HANDS-ON HAR Anita Awbi chats to the circuit benders and aural evangelists who are stepping out from behind their laptops to make the most of the new hardware boom.
In 1978, a little known Sheffield musician called Martyn Ware fired up his Korg 700S analogue synthesiser and began creating the shifting industrial basslines and melodic wobble that would soon become the Human League’s first single Being Boiled. It took less than three quid to make, using only a reel-to-reel tape recorder, microphone and two synths (the other being a Roland System 100). Martyn had no mixing desk, no equalisers or compressors, no effects and definitely no midi. Yet the finished article went on to define an important era in British electronic pop.
David Edwards
‘It was all played manually’, Martyn remembers, ‘I know it’s hard to imagine a time before midi - it’s a bit like Jurassic Park – but without it you couldn’t synchronise anything. You’d get a hardware sequencer, create the beats from scratch – a kick drum, a snare, a hi-hat – and then play stuff over the top by bouncing from track to track on the reel-to-reel recorder. That’s as basic as you can get, it’s almost hobbyist level,’ he explains. Among all the drones and dissonance, a new way of making music had emerged that was as unique as the equipment it was created on. And, despite all the amazing tech advances we’ve since enjoyed, it’s a method that artists and songwriters are increasingly revisiting. Throwing shapes On first listen, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Kraftwerk’s Autobahn and Sun Ra’s The Wind Speaks have very little in common. But on closer inspection, a familiar, bassy resonance emerges – the unmistakable
burble of Bob Moog’s revered MiniMoog monophonic synthesiser. The hardy bit of kit, created in 1969, went on to shape a decade of iconic cuts from Parliament to Emerson, Lake and Palmer and many more. It was the first time an analogue synth really left its mark on modern music. It sparked a revolution in experimentalism which touched all genres and created a groundswell of exciting and original thought. Fast forward to 2015 and it seems that everyone from Coldplay to Trent Reznor, Bastille to Lorde, are experimenting with electronic hardware and overdosing on oscillators. This surge in popularity for the classic synth sound, coupled with a desire to experience tactile hardware, is now tempting a wave of artists away from their PCs to seek out the real thing. Time will tell if this trend sparks a lasting creativity that can redefine the parameters of music-making again. Synths sell These days, historic brands like Moog, Roland and Korg are operating in a market buzzing with boutique circuit benders and iconic hardware reissues. Some are ‘plug-in’ products which pay homage to the original masters (‘soft’ synths providing simulated sounds within the PC), but the biggest growth is in new hardware which contains hybridised analogue/digital technology that’s fit for the 21st century. Testament to their mounting success, international trade show NAMM attracted a record 130 hardware brands to exhibit at its US event in January – up 20 percent on the previous year. And, as many