| MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC.
2-CD set of Raymond Scott unreleased electronic music
(Basta Audio-Visuals)
MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is a 2-CD, 69-track edition of over two hours of Raymond Scott's unreleased electronic recordings from the 1950s-60s.
These works feature such homebuilt Scott music machines as the Electronium, Clavivox, Circle Machine (early sequencer), Bandito the Bongo Artist, and more. The album includes maverick (and decidedly "non-kiddie") collaborative works with pre-Muppet-era JIM HENSON, and comes packaged in a 144-page, full-color, hard-bound book. The text features interviews with those who knew and worked with Scott (e.g., synthesizer pioneer ROBERT MOOG, wife Mitzi Scott, electronic music authority Tom Rhea), along with countless previously unseen photos, lab notes, US patents, and scrapbook items.
Raymond Scott (1908-1994) was a renowned bandleader, composer and pianist from the 1930s to the 1950s. His melodies, particularly "POWERHOUSE," found their way into countless BUGS BUNNY cartoons through adaptation by Warner Bros. music director CARL STALLING. During Scott's career in the spotlight, there were reports of an alter ego -- inventor, professor in the lab coat, electronic music pioneer. But little of this work received public exposure.
In 1946, Scott formed MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. (MRI), billed as "Designers and Manufacturers of Electronic Music and Musique Concrète Devices and Systems." His colleague Robert Moog said, "Scott was definitely in the forefront of developing electronic music technology and in the forefront of using it commercially as a musician."
In 1997, Basta reissued Scott's groundbreaking 3-volume SOOTHING SOUNDS FOR BABY (SSFB), a series of 1963 electronic recordings for infants that was virtually ignored upon its original release. Suddenly, Scott was hailed as an avatar in the field of electronica, minimalism, ambient, and proto-disco.
Some of the raves:
"Predates by more than a decade such innovators as Brian Eno
and Kraftwerk."
-- Paul Verna, Billboard
"Scott was a musical visionary ahead of his time, and even today
his music sounds like it's beamed down from another planet."
-- Edwin Pouncey, Vox
"A major find for Raymond Scott fans and for those ambient/drone
fans interested in precursors to Eno and Neu."
-- Tower Pulse
SOOTHING SOUNDS was just a warm-up. MRI presents something beyond the pleasant parameters of pop. Scott's electronic experiments took him to uncharted netherworlds. The results are intriguing, compelling, and occasionally diabolic. Where SSFB offered relaxing ambience, the grotesqueries of MRI promise a sonic excursion to the realms of weightlessness, moon-craters, and six-armed aliens with twittering antennae.
The "personnel" on MRI consists of such Scott inventions as the CLAVIVOX, a keyboard theremin that was later modified to produce an array of sounds similar to a synthesizer; the ELECTRONIUM, an instantaneous composition-performance console (conceived in the '50s, developed in the '60s, used at MOTOWN in the '70s); polyphonic sequencers, including his "CIRCLE MACHINE"; the Rhythm Modulator; and the Bass Line Generator; along with existing sound devices (e.g., the Ondioline and tone generators).
The recordings range from detergent jingles to decidedly non-commercial -- uncommercial, even -- experimental adventures in sound sculpture. Aside from several samples of Scott re-tooling old titles (e.g., 1937's "THE TOY TRUMPET" and "TWILIGHT IN TURKEY"), the remainder is new material. Also included, for the first time in commercial release, are several mid-1960s film soundtrack collaborations between Scott and Jim Henson.
MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. was produced by Beau Hunks leader Gert-Jan Blom with Jeff Winner, creator of RaymondScott.com. The book was edited by Raymond Scott Archives director Irwin Chusid, and the stunningly detailed package was designed by the award-winning Piet Schreuders.
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COMMENTS ABOUT RAYMOND SCOTT'S ELECTRONIC RECORDINGS:
"The electronic work of Raymond Scott (musician, bandleader, composer, inventor) has been long out of print, but MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC., recorded in the 50s and 60s, sound like nothing so much as the future."
-- PETER BUCK (R.E.M.)
"I rate Raymond Scott as one of the greatest music technology innovators of the 20th century, and many musicians in the charts today are using his ideas fairly directly even if they don't know it! Although largely unknown in his lifetime, Scott's music technology vision was so wide that today it is impossible to turn on a piece of equipment in your studio without automatically issuing a benediction to the spirit of Raymond Scott."
--MATT BLACK/COLDCUT
"The Raymond Scott legacy is one of the most varied and vital in 20th century American culture, and it is well served by MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. Tireless dedication, impeccable taste, and uncompromising perfectionism is evident in every detail of this wonderful collection, which uncovers a neglected library of this maverick's pioneering electronica. From the astonishing sounds to the beautiful packaging, MRI is an essential release."
-- JOHN ZORN
''MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is truly an inspiring album. Very well compiled and presented, it gives you a good look at Raymond Scott's great work which has many repercussions in various fields relating to sound. Scientific, futuristic, novel, as well as humorous and dream-like. Mad, but the kind of mad I aspire to be. Scott truly was ahead of his time.''
-- KEIGO, a.k.a. CORNELIUS
"The phenomenon of Scott is one of those freaky cosmic concurrences of impossibilities that result in true originality. Combine the musical stewpot of his syrupy orchestral Top 40 covers, his disdain for fellow musicians, a type-A ego, and financial recklessness, and out of Raymond Scott the world would receive electronic musical expressions that broke all the rules."
-- SIMEON, SILVER APPLES
"MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is a brilliant collection of Raymond Scott's difficult-to-find electronic work. I love the packaging, and the interviews are incredibly interesting and informative."
-- ADRIAN UTLEY, PORTISHEAD
"Raymond Scott belongs to the phalanx of unique people like Les Paul, Oscar Sala, and Leon Theremin, to whom we owe so much in developing our own musical identity today. MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is one of the best CD presentations I have ever had my hands on.''
-- HOLGER CZUKAY, CAN
"Fabulous! MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is one of the most amazing CD packages I've ever seen. I've been listening constantly and I've read the whole book several times. It's SO inspiring. Scott's electronic instruments have an incredibly organic sound to them."
-- ERIC HARRIS, OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL |
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