IRT Magazine

Story: Ron Hart

Sci-fi instrumentalists Zombi create some of the creepiest analog soundtracks to your worst nightmares since Wendy Carlos’ haunting work for Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. However, on his solo debut for Relapse Records, entitled The Henge, keymaster Steve Moore has created a snythesized symphony more on par with Rebecca DeMornay’s hot train fuck scene in Risky Business than running into the scariest girls of all time in the hall of the Overlook Hotel. To celebrate this most excellent release, IRT recently asked this modern-day Vangelis for the doom-metal set to list his five favorite synth-based albums of all time, and here’s what he gave us:

Tangerine Dream Stratosfear

Best of Artist and Best of Genre, definitely. This was the first Tangerine Dream album I heard, and really the album that got me interested in Berlin School-style electronic composition in the first place. The combination of stark, minimal bass sequences against a wash of mellotron and blues-based guitar licks opened new worlds for me. Every time I listen to this album I get the same feeling I did when I first heard it.

Michael Hoenig Departure From The Northern Wasteland.

Hoenig’s propulsive sequencing and dramatic synth leads give this album a sense of urgency and motion that draws the listener in, whisking him or her away to far off, fabled lands. I probably didn’t need to include “her” in that last sentence.

John Carpenter Halloween III: Season of the Witch Soundtrack

Though the film’s worth has been debated for decades, the soundtrack is untouchable.

Frantic and lopsided sequences with gnarly, cross-modulated Prophet 5 stingers. There are very serene moments as well, giving this soundtrack a depth rarely achived in either horror film soundtracks or electronic albums. And for the record, I really did like this movie.

Klaus Schulze Moondawn

It is difficult to accept that a man made this album, and that it hasn’t always existed like the elements. This album is as spacey and droney and lush and dreamy and hypnotic as anything you could hope to ever imagine - only Schulze imagined and realized all of this over 30 years ago. For reference: “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” by Elton John and Kiki Dee and “Silly Love Songs” by Wings were the top singles of that year.

Steve Roach The Magnificent Void

While it isn’t quite old enough to have achieved classic status (recorded in 1996), it is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. The 20-minute-long closing track, “Altus,” is a dark and vast soundscape built around a simple, repetitive chord progression, but the result is so massive and climactic one might feel pangs of withdrawal when the track inevitably ends.

Last Modified : October 12th, 2007
Filed under : articles, interviews, Op-Ed
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