The Tech in My Life #2: Goonhilly

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After the previous tech-related blog on Telstar, it makes sense to mention Goonhilly, a UK-based satellite dish that has been playing a key role in communications and space exploration for more than 60 years.

Goonhilly received the first trans-Atlantic TV signals transmitted via Telstar, and broadcast them into British homes, in 1962. I was too young at the time to recall seeing those early signs of global communications; but I do remember getting up early in the morning to watch the live broadcasts of the Mexico Olympic Games in 1968, and the Apollo 11 moon landing the following year.

During a family holiday in Cornwall in the mid-1960s, my parents took us on a visit to Goonhilly Downs, including a tour of the satellite tracking station. Of course, it was not really possible to see what the dish was actually doing, but I came away with a small souvenir of this new age of technology.

I was given a small strip of computer punched tape. I had no idea what the holes on this strip of paper meant, or what information they represented. But it felt significant to have hold of this data artefact, which I kept for several years.

After I left high school, one of my first jobs was as an outdoor clerk for a firm of solicitors. This involved spending many hours in the communications room, where among other things, the telex machine was located. The secretaries who worked at the firm were required to type the text using a keyboard, and the message came out as a series of holes punched into similar paper tape. The tape was fed back into the machine to play it at a higher speed than could be humanly typed, to transmit the recorded message. Even though faxes were becoming more popular, the legal profession still used telex, not only for speed and for long distance communications, but where the record of a telex transmission was required as proof of delivery.

Goonhilly itself is an icon of both technology and culture, and retains a special place for people of my generation – growing up, its name was synonymous with space and communications. And it has been the inspiration for a number of musical tributes, including a concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing.

Next week #3: Crystal Radio

 

The Tech in My Life #1 – Telstar!

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This week’s blog is the first in a series on key technology that has helped to shape my life. It will be a very personal perspective, and obviously it can’t capture every tech development, interface or environment that I have engaged with. But as I hope to establish, my selections do reveal three recurring themes: information, communication, and music. These threads should become apparent in the coming weeks.

First up is a record, “Telstar”, released by The Tornados in 1962.

I have blogged about this record before, mainly from a musical perspective. But as a tech artefact it also provides other context.

It is probably the first 7″ vinyl record that I can recall hearing – and certainly one of the only pieces of music from my early childhood that remains both familiar and intriguing to this day. Maybe it was also the first record I got to play on the family Dansette myself, so there is a reinforced tactile connection with the record as a “data object” and the gramophone player as a “playback device”. And while the tune itself is relatively simple, the arrangement and recording techniques reveal a lot more depth than a normal pop record. For a start, the choice of electronic keyboards, and the treatment of the electric guitar give it a suitably unworldly atmosphere.

More specifically, and without my realising it at the time, it is probably my earliest experience of musique concrète. I distinctly remember putting my ear as close to the speaker as possible to absorb the opening passage of Joe Meek’s sound effects, tape manipulation and general studio wizardry. What were these strange noises? Why did they fascinate me? Was it really music, or was I hearing something else entirely, like signals from outer space?

Which is exactly the point, as “Telstar” is named after the communications satellite of the same name. Leaving aside Joe Meek’s fascination/obsession with spiritualism and the occult, he was something of an autodidact in the studio – if he needed a particular effect (“what would a satellite signal sound like?”), he would create or improvise from whatever technology was to hand (primitive or otherwise).

In coming weeks, the significance of “Telstar” (the satellite) on my childhood will emerge. But if I was ever invited to appear on “Desert Island Discs”, I’m certain that “Telstar” would be included in my playlist of 8 records.

Next week #2: Goonhilly

 

 

A Post-Punk Playlist

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My recent trawl though a selection of old mixtapes brings me to a playlist of my favourite post-punk records. The years immediately following punk (in particular 1979-81) revealed a very fertile period for independent music. Moving on quickly from the faux-nihilism of “classic” punk, many of these bands revealed a greater depth than the “1,2,3,4…” head banging, pogoing, gobbing, safety pins and three chord thrash launched by the class of ’76-77. Not that the initial shock of punk was unwelcome or without merit, in its bid to shove aside the indulgences of prog rock and shallowness of glam. But the initial spark caused too many pale imitators, and besides, many of the early pioneers of UK punk weren’t afraid to reveal their love of Kraftwerk, Can, Faust, Pere Ubu, dub reggae and Bowie.

In addition to heralding new soundscapes, post-punk was a beneficiary of the nascent fanzine cottage industry and the plethora of independent record labels launched to cater for this new music.

The following selection (in no particular order) is my attempt to distill this influential and diverse “movement” into a handy playlist for the streaming age. It comprises mainly 7″ singles (including some B-sides or EP tracks), and in many cases these were the first releases by these bands.

