Thursday, 8 April 2010
Steve Reich - Its Gonna Rain
Back in the early 80s everyone apparently was messing around with synthesizers. Nobody I knew was- they were all into heavy metal and as such learning to play guitar was a rite of passage. I was never very good at sitting down and learning by heart. Everytime I tried I started going off on flights of fancy and creating new stuff from the old (I'd never heard of post-modernism it was ripping things off). I bought an old reel-reel 4 track recorder from the junk shop hoping to start my recording career ASAP. I got my mates round who were to be the new band. I didn't know much, none of us did. This recorder did in fact have 4 tracks, however you could not hear back 2 of the tracks whilst recording. Obviously I didn't want to lose face in front of my new band mates so we ploughed on with the session recording each track without being able to hear what we'd previously recorded.
When we played back the results everyone understandably fell about laughing, this didn't sound like Led Zeppelin, in fact it didn't sound like anything I'd ever heard before. I started to get excited about the possibilities that this had for making music. Unfortunately none of my new band mates saw the same possibilities and at this time it was more about being in band than producing great art. But I had been bitten by the recording bug. Very soon I had a share in a real 4 track and I started to learn how to do it 'properly wrong'.
I didn't hear about Steve Reich until much much later, or any of the other minimalists for that matter.
This is a bit of a documentary about Reich and his tape phases. When I hear the words "Its Gonna Rain" I am instantly transported into a room full of hairy, patchuli smelling grebos laughing at the most wonderful out of phase guitar solo in the in the history of rock and roll.
You need Schoolin'
Baby I aint foolin
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Fantastic piece of writing H. Do you have a copy of these recordings anywhere, gathering dust on a TDK c90?
ReplyDeleteCheers again. No. I don't know what happened to the Reel to Reels. The 4 track got nicked with a load of tapes which is another story. I have got a box of old 4 track tapes - a bit frightened to listen to them to be honest, I don't suppose they will ever live up to my memory of them.
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