Trevor Duncan ‎– "Other Worlds" (Impress ‎– IA 428) 1981

Was there ever an American called Trevor?
The infamous,or, Not famous, composer of the main theme to "Plan 9 From Outer Space" has a glaringly 'English' name, from the Eric Clapton skool of Les Noms Anglaise? Was probably born in Squatney, next door to Nigel Tufnel and David St Hubbins of Spinal Tap.......it says Camberwell here...close;but then we find out that his real name was a very foreign sounding Leonard Charles Trebilco,and now we're all confused,and a tad saddened!
Alas he redeems himself by working for the BBC,just before the Radiophonic Workshop was formed back in '56, and went down the freelance library music for films angle,which by a cruel twist of fate led to Edward D. Wood Jr selecting Trevor's music for the best worst movie ever made. I'm not even sure he would have been aware,or even paid, of this glorious fact before 'Death the proud brother(Criswell)' tapped him on his shoulder in 2005.
By the sound of this Library album from 1981, he would have blossomed had he stayed at the Beeb. This late period ,post synth Radiophonic Workshop era, collection of Electronica,could have been made by any of the post-Derbyshire staff on hand at Maida Vale studios.
In fact some of this stuff would not have seemed out of place on an 'Ash Ra' album,it being very proto-trance Manuel Gottshing in style.
Another thing I am a fan of is Library Music cover art,of which this is a glorious example, that suggests a willful workmanlike anonymity that most muscians balk at. Bright,but unassuming colours,clean lines,library label font bigger and snazzier than the composers name,and absolutely no pictures.
Most musicians' idea of cover art is a full size picture of their own face with name writ large to the expense of both taste and information.


Tracklist:

A1 Galactic Congress 4:12
A2 Cyclopulse 2:56
A3 Enigma On Centaurus VII 2:39
A4 Downtime On Lasvega V 3:30
A5 Sunrise On Aldebaren III 3:25
A6 Sunset On Sirius IV 2:15
A7 Girowarp 2:40
A8 Landscape On Rigel VI 2:53
B1 Beltegeuse V 3:29
B2 Outpost On Beltegeuse V 1:58
B3 Terror On Beltegeuse V 1:51
B4 Megadrive 2:39
B5 Laybeam I 2:03
B6 Laybeam II 0:38
B7 Laybeam III 1:26
B8 Eden On Arcturus IV 3:45
B9 Asteroid Trail I 1:59
B10 Asteroid Trail II 1:05
B11 Asteroid Trail III 1:04
B12 Asteroid Trail IV 1:07

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Don Harper ‎– "Homo Electronicus" (Columbia ‎– SCX 6559,) 1974

Don Harper....if ever there was a more Australian name I'd like to know.....luckily,escaped the Australia of the 1970's for the hip recording studio's of the UK. He found ample work for his musical talents within British TV, for both the BBC and ITV, where he was the man who made Dickie Davis groovy with his musical arrangments for those tiresome sporting collages on ITV's World of Sport programme, where he stayed for 15 years!...poor fucker!
He regularly appeared in the Radiophonic workshop, and did a Library electronic album with Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson..."Electrosonic" for KPM.
Don was either making a statement with the title of this solo album, which would explain why he escaped the land of Dennis Lillie,Rod Marsh, and Merv Hughes (celebrated purveyours of the noble art/arse of Cricket) or he was actually referring to the marriage of man, as in mankind, with the blossoming technology of the age.
Releasing an album called anything with 'Homo' in the title could have got you killed in seventies Australia. I suspect that Dennis Lillie,Rod Marsh, and Merv Hughes were probably gay anyway....just look at those moustaches for fucks sake! Freddie Mercury's wet dream.

Some obviously GAY Australian Cricket legends.

