Some vids I did & music I dun
Bright Sparks Trailer
The trailer for an album & documentary project created in conjunction with the band, I Monster.
Bright Sparks pays tribute to the human stories behind four US music pioneers (ARP, Moog, Buchla & Chamberlin) and four UK pioneers (Mellotronics, EMS, EDP & Freeman).
In Feb 2021 I decided to make this available free of charge via the links below. If you watch and enjoy the sum total of a year of my life, please buy the album Bright Sparks:
https://imonster.bandcamp.com/album/bright-sparks
And please support the Alan Pearlman Foundation and Bob Moog Foundation:
Bright Sparks - A Side
The American side, dedicated to Moog, Buchla, ARP & Chamberlin and featuring interviews with Dean Honer & Jarrod Gosling (I Monster), Michelle Moog-Koussa, Herb Deutsch, Daniel Miller, Adrian Utley, Will Gregory, Alessandro Cortini, Alan R Pearlman, Dennis P Colin, Billy Currie, Karl Hyde, Rick Smith and me.
"Good things come out of a good heart that's obsessed."
Bright Sparks - B Side
The British Side, dedicated to The Bradley Brothers (Mellotronics), Electronic Music Studios, Freeman & Electronic Dream Plant and featuring interviews and contributions from John Bradley, Peter Zinovieff, Chris Cross, Daniel Miller, Ken Freeman, Fred Gardner, Rick Smith, Dean Honer & Jarrod Gosling.
“Electronic Music has been around for long enough to deserve its own historians and archaeologists. Dave Spiers is right at the top of the list: this loving and exhaustive study sets a new standard in instrument research, unravelling the tangled webs that lead to innovations.” - Brian Eno
The Mighty CS-80
I've been doing videos on classic synths on the GForceSoftwareTV YouTube account for many years, always with a view to creating one on the Yamaha CS-80 when the time was right.
After several false-starts, our ace repairman, Kent Spong, finally persuaded me to make time to finally do it.
After listening to what I hoped was the final edit, IMO it sounded too much like me droning on for 55 mins so I contacted the legendary Matt Berry (who'd previously done a voice-over for our Synth Trumps) and asked him to add a little bit of humour at certain moments. When he responded with the "Sounds like Vangelis" bits, I laughed immediately, because a big fear when we purchased the 80 was that everything I played would indeed sound like Vangelis.
Oddly though I was asked to play on the forthcoming Amorphous Androgynous (the people behind FSOL) because I could sound like Vangelis. So all's well that ends well :-)
Unseen & Unlisted
A short piece featuring the SCI Pro One, Minimoog, Yamaha CS-60, Octave CAT & something else top secret.
Analogue Outtake
An outtake from a film score and which uses the SCI Prophet 5, Yamaha CS-80 and the Oberheim 8 Voice
Cartoon Blue II
A live jam using the ARP 2600 & 1601 Sequencer. Roland TR-808. SCI Prophet 5, Korg 800DV, Roland JP-8, Yamaha CS-80 & Oberheim 8 Voice
ARP 2600 Synth Jam
Another live jam using the ARP 2600 & 1601 Sequencer. ARP Odyssey MkII, Minimoog & Alesis Andromeda
Software consists of Stylus RMX, Omnisphere & impOSCar2
Ode To Frank
Another live jam using the Yamaha CS-80. Roland JP-8, and an out of shot Oberheim 8 Voice
Fearless & Brave
An experiment where several things are not what they seem.
After Hours - Three Synth Jams
Another series of jam sessions with software instruments lincluding Soundiron's Emotional Piano, Spectrasonics' Omnisphere & Stylus, iZotope's Iris, plus the AAS Lounge Lizard (through iZotope's wonderful DDLY), all sitting alongside impOSCar2, Minimonsta and Oddity2.
For the hardware fetishists, instruments include the Roland Jupiter 8, Oberheim 8 Voice, Prophet 5, Yamaha CS-80, Roland TR-808, Minimoog, Moog Sub37, EMS AKS, Simmons SDS-V, Roland SH-101
Onward Journey
A tribute to the train driver who is sorely missed.
Modular Jam
After taking delivery of a lovely Dotcom system, we decided to record the first thing that we patched.
This set-up was specifically designed to test the various sequencer functions which then forms the basis of the track.
The Yamaha CS30 takes care of the cross mod sound and the strings come from Spectrasonics Omnishpere.
CS-80 Jam
A short piece on the Yamaha CS-80 through the new Strymon DIG pedal. Plus a small sequence from the SEM on the 8-Voice
E-Type - NICE!
Some old school Tron silliness to a vid of a rather lovely E-Type Jaguar