic renditions of his existing compositions including “The Toy Trumpet” (which becomes almost unrecognizable) and “Twilight In Turkey”, both of which featured in their original, jazzier forms on Reckless Nights & Turkish Twilights. Some of his electronic music beds are also quite obviously very close cousins of the music from his Soothing Sounds For Baby albums. There’s also one very interesting guest star on a few tracks: the voice of none other than Jim Henson graces some tracks recorded in 1969, including “Limbo: The Organized Mind”, a free-form ramble set to Scott’s electronic sounds, and a couple of Bufferin commercials which seem to have sprung from “Limbo” both conceptually and musically.
A lot of this information, incidentally, is included in a book that clocks in at around 140 pages and covers Scott’s entire life and career, not just the material on these two CDs, in a wealth of detail.
Raymond Scott is still overdue for a reassessment of one of the electronic music pioneers in the United States, to say nothing of being a composer whose works influenced generations of children (by way of Warner Bros. cartoons). Manhattan Research, Inc. really isn’t a “general audience” listening experience, but it’s an invaluable archive for anyone interested in how electronic music gained a foothold in our national consciousness: in little snippets, 30 or so seconds at a time, behind commercial announcers and jingle singers.
… Read moreDisc One
- Manhattan Research, Inc. Copyright (0:11)
- Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (Instrumental, Take 4) (1:14)
- Bendix 1: The Tomorrow People (1:06)
- Lightworks (1:52)
- The Bass-line Generator (3:10)
- Don’t Beat Your Wife Every Night! (1:44)
- B.C. 1675 (Gillette Conga Drum Jingle) (3:16)
- Vim (0:59)
- Auto-Lite: Sta-Ful (Instrumental) (0:47)
- Sprite: Melonball Bounce (Instrumental) (1963)
- Sprite: Melonball Bounce (1963)
- Wheels That Go (0:50)
- Limbo: The Organized Mind (4:33)
- Portofino 1 (2:13)
- County Fair (1:01)
- Lady Gaylord (1:02)
- Good Air (Take 7) (0:38)
- IBM MT/ST: The Paperwork Explosion (4:31)
- Domino (0:33)
- Super Cheer (0:34)
- Cheer: Revision 3 (New Backgrounds) (0:39)
- Twilight in Turkey (1:32)
- Raymond Scott Quote / Vicks: Medicated Cough Drops (1:34)
- Vicks: Formula 44 (0:46)
- Auto-Lite: Spark Plugs (1:00)
- Nescafe (1:06)
- Awake (0:35)
- Backwards Overload (6:04)
- Bufferin: Memories (Original) (0:59)
- Bandito the Bongo Artist (1:30)
- Night and Day (Cole Porter) (1:45)
- Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (“395”) (1:07)
- K2r (0:19)
- IBM Probe (1:56)
- GMGM 1A (1:49)
- The Rhythm Modulator (3:37)
Disc Two
- Ohio Plus (0:17)
- In the Hall of the Mountain Queen (0:49)
- General Motors: Futurama (1:04)
- Portofino 2 (2:14)
- The Wild Piece (a.k.a. String Piece) (4:07)
- Take Me to Your Violin Teacher (1:40)
- Ripples (Original Soundtrack) (0:59)
- Cyclic Bit (1:04)
- Ripples (Montage) (4:06)
- The Wing Thing (1:00)
- County Fair (Instrumental) (1:00)
- Cindy Electronium (1:59)
- Don’t Beat Your Wife Every Night! (Instrumental) (1:45)
- Hostess: Twinkies (0:32)
- Hostess: Twinkies (Instrumental) (0:32)
- Ohio Bell: Thermo Fax (0:24)
- Pygmy Taxi Corporation (7:11)
- Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (Announce Copy, Take 1) (0:29)
- Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (0:44)
- Lightworks (Slow) (1:40)
- The Paperwork Explosion (Instrumental) (3:30)
- Auto-Lite: Ford Family (1:03)
- Auto-Lite: Ford Family (Instrumental) (0:54)
- Raymond Scott Quote / Auto-Lite: Wheels (1:50)
- Bufferin: Memories (Demo) (0:44)
- Space Mystery (Montage) (5:11)
- The Toy Trumpet (2:15)
- Backwards Beeps (1:05)
- Raymond Scott Quote / Auto-Lite: Sta-Ful (1:36)
- Lightworks (Instrumental) (1:29)
- When Will It End? (3:14)
- Bendix 2: The Tomorrow People (1963)
- Electronic Audio Logos, Inc. (5:23)
Released by: Basta
Release date: 2000
Disc one total running time: 58:48