Well as a proud...er... member....coff...I could do this all day!....of the Homo Erectus species(Tee-Hee) of modern man, I can proudly announce to the world that I am,unfortunately, Straight....I would love to be Gay but I think Blokes are a bunch of twats without twats, so i prefer the less competitive world of Ladies......no I don't mean I want to be a lady....look,lets not go there, this attempt at humour is complicated enough!?
I dunno if Don was or was not gay, with glee,I just saw the prefix 'Homo' , and went off on one....sorry Don(RIP).
He was ,however,the Stephane Grappelli of the antipodes, and scrapes those violin strings with the spunkiness of a recently de-closeted 'puffda', as Merv Hughes would say, lubing up Brad Pitts bare arse. You'll never hear a funkier version of the Dr Who theme anywhere outside the James Last Orchestra,and the rest of the tracks are classic Library Music standards that wouldn't be out of place in an elevator, which is NO criticism.And, of course, Don whips out his Syntheziser much to the disgust of his former college Ms Derbyshire,whose influence can be heard on every track.
I wasn't labelled a 'Homophobic Fuck' in the pages of Discogs for nothing you know; but there isn't a statue of me to decapitate as of yet, so I don't give a fuck.......here's my chance to unleash the classic Homophobe's non-argument....."Some of my closest Friends are Gay"....you could sub the word 'Gay' for 'Black' too if you're that way inclined.....i've been called a'Racist Fuck' too y'know.
I have to say I do like the new look of the Churchill Statue,its a Brutal post-modernist statement,and could also be the prediction come true of the Space Odyssey Obilisk?.....definitely a case of 'Don't mention the War'.....I let it slip once but I think I got away with it!"....but, of course Fawlty Towers was banned from UKTV as of yesterday.....then apparently reinstated after a lot of moaning.It all depends on who moans loudest it seems!?

            After............and.............before.......Good innit?

Tracklist:

A1 Dr. Who Theme
A2 Cold Worlds
A3 Fiddle Chop
B1 The Blue Book
B2 Nightmare
B3 World Of Sport

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Various ‎Artists – "Test Card Classics: The Girl The Doll The Music" (Flyback ‎– FBCD 2000) 1996

This is musical Heroin for me.
Like lying back in your mothers arms,unless your mother was a violent alcoholic of course, and having all those shitty adult problems melt away like plastic earmarked for recycling in a council incinerator.
This takes me back to those days off sick,when one was left at the mercy of daytime television,or lack of it back then,or when I bunked off school to avoid a test or the shower after basketball,or just to avoid the horrible sport of Basketball itself; then came home when the parents were at work and there was fuck all to do!...so we watched the Testcard!? Which was the equivalent of watching something like "Celebrity Love Island" today, but more entertaining, and lacking the suicides.
Those of you who came from countries with no public service broadcasting organisations will not understand......and that's ok.I won't hold it against you;but here's your chance to catch up.
Basically,You haven't lived until you've bounced yer booty to "Holiday Highway" by the Stuttgart Studio Orchestra.
And the Nu-Right wanna shut the BBC down????....leaving us at the mercy of Facebook and the Flat Earth Anti-vaxxers!.....i'm sure that's an actual band????

Notes for the average Test Card enthusiast:

Compilation of test card music as used by the BBC between 1966-1984. Previously unreleased original recordings.

Tracks 1, 9, 12, 16, 19, 21 and 24 are in mono.
Track 1: Spoken.
Track 2: BBC1/2 1969-84
Track 3: BBC2 1967-74
Track 4: BBC2 1968-72
Track 5: BBC1 1968-84
Track 6. BBC1 1968-71
Track 7: BBC2 1972-75
Track 8. BBC2/1 1967-84
Track 9: BBC1/2 1968-71
Track 10: BBC2 1968-72
Track 11: BBC1 1971-72
Track 12: BBC1 1968-71
Track 13: BBC2 1967-74
Track 14: BBC1/2 1969-74
Track 15: BBC2/1 1968-84
Track 16: BBC1 1969-71
Track 17: BBC1/2 1968-75
Track 18: BBC2 1967-74
Track 19: BBC1 1966-72
Track 20: BBC1 1968-71
Track 21: BBC1 1968-70
Track 22: BBC2 1967-74
Track 23: BBC2 1968-72
Track 24: Tone used on BBC2

Dates diven above are first and last years of transmission, not necessarily consecutively.

Tracklist:

