OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music

[Frau_Blucher]

OHM: The Early Gurus of Eletronic Music 1948-1980 - this 2000 release was recently re-released at the end of last year in a 3CD+DVD format. I gotta imagine that synth experts like FritzB or Oneno already have this, but I highly recommend it to anyone else interested in the roots of synth and electronica. The music on there isn't terribly exciting and some of it's a stretch to call "music" at all. But it's a great exploration of where all the sounds we take for granted came from. Anyone else pick this up? Comments??

[korova1]

Yeah, I liked this comp as a history lesson, but it is a hard listen to just sit down and listen the whole way through. So I definitely agree with you. I read about this in Wire magazine a while back and picked it up when it came out. I listened to it once, thoroughly enjoyed it, put it away. It is like one of those books you take out every ten years... but a good book, nonetheless.
I like the older experimental electronic stuff and outer limits artists anyway, but some of OHM was really "challenging"... but I have since become a big fan of Pauline Oliveros and Steve Reich thanks to this release. Brian Eno is/was/always will be my favorite "electronic composer" though. I am sure he loves this old stuff.
OHM turned me onto one release called "Deep Listening" by Dempster/Oliveros/Panoitis (sic?) that was recorded in a water tower believe it or not in the late 80's that just has to be heard to be believed. I think it is still available... nice stuff. In regards to OHM though, it is nice to know where the 80's synth tunes came from isn't it?!?! How is the DVD? Just curious.

[yipyipcoyote]

A pretty good introduction, together with the "Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music" series on Sub Rosa - some overlap on the list of artists.

[oneno]

I never picked it up as i already has alot of it here and their.It's very interesting in the early years at how complex primitive can be and how non melodic a simple tonal progression oscilating on a sin wave generator is. The 70's and 80's and the next generation of electronics then harbored ambient which opened the minds eye with tonal soundscapes. Very cool.

<img src="http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/thennow.gif">

[Max Murdoc]

I just obtained a copy recently and I agree it is really cool but as for listening...every once in a while...I'll run it through WinAmp with the visualization on and sit back and watch. A lot of the tunes are sparse so the visual works really well...I recommend it "high"ly.

The music you listen to is the soundtrack of your life.

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Max Murdoc[/i]
<br>I just obtained a copy recently and I agree it is really cool but as for listening...every once in a while...I'll run it through WinAmp with the visualization on and sit back and watch. A lot of the tunes are sparse so the visual works really well...I recommend it "high"ly.
[/quote]
GREAT idea!

And Korova, I cheaped out and didn't get the DVD version - wishing I had now. The old clips may very well be at least as interesting as the music. [V]

[Ollie Stench]

I bought a used copy of the first version of this and I agree with everyone else: essential for the collection but nothing that I actually "listen" to.

Anyone know what is on the DVD? I'm almost willing to plunk down the $$$ if it's cool.