What's your genre?

[plateauphase]

Just wondering if I'm the only one here who doesn't use his organ to play garage and psych music. I hate genre labels, but most of my music is in the electronic/minimalist/ambient direction... Though I got INTO combo organs because (a) I love 60s garage and psych and (b) I played in a short-lived garage/psych band...

[Franz]

I think that's a superb question, Mr. Phase. With my band in the past few months, I've been using my combo to explore a very crude kind of jazz, and some dark rock.

I've noticed, however, that once a combo organ is applied towards a rock band, it begins to BECOME a psych or garage sound. This is an somewhat an wild generalization, but the combo organ is simply evocative of a certain mood, feel, vibe, etc. because it's mired in so much history. If one plays the same exact song on a synth, it becomes a different genre.

I take exception, of course, to your ambient work where the context (of synth pads, loops, and so on) give the organ definitively a different flavor.

I also take exception to one of my favorite pieces of my music of all time: Steve Reich's "Four Organs" which features four, count `em, four Farfisa Mini-Compacts in a minimalistic phase looping neo classical orgasm of combo organ hypnosis! Granted, it's a fine wine of acquired listening, but it sounds so good. (also recommended: Steve's Reich's "Drumming" and "come out" if you have the stomach.)

[plateauphase]

I love Riley and Reich. I've been listening to a lot of both of them lately. Frankly, I think that Riley really elevated the combo organ to some of its highest heights. And Reich's "Electric Counterpoint" [guitars, not organs, unfortunately] is my on my research music list [what I listen to while working]. I guess I'm a huge fan of minimalism... though not of Philip Glass...

[Franz]

Yeah, most Philip Glass makes me want to stab myself in the eye, especially the vocal pieces. The one exception is that score he did for Dracula, using a string ensemble.

I've not really tried Riley much... which pieces use a combo organ?

[plateauphase]

A lot of his early stuff, like "A Rainbow in Curved Air," "Across the Lake of the Ancient World" and "Celestial Valley." Look for the Shri Camel album and A Rainbow in Curved Air. That'll get you started. Really the only Glass that I like is his really early musical miniatures that used, you guessed it, a Farfisa combo.

[citadin]

Franz, I would imagine that Farfisa Professional would sound really interesting for "crude jazz", Sun Ra used it extensively:

farm3.static.flickr.com/2045/2083180386_c7dbc07756.jpg

Plateau, I guess most of us got into combo organs through the love of garage and psych, but I think that in order to have build an appreciation for that genre in the 90s or 00's one must have a fairly ecclectic taste in music, hence it wouldn't be surprising to find people interested in many different genres here.

To illustrate some of the stuff I'm interested in, here is the playlist for a 3-hr radio show I did last October:

First hour:
Vitor Hublot (Belgium) - Aller Simple
Marie Moor (Fr)- Pretty day
Sprung, Borsig, Aus Lauter Liebe (ger) - Que Pas
The Rising Storm (US) - Frozen Laughter
Clothilde (Fr) - La Queue du Chat
Eugen Thomass (ger)- Undergroovin
Serge Gainsbourg - Chez Max Coiffeur Pour Hommes
Serge Gainsbourg - Le Danger
Menschenfresser (ger) - Das Ich Und Mein Taschenrecher
Francois de Roubaix (fr) - dernier domicile connu
Bauhaus - She's in Parties
Pas Chic Chic (Canada) - Tes cliches declenches
Telex (Belg) - Victime de la Societe
Cocteau Twins - Wax and Wane, Hitherto
The Motorcycle Boy (Scotland)- Here she comes

Second hour:
Broadcast - Oh how i miss you
Kazumasa Hashimoto (Jap) - ?
Mates of State (Calif.) - Proofs
Tot ou tard (fr) - Luna
Magnetic fields - Strange powers
Depeche Mode - Photographic
Metric (canada) - Police and the Private
David Bowie - Helden
Valvola (Italy)- Departure from Universe
Die Moulinettes (ger)- Flipper Queen
Megafonio del Balnerio (Sp)- Educacion Y Descanso
Valvola (Italy)- Baroque Bouquet
Stereolab - Plastic Mile
Micromars (norway)- French Fi
Dungen (Sweden)- Badsang

Third hour:
Japan - Life in Tokyo
Siouxie - Dear Prudence
Pink Floyd - Remember a Day
The Plastic Cloud (Canada)- Epistle to Paradise
Pram - Shadows
Air - Bathroom Girl
The Space Lady (Calif.)- Too much to dream last night
Pram - The nighthingych
Kissing Spell (Chile) - Yellow Moon
The Syn (UK)- I'm grounded
Freedom's Children (S. Africa)- Battle Hymn of the Broken-Hearted
Stained Glass (calif.)- A scene in between
The Vaselines - Son of a gun
Deux (Fr)- Minimaliste
I Start Counting (UK)- Letters to a Friend
The Jam - Man in the Cornershop

[plateauphase]

It's amazing how much of your playlist is on my iPod.

[citadin]

cool!