JOE MEEK, PLUS VARIOUS ARTISTS

I Hear A New World: The Pioneers Of Electronic Music, An Outer Space Music Fantasy CheRRy Red

Linking Meek, the Radiophonic Workshop and studios in Paris, Berlin and Milan.

at first glance, this collection’s connection seems precarious. Meek’s is the only concept album; the rest are tracks that encompass the manipulation of everyday sounds (such as taps dripping) and music generated exclusively by electronic means.

Recorded two years before Telstar, his ode to a satellite, I Hear A New World is a true space oddity, with choruses sung by chipmunk voices of ‘Globbets’, backed by skiffle band The Blue Men, then reverbed, compressed and presented in stereo. Although the Laughing Gnome novelty pop element may cause fits of laughter in the listener, on tracks such as Magnetic Field the inventiveness of the Ouija board-obsessed Meek runs rife. Included are the original album from 1960, and 1991’s restoration by RPM.

Meanwhile, in a faraway galaxy, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop allowed Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire and others to create sound effects for radio and TV. Amphitryon 38 , which sounds like an eerie wind through a giant drainpipe, was the first wholly electronic score in BBC history and the jaunty Timebeat by ‘Ray Cathode’ is the work of Maddalena Fagandini and producer George Martin (still some way from Strawberry Fields).

By the time our spaceship lands on disc three, the sonic landscape takes a sinister turn. We’re in R3 Late Junction territory and The Innocents – Savage Noises is as terrifying as its title suggests. Positioned between Planet Pop and Planet Horror is the work of Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan at Philips Research Labs in Eindhoven. Their Syncopation has a similar space-age keyboard to Telstar and Whirling (Sonic Re-entry) is obviously influenced by space travel (the pair were said to be the BBC’s first choice for the Doctor Who theme). Drifting (Moon Maid) from the mid-50s has effects that reached as far as the Joe 90 Theme and Hawkwind’s In Search of Space.

A fascinating set, it (eventually) succeeds in connecting generations of sonic space travellers.