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Of all the electronic music pioneers whose radical experiments are finally reaching a wider audience, Bruce Haack s music is probably the most enjoyable: any man who can score Kraft Cheese commercials in the 1950s, write an album called Haackula and finish his career with a brilliant 12 on Def Jam deserves at least one proper retrospective. A music school drop-out, Haack spent the 50s doing everything from writing pop songs and musique concrete to playing home-made heat-sensitive synthesizers on the foreheads of TV show guests. His experimentation somehow led him to the field of educational music for children, in which he created his best-known work. Released throughout the 60s on his own Dimension 5 label these albums are both whimsical and haunting, truly futuristic and yet grounded by the most innocent and everyday concerns of the kindergarten teacher. Yet Farad: Bruce Haack is concerned with the music Haack made in the 70s and 80s for adults, starting with his conceptual electronic psych-rock masterpiece (and, fantastically, major-label debut) Electric Lucifer. Its theme is no less than all-out war between heaven and hell, where hope is derived from the force of powerlove and joy from the Moogs and the proto-vocoders. Like his friend Raymond Scott, many of Haack s instruments were homemade, and in his case often improvised from found items and assembled without any clear plan of the final outcome. This compilation brings together Haack s lush electro-psych grooves and a variety of his more abstract recordings, and highlights his use of the Farad, one of the very first vocoders, which Haack invests with rare emotion. Amidst all the electronic drones and effects, Bruce Haack created something strikingly primal and human, posing man and machine as neither in conflict or unity but as partners in the same exploration of music and sound.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I can't believe no-one's reviewed this on here already?
Bruce Haack was a visionary musician and electronics pioneer who built his own instruments. His weapon of choice was a self-made kind of vocoder for which he had a particular affinity. This compilation traces his work from 1970-1982, focusing on his vocoder-heavy tracks. It traces some of Haack's works he did primarily aimed at children, with some of his darker work later, though even some of the kids stuff was pretty dark as the album title 'Electric Lucifer' attests to.
The most remarkable thing about Bruce Haack is how prescient his music is. His final track 'Party Machine' basically sounds like the best Daft Punk song they never did, and 1970's 'Electric Turn To Me' is an absolute must for anyone interested in either electronica or psychedelia, and something approaching perfection for fans of both. This compilation comes out on Stones Throw records, whose main focus is left-field hip hop. Whilst this collection will undoubtedly appeal to their fan-base, it should also appeal to anyone with an interest in proto-electronica. It's impossible really to classify this music with his contemporaries. Whilst the Silver Apples, United States of America and Fifty Foot Hose all incorporated incredible electronic experimental facets into their music, they didn't do it like Bruce Haack. Although maybe lyrically, they share some late 60's themes, musically speaking (apart from the more folky songs taken from the 'Together' album), you have to wait until Kraftwerk's Autobahn to get close to it. There really was no precedent to what Haack was doing.
Sadly, Haack was just too far ahead of the curve to be understood, and unwilling to play the music industry game to become commercially viable in his lifetime. However, compilations like this, plus the excellent (if not mis-leadingly titled) documentary 'Bruce Haack. the King of Techno' have helped to spread the Haack gospel.
I cannot recommend this album highly enough.
Bruce Haack was a visionary musician and electronics pioneer who built his own instruments. His weapon of choice was a self-made kind of vocoder for which he had a particular affinity. This compilation traces his work from 1970-1982, focusing on his vocoder-heavy tracks. It traces some of Haack's works he did primarily aimed at children, with some of his darker work later, though even some of the kids stuff was pretty dark as the album title 'Electric Lucifer' attests to.
The most remarkable thing about Bruce Haack is how prescient his music is. His final track 'Party Machine' basically sounds like the best Daft Punk song they never did, and 1970's 'Electric Turn To Me' is an absolute must for anyone interested in either electronica or psychedelia, and something approaching perfection for fans of both. This compilation comes out on Stones Throw records, whose main focus is left-field hip hop. Whilst this collection will undoubtedly appeal to their fan-base, it should also appeal to anyone with an interest in proto-electronica. It's impossible really to classify this music with his contemporaries. Whilst the Silver Apples, United States of America and Fifty Foot Hose all incorporated incredible electronic experimental facets into their music, they didn't do it like Bruce Haack. Although maybe lyrically, they share some late 60's themes, musically speaking (apart from the more folky songs taken from the 'Together' album), you have to wait until Kraftwerk's Autobahn to get close to it. There really was no precedent to what Haack was doing.
Sadly, Haack was just too far ahead of the curve to be understood, and unwilling to play the music industry game to become commercially viable in his lifetime. However, compilations like this, plus the excellent (if not mis-leadingly titled) documentary 'Bruce Haack. the King of Techno' have helped to spread the Haack gospel.
I cannot recommend this album highly enough.
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