1–John Ross-Barnard -Introduction 0:07
2–The Stuttgart Studio Orchestra -Royal Daffodil 2:17
3–The Westway Novelty Ensemble -Riga Road 2:10
4–The Oscar Brandenburg Orchestra -Angry 3:16
5–The Stuttgart Studio Orchestra -Capability Brown 3:33
6–Unknown Artist -BBC Chimes 0:10
7–The Cavendish Ten -Waltz In Jazztime 2:44
8–The Benito Gonzalez Latin Sound -Bella Samba 2:14
9–Unknown Artist BBC Chimes 0:10
10–The Stuttgart Studio Orchestra -Holiday Highway 2:40
11–Orchestra Heinz Kiessling -Cordoba 2:56
12–The Oscar Brandenburg Orchestra -My Guy's Come Back 2:40
13–The Langford Orchestra -The Lark In The Clear Air 2:25
14–Unknown Artist -BBC Chimes 0:10
15–The New Dance Orchestra -Pandora 2:43
16–The Fernand Terby Orchestra -Firecracker 2:42
17–Unknown Artist -BBC Chimes 0:09
18–Stuttgart Studio Orchestra -Hebridean Hoedown 2:54
19–The Gerhard Narholz Orchestra -High Life 2:29
20–Orchestra Heinz Kiessling -Samba Fiesta 1:48
21–Stuttgart Studio Orchestra -Stately Occasion 3:02
22–Unknown Artist -BBC Chimes 0:10
23–Mr Popcorn's Band -Chelsea Chick 2:46
24–Roger Roger And His Orchestra -Greenland Sleigh Dogs 3:07
25–Unknown Artist -BBC Chimes 0:10
26–The Cavendish Ten -These Foolish Things 2:12
27–Stuttgart Studio Orchestra -March From "The Colour Suite" 3:12
28–Ensemble Roger Roger -Long Hot Summer 2:11
29–The Oscar Brandenburg Orchestra -Going Places 2:52
30–No Artist -440 Hz Tone 0:20

DOWNLOAD the music without the girl or the doll HERE!

BBC Radiophonic Workshop ‎– "Fourth Dimension" (BBC Records ‎– RED 93 S) 1973

Delia Derbyshire left the workshop in 1973,and a lot of the reason why is contained on this BBC album of local radio theme tunes and Testcard music.
The arrival of a couple of EMS synthesizers made it all too easy to create something musical,with a catchy tune.Just what der management would have wanted.No more weird noises made from tape loops and lamp shades.Horrific was replaced with 'Jolly'.....which is,for me probably even weirder than actual 'weird'.
The music is the stuff that filled up the empty spaces in the 1970's TV schedule.Incredibly,there was nothing on in the afternoon or morning.Briefly the news and childrens TV appeared at lunchtime,and increasingly programmes for schools filled the morning schedule,with creepy classics like "Picture Box",whose Theme Tune was one of the most sinister of the lot.....but that was on ITV,so it don't count!
The Testcard filled most of our days when bunking off school....we used to dance to this stuff,and howl with laughter at the more cheesier tunes. This was UK youths version of Martin Denny and Esquivel.This is why we are weird.
Now, if The Sex Pistols did a testcard style version of Never Mind The Bollocks for their second album,including "Belsen Was A Gas" as arranged by the producer of "Fourth Dimension" (Paddy Kingsland),they would have served us all up thee ultimate 'Punk' record,and hopefully saved us from the hoardes of 'Punx' who haunt us to this very day.
Why won't they fuck off mummy?

Now I've finished with my silly nostalgic opinions and analysis,I'll let the BBC explain it in their special no-nonsense terms from the Sleeve notes....I especially like how they explain away their rare use of Stereo on a BBC records release:

"Music heard on radio and Television (including Test Card Transmissions)....

One aspect of the work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop is the composition and realisation of signature tunes and incidental music for BBC Radio and Television programmes. Programme producers come to the Workshop with varying requests - it must be 'bright', 'catchy', 'sinister', 'modest', 'supernatural', 'funny', and so on but, most important, it must be unique in terms of sound qualities.
The composer then sets to work to create the tune using natural sounds, which have been manipulated in some way and cut together on tape, or electronic sources, such as the voltage controlled synthesiser.
Several such signature tunes are included on this record, composed by Paddy Kingsland, who joined the creative staff of the Workshop in 1970. Before this, he worked as a tape editor, then studio manager, chiefly for Radio One. He is a firm believer that instrumental sound combined with electronic and treated sound is essential for this type of work. The tracks on this record include compositions for Radio 1, 3, 4, Local Radio and Television programmes.
The synthesisers used on this disc are both British, and both made by E.M.S. of London. They are the VCS3, an amazingly versatile miniature synthesiser, and its big brother, the Synthi '100', known within the Radiophonic Workshop as 'The Delaware', after the address of the Workshop. This machine incorporates a digital memory that can be programmed via a conventional keyboard, and can store 256 events on 3 layers in any one 'run'. In combination with the multi-track tape recorder, it provides all the facilities of an electronic music studio, its range being limited only by the imagination of the person using it.
The specially created stereo is not an attempt at realism, but is used as a sound object in its own right."


