Do Vinyl Records Inspire Original Creation?
Vinyl Records, Stereo , Quadrophonic, Picture Discs and Holograms
About Vinyl Records
This piece is going to be an oddity because a couple of songs came to mind that I wanted to share, but there were not enough songs to create a playlist. Below is my history of recorded media that you may find interesting as it has some of my opinions, but I have recently complained that the sole attempt at originality for modern vinyl releases is colored vinyl of picture discs, which while they can be interesting, most of the time that is where it stops.
Those Songs And Moving To Stereo
In the sixties, stereo became an option for listening to vinyl music. Although there was the reel to reel tape option, vinyl along with mono radio was the general listening option. With the stereo option, bands could mix their music, placing the instruments and voices from tracks anywhere between the two speakers by raising and lowering the volume level of the said track.
You also had the option of using a slider to move sound back and forth between speakers and on the instrumental “Interstellar Overdrive” from Pink Floyd’s first album “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” Syd Barrett did that right at the end.
I then remember walking into a record shop in Preston Guildhall in the seventies and a jet plane screeched overhead in the record shop launching into “Ejection” by Bob Calvert from his album “Captain Lockheed and The Starfighters”. I bought the single before it had finished playing. You can hear it here.
Many bands used channel swapping to enhance the sound, Tangerine Dream, Hawkwind , Uriah Heep on the album “Look At Yourself” spring to mind. On the album “Aqua” Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream used the “artificial head” recording technique using microphones positioned where the ear would normally be, but I certainly didn’t notice anything special about it, although I do enjoy listening to the album.
The two songs that prompted this piece are next and are best listened to on headphones or at least with stereo separation.
“May This Be Love (Waterfall)” from “Are You Experienced” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
This is a beautiful song but the wonderful coda features Hendrix’s guitar swapping channels with the drums in a beautiful musical tapestry. The album “Electric Ladyland” features the wonderful post-apocalyptic vision of “1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)” which is another aural delight to be enjoyed.
“Main Theme From The Film More” by Pink Floyd
From the opening gong you are swept into a psychedelic aural landscape guided by Rick Wright’s staccato Farfisa while the sounds wash around you. The back experimented with quadraphonic / surround sound at gigs using a joystick device called the azimuth coordinator allowing them to position the sound as they saw fit.
Before And After The CD
In the sixties and seventies, the presentation of albums was often as important as the music within. So an album like “Thick as a Brick” by Jethro Tull came in a full broadsheet newspaper written by the band themselves that took as much effort as the actual album. Below is my piece about album presentation.
Although the advent of the CD Jewel Case meant that music presentation became homogenized and boring, there are still certain CD presentations where effort has gone into the production, and there are some examples of these below.
One particular thing is that you can watch a vinyl record playing meaning that a good picture disc can be worth watching as you listen, the Vertigo Swirl label being a prime example of this turning into a very 3D optical illusion.
Another is the mandala effect of the picture disc “Air Conditioning” by Curved Air.
Inventiveness in the vinyl realm is nowhere near finished though with the recent inclusions of 3D holograms in the vinyl one Jack White’s “Lazaretto” and on the “Star Wars” soundtracks. The actual existence of these still floors me and can be seen in the presentation piece above.
Conclusion
As I have stated today most new album presentations are maybe a picture disc or coloured vinyl, but the 3D hologram is a shockingly good gimmick so vinyl definitely does stimulate invention in various vinyl areas.
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