  • Clock DVA – “4 Hours”
  • Blue Orchids – “The Flood”
  • The Nightingales – “Idiot Strength”
  • The Pop Group – “She Is Beyond Good and Evil”
  • The Slits – “Typical Girls”
  • Wire – “Outdoor Miner”
  • Joy Division – “Transmission”
  • Scritti Politti – “Skank Bloc Bologna”
  • Monochrome Set – “Eine Symphonie Des Grauens”
  • Wah! Heat – “Better Scream”
  • A Certain Ratio – “Flight”
  • Durutti Column – “Sketch For Summer”
  • Young Marble Giants – “Final Day”
  • Gang of Four – “At Home He’s A Tourist”
  • Delta 5 – “Anticipation”
  • Au Pairs – “It’s Obvious”
  • Josef K – “Chance Meeting” (Postcard version)
  • The Raincoats – “Shouting Out Loud”
  • Cabaret Voltaire – “Seconds Too Late”
  • 23 Skidoo – “Last Words”
  • I’m So Hollow – “Dreams To Fill The Vacuum”
  • Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – “Electricity”
  • The Human League – “Empire State Human”
  • Orange Juice – “Simply Thrilled Honey”
  • The Teardrop Explodes – “Sleeping Gas”
  • Echo & The Bunnymen – “The Pictures On My Wall”
  • The Fall – “Leave The Capitol”
  • Essential Logic – “Fanfare In The Garden”
  • Ludus – “Patient”
  • Throbbing Gristle – “United”
  • Fad Gadget – “Back To Nature”
  • The Normal – “T.V.O.D.” / “Warm Leatherette”
  • Magazine – “A Song From Under The Floorboards”
  • Swell Maps – “Read About Seymour”
  • The Mekons – “Where Were You”
  • Nightmares In Wax – “Shangri-La”
  • Modern Eon – “Choreography”
  • Music For Pleasure – “The Human Factor”
  • Thomas Leer – “Private Plane” / “International”
  • Dance Chapter – “Anonymity”
  • Eyeless In Gaza – “Kodak Ghosts Run Amok”
  • Bron Area – “Dancing”
  • Ciaran Harte – “Love Is Strange”
  • René Halkett, David Jay* – “Nothing” / “Armour”
  • Bauhaus – “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”

I recommend you dig deep into the individual discographies, and for further listening, check out these influential compilation albums of the era:

Next week: The Tech in My Life #1: Telstar!

 

Situationists Vacant

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Final selection from my mixtape collection is “Situationists Vacant”, the title of which was inspired by an exhibition at London’s ICA in 1989.

Echoing the previous mixtapes in this recent series of blogs, the track list is totally instrumental, apart from the exotic countertenor of Wim Mertens, and the wonderful spoken word piece by Quentin Crisp. No doubt he would be apoplectic at today’s youth, playing music on public transport without the use of headphones; at the constant use of tacky backing music in TV “reality” shows; and at the over-driven use of percussive SFX in most blockbuster movies. But I digress….

Mostly recorded in the early- to late-1980s (with a couple of throwbacks to the 1970s and 1960s), this is my kind of mood music, unconcerned with the charts or music categorisation. As well as polymath Brian Eno, there are several minimalists and composers in the modern classical style, plus artists that were loosely connected to the early 80s “quiet is the new loud” ethos – Microdisney, Felt, The Durutti Column and Virginia Astley (all of whom I had the privilege to see in concert). Overall, there are more keyboards than fretboards.

It’s worth noting that my first exposure to some of this music came via a couple of influential compilation albums – “From Brussels With Love” and  “Pillows & Prayers”.

Finally, observant readers will have noticed a few artists have appeared on more than one of these mixtapes (in some cases, the same tracks), which is probably testament to how much I like them. I also realise that I may have breached a mixtape cardinal sin, by sequencing two consecutive tracks by the same artist – I can only think it was because they flowed better that way?

Anyway, enjoy some mellowness:

Side A:

  1. Mark Springer – Krix
  2. In Embrace – Tickling The Ivories
  3. Harold Budd – Children On The Hill
  4. Piero Milesi – Modi 2 (Extract)
  5. The Durutti Column – Lips That Would Kiss
  6. Wim Mertens – Hirose
  7. Michael Nyman – In Re Don Giovanni
  8. Brian Eno – Through Hollow Hands (For Harold Budd)
  9. Soft Machine – A Certain Kind (ending)
  10. 10 The Durutti Column – For Belgian Friends
  11. Virginia Astley – With My Eyes Wide Open I’m Dreaming
  12. Virgina Astley – A Summer Long Since Passed
  13. Brian Eno – Sparrowfall (3)

Side B:

  1. Mark Springer – Slipping In Between
  2. Devine & Statton – You’re Almost There
  3. The Durutti Column – Prayer
  4. Felt – Candles In A Church
  5. Felt – Ferdinand Magellan
  6. Microdisney – Michael Murphy
  7. Microdisney – Patrick Moore Says You Can’t Sleep Here
  8. Barry Adamson – Everything Happens To Me
  9. The Yardbirds – White Summer
  10. Virgina Astley – The Nursery At The Ned Of The World (from Melt The Snow)
  11. Brian Eno – Another Green World
  12. Penguin Cafe Orchestra – The Sound Of Someone You Love Who’s Going Away And It Doesn’t Matter
  13. The Durutti Column – Madeleine
  14. Brain Eno – Sparrowfall (1)
  15. Quentin Crisp – Stop The Music For A Minute

Next week: A Post-Punk Playlist