Tracklist:

1.Scene & Heard (Radio 1)
2.Just Love (BBC TV)
3.Vespucci
4.Reg (BBC African Service)
5.Tamariu (BBC TV)
6.One-Eighty-One (Radio 4)
7.Fourth Dimension (Radio 4)
8.Colour Radio (BBC Radio Leeds)
9.Take Another Look (Radio 4)
10.Kaleidoscope (Radio 4)
11.The Space Between (Radio 3)
12.Flashback

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Delia Derbyshire / Brian Hodgson / Don Harper ‎– "Electrosonic" (KPM Music ‎– KPM 1104) 1972

Again Delia and Brian earning a few extra quid moonlighting for a soundtrack library,under the pseudonyms of Li De La Russe,and Nikki St.George,inexplicably, with Aussie Jazz violinist Don Harper.
A lot of these kind of electronic ditties used to frequently turn up on kids programmes,and programming for schools when i was a nipper.So there's a nostalgic feeling about them, ironically, as they were supposed to invoke visions of the future;but as always, the future envisaged in the past is so much better than the actual future we actually get.

Tracklist:

1 Quest 1:40
2 Quest-fast 1:05
3 Computermatic 1:10
4 Frontier Of Knowledge 2:02
5 The Pattern Emerges 2:50
6 Freeze Frame 1:32
7 Plodding Power 1:46
8 Busy Microbes 1:35
9 Liquid Energy 1:50
10 Liquid Energy (Rhythm Only) 0:55
11 No Man's Land 1:46
12 Depression 1:24
13 Nightwalker 1:55
14 Electrostings 0:16
15 Electrobuild 0:17
16 Celestial Cantabile 3:26
17 Effervescence 1:57
18 The Wizard's Laboratory 2:03
19 Shock Chords 0:35

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Delia Derbyshire/Brian Hodgson/ David Vorhaus ‎– "Electronic Music" (Standard Music Library ‎– ESL 104) 1969

.Delia and Brian (Hodgson) moonlighting from the Radiophonic Workshop,appearing as Li de la Russe(a reference to Delia's flowing Red locks) & Nikki St. George,presumably to avoid conflict with the BBC, with future White Noise partner David Vorhaus;doing their bit for library music.
Even more naughty is that a lot of these tracks were used by Beeb rivals Thames Television, for their kids sci-fi series' "The Tomorrow People" and "Timeslip".
The music on this library disc certainly is not synth pop but provides a perfectly sinister atmosphere for that science fiction movie you were making in your attic.Or the quirky track for those lighter moments.It's Delia's trackmark Musique Concréte moments that provide the more disturbing sonic vistas;one of the tracks is described as 'Heavy Industrial'...is this the first use of the term as regards to music? Another track description on the rear cover is "Abstract, despairing cries" of a soul lost in space.Could this be a pointer to how Miss D was feeling? For there was surely some darkness struggling to get out of Miss Derbyshire's mind,which would help explain her slow terminal slide into alcoholism. Brain,aka Nikki St. George, mentioned that she seemed almost on the edge of a breakdown towards the point of her ,and his, departure from the Radiophonic workshop. The source of which one can only speculate.Maybe the lack of recognition, or it may have something to do with her dismissive comment about her parents...you know, the one's who fuck you up?...."The only thing my parents gave me was my name."
Whatever the cause,she was burnt out by the mid-seventies,but the soundscapes she left us are a disturbingly descriptive soundtrack to any breakdown.

Tracklist:

A1 Lure Of The Space Goddess 0:27
A2 Battle Theme 1:00
A3 Homeric Theme 1:19
A4 Greek Concrete 0:20
A5 Attack Of The Alien Minds 2:19
A6 Gothic Submarine 1:55
A7 Whirring Menace 2:17
A8 Souls In Space 1:39
A9 Time Capsule 1:52
A10-1 London Lemons (Theme 1) 0:04
A10-2 London Lemons (Theme 2) 0:04
A10-3 London Lemons (Theme 3) 0:03
A10-4 London Lemons (Theme 4) 0:04
A10-5 London Lemons (Theme 5) 0:04
A10-6 London Lemons (Theme 6) 0:03
A10-7 London Lemons (Theme 7) 0:05
A10-8 London Lemons (Theme 8) 0:06
A10-9 London Lemons (Theme 9) 0:04
B1 Restless Relays 1:03
B2 Planetarium 1:34
B3 Wet Asteroid 1:30
B4 Way Out 1:49
B5 Fresh Aire 0:08
B6 Delia's Theme 1:19
B7 Tentative Delia 0:20
B8 Delia's Idea 0:20
B9 Delia's Psychadelian Waltz 0:35
B10 Delia's Resolve 0:04
B11 Delia's Dream 0:39
B12 Delia's Reverie 0:21
B13 Delia's Fulfilment 0:21
B14 Build Up To... 1:22
B15 Snide Rhythms 0:05

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