"a Simon Reynolds level culture blog" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^"my brain thinks bloglike"
Friday, June 17, 2016
mouth music (stutterlalia and stammerdelia)
Now, tell me, is the section from 2.34 to about 4.20 the first ever example of that gabbling glossalalic stutter-trick of playing the vocal bit on the sampling keyboard in the higher octaves? Early 1983. I wonder who was responsible - Arthur Baker, John Robie, or Jellybean Benitez?
(Loathed this song at the time for its squawky shrill chorus - much preferred Freez circa "Southern Freez" with Ingrid Mansfield Allman singing - but the dub mix is pretty tuff I must admit...)
Similar sort of stammer-vox in this Jellybean tune from about 4.23 although vocal starts spiraling weird from 4.00...
Produced by Robie
I think we can conclude that Robie is the pioneer then - viz. his subtle deployment of the E-mu Emulator (the Emulator being the first sampler that worked using a keyboard I believe) on this tune, also from '83.
A song otherwise best known as the source of the vocal bits in "Aftermath" by Nightmares on Wax.
Well, but then there was also this from '83 with the avant-silly voice-stabs
'Beat Box' reworked in 84
second side of Into Battle with the eternal "Moments in Love"