Tha is the second track from Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works 85-92, a landmark ambient techno album released by R&S Records in 1992. Elsewhere on these pages I’ve deconstructed Xtal, but recently I transcribed this track for my Music Theory and Composition foundation students to demonstrate syncopation, and I thought I’d share it on this blog.
Even if you don’t recognise the name Misirlou you will know the melody. It has been covered well over a hundred times and sampled to death.
It’s been called the most important six second drum loop, it’s virtually spawned an entire genre, it’s subject to much debate in all corners of the internet from the legal ins-and-outs to how best to chop it up.
Ondine is the first movement from Ravel’s fabled 1908 composition Gaspard de la nuit. The piece is regarded by many as one of the most demanding piano works.
Get Down Saturday Night was a 1983 hit for Oliver Cheatham written by himself and Kevin McCord and released on MCA Records, peaking at #38 in the UK singles chart that year.
With my drafts folder brimming with 80% finished long-reads I thought it a neat idea to get out a really quick recreation of a classic Ibiza house record.
Ridley Scott’s 1982 Cyberpunk film-noir adaptation of the 1968 Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? changed science fiction forever. Similarly to how Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey had done previously, and how later The Matrix would, the genre could never be the same after Blade Runner.
This article was originally published back in 2015. As with other well-read posts on this site, I’m trying to revisit some to tidy up some of the writing and audio and generally make them a little more professional.
Continuing in our series looking at at each year from the decade that shaped electronic music perhaps more than any other, we arrive at 1983, a huge year not only in terms of albums and singles released but also in terms of technology.
Back with another “the year is…” and this time we’re taking a look at 1982. Some of the biggest songs of 1982 include Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners (and apparently the Emerald Express, who I always forget about) and Men at Work’s Down Under.