Disc two total running time: 63:11
As one of a trilogy of dystopian flicks from the ’60s and ’70s starring Charlton Heston, The Omega Man is notable for being a loose adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel “I Am Legend” and, in its own very mild way, anticipating the zombie subgenre of horror movies that was yet to come. For film music enthusiasts, however, Omega Man is a rare treasure – it’s an entire score composed by Ron Grainer, the British composer whose opening title music for such TV shows as The Prisoner and Doctor Who instantly captured the heart of those shows. But could he do more than coin catchy opening title music? That’s what I hoped to find out by giving Omega Man a listen.
compared to The Omega Man is likely to keep movie fans, and fans of Matheson’s original story, debating for quite a long time.)
A novelty for the early 1970s, Hot Butter helped to drag electronically generated music into the American mainstream. Actually the brainchild of session keyboard player Stan Free, who had played on albums and on stage for numerous other artists, Hot Butter had to ease its listeners into the concept of music generated by machine by doing covers of familiar tunes, including the one that actually made it onto the charts, a cover of an obscure instrumental called “Popcorn”.
I previously griped a bit about Taito Game Music, a CD which I liked despite its shortcomings but really couldn’t see recommending to a general audience. Well, as it turns out, some of the same problems rear their heads with Konami Game Music Volume 1, but those problems are tempered by one thing: generally, Konami’s 80s arcade games had more music than Taito’s, lending themselves more readily to a release like this.
After losing me as a regular listener for most of the 90s (and y’know, I’m sure that loss just crushed the lads), U2 got me back on board with All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Returning to the compelling style of music that won them such an ardent fan base in the 1980s, U2 ditches some of the electronic production wizardry that drove some of us away in the next decade. And the result is a lovely thing to hear.
At some point, I really need to review this movie for you if you haven’t seen it. Go ahead and rent it sometime between now and then, as I’m not going to spoil the plot for you in a music review. I am going to talk about the music, though, if you don’t mind.
Every once in a while, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen pick up the hint that it took Jeff Lynne 15 years to pick up, and resurrect the band that everyone remembers them belonging to. Namely, in Fagen & Becker’s case, that would be Steely Dan.
far too much disturbing stuff in our own news along these lines. I’ve also known a handful of families and friends whose lives have been forever changed by it. It’s not pop song material.
The music from the Star Wars trilogy alone would qualify John Williams as a genius. The music from Superman confirms this, as do many other of his works. One of these days, despite the pop culture roots of his work, Williams will overcome all the naysayers’ claims that he’s merely been running Wagner, Holst and Korngold through a musical cuisinart.
Lagging behind the release of the songtrack by several months, this is the orchestral soundtrack of the sleeper hit Christian film Left Behind. While many of the songs were entertaining, the score – performed by the London Symphony Orchestra – was exceptional. As pleased as I am to hear it released on CD, I’m also surprised. Left Behind wasn’t exactly a box office smash, and it was a movie aimed squarely at a specific niche audience which doesn’t normally demand the orchestral accompaniment to a movie. I was stunned to see this release at all.
In due time, I shall wax rhapsodic about the X-Men movie, which I thought was hands-down the best comic book film to come out since the 1978 Superman flick. But for the moment, let’s talk music.