Perrey & Kingsley - The Essential Perrey & Kingsley

Posted By : capt.evil1 | Date : 27 Oct 2009 02:05:03 | Comments : 5 |

Gershon Kingsley, Jean-Jacques Perrey - 1967

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Electronic music became a prominent genre in the 1970s thanks to the work of groups like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, but they weren't the first groups to pioneer this sound.

In the mid-'60s, Frenchman Jean-Jacques Perrey -- an electronic musician who had helped popularize the Ondioline, a keyboard which produced sounds similar to the violin and the flute -- teamed up with American composer and arranger Gershon Kingsley for two albums of then-futuristic electronic pop. Using tape recorders, scissors, and splicing tape, they recorded variations on pop motifs that, while kitschy from a latter-day perspective, represented the state-of-the-art in electronic sounds at the time.

A good introduction to their work can be found on The Essential Perrey & Kingsley, a collection that conveniently packages together their two albums The In Sound From Way Out and Kaleidoscopic Vibrations: Spotlight on the Moog. The material from The In Sound From Way Out is half avant-garde experiment and half comedy album: Perrey & Kingsley mix traditional instrumentation and pre-Moog keyboards like the Ondioline with tape loops of bizarre sound effects and animal noises to create music that is spacy and silly all at once.

For instance, "Jungle Blues From Jupiter" marries a traditional blues melody to a kitschy keyboard sound and intersperses the melody with corny animal noises, while "Girl From Venus" layers some spare keyboard lines over tape loops of cartoon-style sound effects. The music that results is too caught up in its own gimmickry to succeed as straight pop music (the sound effects compete with the melodies instead of fleshing them out), yet remains strangely listenable.

The material from Kaleidoscopic Vibrations: Spotlight on the Moog benefits from the introduction of the title synthesizer, which creates a more sophisticated electronic sound, and a greater concentration on creating catchy pop melodies. Over half of this material is covers; highlights in this vein include a lightning-fast synth version of "Flight of the Bumblebee" and a remake of "Third Man Theme" that sounds like carnival music from outer space.

However, the best tunes from this half of the album are the originals: "The Savers" is a fast-paced slice of electronic pop built on a flurry of ornate synthesizer riffs, and "Baroque Hoedown" successfully marries two very different genres of music using a clever arrangement that seamlessly blends the harpsichord and the synthesizer.

In the end, The Essential Perrey & Kingsley is probably a little too kitschy and eccentric for the average listener, but makes a tidy and never dull collection for the adventurous lounge music admirer. ~ from Allmusic

Note: The song "Visa To The Stars" is co-credited to "Andy Badale," who would go on to fame as Angelo Badalamenti, composer and arranger of the music in many of David Lynch's movies. In contrast to the rest of the album, "Visa To The Stars" is a more serious gesture and lacks the unusual sound effects of the other cuts. The band Smash Mouth (who didn't ask for permission) borrowed the opening riff from "Swan's Splashdown" for their 1997 hit, "Walkin' on the Sun".

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Track list:

01. Unidentified Flying Object - 1:59
02. Little Man From Mars - 2:29
03. Cosmic Ballad - 3:28
04. Swan's Splashdown - 2:23
05. Countdown At 6 - 2:53
06. Barnyard In Orbit - 2:26
07. Spooks In Space - 2:05
08. Girl From Venus - 2:25
09. Electronic Can-Can - 2:03
10. Jungle Blues From Jupiter - 2:58
11. Computer In Love - 2:09
12. Visa To The Stars - 2:15
13. The Savers - 1:45
14. Umbrellas Of Cherbourg - 2:46
15. Strangers In The Night - 2:58
16. One Note Samba/Spanish Flea - 2:08
17. Lover's Concerto - 2:15
18. Third Man Theme - 2:14
19. Fallout - 1:55
20. Baroque Hoedown - 2:28
21. Winchester Cathedral - 2:17
22. Carousel Of The Planets - 2:44
23. Toy Balloons - 2:07
24. Moon River - 2:53
25. Mas Que Nada - 2:22
26. Flight Of The Bumblebee - 2:10

Performers:

Jean-Jacques Perrey, Gershon Kingsley: Moog synthesizers, Ondioline, tape loops, filtered and pitch-manipulated sounds

EAC Log

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Posted By: Jansky Date: 27 Oct 2009 04:12:18

Hi!
This electronic music causes in me mad laughter... and disappointment.
This music FOR CHILDREN. :)))

Posted By: capt.evil1 Date: 27 Oct 2009 17:20:10

It is amazing how far we've come with electronic music since the 60's. I was expecting some serious electronic experimentation and instead it sounds like Spike Jones on LSD!

Posted By: magnu1975 Date: 12 Jan 2010 15:15:27

Hey man, this oddness is radical man :)

Posted By: voreball Date: 06 Apr 2010 14:54:09

Gaaaaaaawwwwrrrrllllll !!!!!
Links dead :(
I'm a grown (not so much) up kid and I miss my Perrey & Kingsley shot !
Pleaaaase ?!

Posted By: rrika Date: 15 Apr 2010 03:17:20

I downloaded it long time ago... but I splitter the downloaded file in tracks with a CUE splitter. Would you reupload again, please?

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