Muff's Modules & More

tokyocat

(This thread is inspired by one of Dr. Jacoby's comments in the Edward Atiemev thread).

Peter Gabriel is generally regarded as an old dinosaur pop/rock artist but there's a lot of experimental production and synth/sampler sounds on his records.

His soundtracks "Birdy" and "Passion" have some amazing electronic tracks using Fairlight and Prophet 5.

His albums "Up" and "Peter Gabriel 3 (melting face)" are some of the most experimental and dark pop music that's ever been on the mainstream charts.

There is a song called "Intruder" on the melting face album that is totally insane. Seems like total commercial suicide to put it as the opening track on your album (from a 'mainstream pop' perspective anyway). Another really good track is "Exposure" (with Robert Fripp doing guitar mangling).

dr. jacoby · Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 2:58 am Post subject:

hey,

thanks for the mention! i'm always happy to see someone else who hasn't just dismissed peter gabriel as, as you put it, a rock dinosaur.

what you say is true, much of his music is far stranger than people who've only heard a few hits on the radio may think. that said, i've got nothing against "sledgehammer" or "in your eyes", but those songs are only one side of a multi-faceted artist.

"passion" is an incredible soundtrack to an incredible film, and blends ambient music, middle eastern music, gabriel's vocals and sublime synth work. as i mentioned in my post over on the artemiev thread, i listened to "passion" literally every day when i was in high school, and i still remember it line-for-line. can't recommend it enough.

but hey, i personally don't think it's too surprising that gabriel does some out-there stuff; after all, under his leadership genesis was one of the most out-there rock bands! "selling england by the pound" is has been a favorite for ages...

Babaluma · Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 4:10 am Post subject:

And "So" 25th year anniversary recently!

dr. jacoby · Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 4:15 am Post subject:

listening to "so" as i type! Guinness ftw!

Modrik · Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 4:17 am Post subject:

Oh, Birdy and Passion. Beautiful sounds/songs.

dr. jacoby · Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 4:33 am Post subject:

there's so much to be said about peter gabriel's greatness, even though not all of it is synth-related...he's got one of my favorite voices of anyone i've heard, and uses it so versatilely...in an atmospheric context like on "passion", or in any number of styles on his 4 self-titled albums...

hehe, guess it's obvious that i really like peter gabriel...

langley · Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 4:33 am Post subject:

Early Gabriel synth duties were carried out by Larry Fast:

Larry Fast: Actually, I worked with Peter right from the time he left Genesis, before and including his first solo album, and had known him from even before that. Peter's a pretty good keyboardist himself so he really didn't need someone to just hit the keys. Peter was familiar with my Synergy albums, and the sonic colors and synthesized textures are what I could bring to his productions. That was somewhat of a departure from what he had experienced in Genesis. We continued to work together until 1986 when his music took a sharp turn away from technology-based music and into world and ethnic music where I had far less to contribute.

tokyocat · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 2:52 pm Post subject:

Two of my favorites from Peter Gabriel that I love to play loud, nice guitars and textures on these tracks:

dr. jacoby · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 4:00 pm Post subject:

oh yes, "digging in the dirt" is a beautiful song. happy to see we've drummed out a few gabriel fans!

numan7 · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 4:36 pm Post subject:

dr. jacoby · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 4:45 pm Post subject:

numan7 · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 4:53 pm Post subject:

how about old Genesis stuff. Tresspass is still a favorite album of mine...

i used to have a big white cat, named 'the snow-chief', who i sometimes alternately addressed as "fang, son of great fang, the traitor we seek..." (at which he would comically snarl, and bare his incisor teeth - mostly because he was an outdoor cat, and didn't care much for being sung to... w00t

cheers,
n7

numan7 · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 5:09 pm Post subject:

Entrainer · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 5:10 pm Post subject:

Big fan of the Passion album here.
Like some of his other solo stuff.

Don't consider him a rock dinosaur.
more pop than "rock".

Certainly an experimenter...
he pushed a lot of edges out, changing
the face of "pop", what is/was popular to
the masses.

Even if he was slightly ahead of the curve

(and I don't consider pop a bad word, so no offense intended...
just means popular, like the new folk. For the people)

syzygywell · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 6:57 pm Post subject:

A lot of people don't know that Peter is credited with the stage dive.

But I'm really happy to get on Muff's and see a thread about Peter and another about Kate pretty much right on top of each other. I basically consider them in my top artists of all time. Most influential to me and essentially the yin/yang of the same essence imo. It makes sense to me that they have worked with each other. They are gloriously alike and unusual in similar respects. Both very conservative looking until they get in costume and makeup. Their artistry is full of massive talent and incredible artistic choices.

Passion, Birdy, Melt, Security are my favorites. So remains a pass for me.

oozitron · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 7:33 pm Post subject:

Yeah, "Security" and "Melt" are fabulous.

Excellent albums to hallucinate to eek!

Drew

MindMachine · Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 2:45 am Post subject:

The third album has probably some of the best synthesizer work ever in my opinion. Larry Fast was a genious. On this album the Moog modular, Micromoogs and Oberheim SEM's were prevalent. Prophet 5 was in there some too. Listen to the many parts in this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKb9XQ39-zc

edit: forgot Polymoog synthesizer & Minimoog

Soy Sos · Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 12:37 pm Post subject:

I was a big fan of the early PG stuff up to the 4th album but mostly the 3rd.
Also his work for the WOMAD record, which had a big influence on me early on.
Most of the later stuff, uuummmm........not really.
Yes, Larry Fast is a big factor on those first few albums.

ynth · Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 12:50 pm Post subject:

Can I get an amen for the PAIA Programmable Drum Set used on "Games Without Frontiers". Love everything about that track.

Entrainer · Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 1:00 pm Post subject:

Like this tune. Has nothing to do with PG... although you can
certainly imagine he was an inspiration.

Another interesting fellow to check out is Keith Levene. He seemed
to have his hand in a lot of interesting/ground breaking work in his
day.

And this is just a sick drum performance. Phil Collins was a great
drummer.

Chuck E. Jesus · Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 5:55 pm Post subject:

i saw him on the tour for his 3rd record, it was very good...i enjoy some early Genesis as well...

doombient.music · Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 7:37 am Post subject:

Peter´s singing makes my hair stand end-wise. And his production techniques are awesome.

Lovely CS80 stuff on "Don´t give up".

Stephen

Suilebhain · Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 3:38 pm Post subject:

I spoke with Larry Fast back before he started working with Peter Gabriel. He said that he was in the studio working on his own album and, if I recall it correctly, Genesis was right next door. That's probably when the connection was made that led to the first PG solo.

I used to get to talk to Larry alot back in those days, because he used to hang around in the JEM Imports warehouse where I worked for a few months.

theglyph · Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2012 4:15 am Post subject: