PRX: Echoes Interview Podcast

Echoes Podcast John Robb and the History of Goth: The Echoes Interview

The sound of Goth has permeated music since the early 1980s and continues to this day with artists like Bauhaus, The Cure, Dead Can Dance and Siouxsie and the Banshees.. Author and musician John Robb has created a definitive chronicle of this movement in his book, The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth.

They embrace the melancholy and dance the melancholy, you know, so there’s a darkness inherent in the music But also a joy as well. . . .And in a sense, it was reacting to the darker surroundings, but also escaping from them. It’s a dark escapism. And it’s also a dark psychedelia.

We go down the sonic cathedrals of Goth when we talk to John Robb on Echoes.

JOHN ROBB FEATURE PLAYLIST

Echoes Podcast: Ladytron and Tubular Bells 50th

The electronic pop of Ladytron. We talk to this band from England who have been creating electrified pop sounds for all of the 21st Century. They released their latest album, the introspective Time’s Arrow, early in 2023. Their 2005 song, “Seventeen” became a TikTok sensation in 2021. Ladytron’s Helen Marnie and Daniel Hunt tell us their story and about their latest album, Time’s Arrow. Whatever you do, don’t call it a post-pandemic album.

LADYTRON PLAYLIST FOR ECHOES FEATURE

Ladyton – You Never Went Away – Time’s Arrow

Then we celebrate Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells at 50. Released on May 25th, 1973 everyone now recognizes those opening notes.  It still feels like the sound of tomorrow.  Mike Oldfield is the 11th of 30 Icons of Echoes for the incredible music he has made over the last 50 years and some 25 albums. Tubular Bells remains his signature work.  As we celebrate Tubular Bells  we go  back to a documentary we put together for the 40th anniversary. It’s still the same album, so not much has changed in the intervening years. Hear the story of Mike Oldfield and Tubular Bells in the Echoes Podcast.

Discover 10 Essential Mike Oldfield Albums

Echoes Podcast; Moby Resounds Past Present Future: The Echoes Interview

In the Echoes Podcast, Moby. Moby is one of those artists who is hard to keep up with. It’s been about three years since our last conversation. In that time, he’s released five albums including his latest, Resound NYC, about 10 non-album singles, several videos and a documentary film the Punk Rock Vegan Movie. He also started his own label, Always Centered at Night, to release work with other singers.

Moby:  Because singers these days are told that the only way to have success is to constantly compromise. We don’t have to compromise; we don’t have to worry about accommodating baffling algorithms. Like we can be weird, we can be personal, we can be idiosyncratic.

He’s also sold most of his gear and, gasp! His vinyl collection.  For over 30 years Moby has been shaping the sound of American pop in electronic music. We hear about his latest and his past in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Moby’s Punk Rock Vegan Movie

Moby’s Resound NYC

Michael Whalen's Virtual Super-Group

Michael Whalen trips into the fantastic with his new album, Our April Tigers. He’s gathered a super-group that includes guitarist Michael Brook, bassist Michael Manring, trumpeter Jeff Oster, and percussionist Karsh Kale. The title is AI-generated and the music was crafted remotely. Hear Whalen, Brook, and Oster talk about their blindfolded creation that sounds like a meeting of Miles Davis, Jon Hassell, and Patrick O’Hearn, in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Keyboardist and composer Michael Whalen is someone who has been around Echoes for a long time. We’ve been hearing him with his nature documentary soundtracks on the Narada label and his first ambient album, Night Scenes, released in 1996. Since then he’s released scores of albums ranging from solo piano to ambient piano, electronic orchestrations and hard fusion. Last year, his album, Imaginary Trains was an Echoes CD of the Month and now he has a new one, Our April Tigers and that will be the CD of the Month for May 2023. It’s a fascinating and seductive album with an all-star cast of musicians including electric bass icon Michael Manring, Indian percussionist Karsh Kale, film composer and guitarist Michael Brook and trumpeter Jeff Oster. It’s a beautiful, intuitive album, that belies the fact that none of the musicians ever played together or even knew what to play. Michael Whalen, Michael Brook and Jeff Oster talk about their blind creation in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Echoes Podcast: Ibeyi Casts a Spell: The Echoes Interview

Ibeyi Live at Big Ears (Pic Diliberto)

Experience the joy of Ibeyi. That’s Yoruba for twins and this duo are twin sisters, Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz, from France who have an intoxicating sound that merges pop, hip-hop, African and Cuban grooves and harmonies that only twin sisters have. Their father was a percussionist in the Buena Vista Social Club and their mother was French-Venezuelan singer. Their charming and exuberant sound recently raised the roof at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville. We talk to Ibeyi on in the Echoes Podcast from PRX.

Words of a Synth God: Vangelis-The Complete 1982 Totally Wired Interview

A true God of electronic music, Vangelis, ascended the heavens at age 79 on May 17th, 2022. Although his glory days were in the 1970s and 80s, he was just coming back into form with albums like Rosetta and Juno to Jupiter.

Vangelis is an artist better known by his work than his name. Mention the Greek synthesist to the general public and you’ll likely get a quizzical stare. Remind them that he scored Chariots of Fire, his Academy Award winning score from 1982 and their eyes light up in recognition.

My first of two interviews with Vangelis was in 1982 at his Nemo Studios in London. It was for the radio series, Totally Wired. It was only days after he’d won the Academy Award and he was just putting the finishing touches on Blade Runner. In the Echoes Podcast you’ll hear the complete and extensive interview that covers Vangelis’s career from his Greek childhood to his progressive rock band Aphrodite’s Child to his early albums like Heaven & Hell, Albedo 0.39 and Beauborg. The interview takes you to just a moment before the release of the Blade Runner movie.

Ten Essential Vangelis CDs.

Echoes Podcast Steve Roach & Linda Kohanov and Afro Celt Sound System Founder Simon Emmerson Remembered.

In 1984 Steve Roach released what remains one of his two best known recordings, Structures from Silence. Now, nearly 40 years later he returns to that sound on the album, Rest of Life. It’s a double CD of mostly quiet and deep ruminations.  There’s no digeridoos or modular synthesizers, but there is the electric violin of his wife, Linda Kohanov. From their home in the Arizona desert, they talk about revisiting the spirit of Roach’s Structures from Silence, and horses.

Read our review of Steve Roach’s Rest of Life

See our playlist for the Steve Roach Feature Below.

We also remember Simon Emmerson, the founder of Afro Celt Sound System who left the planet on March 13. He was only 67. Afro Celt Sound System was the high-water mark of world fusion as they brought together Celtic, Indian, African, Middle Eastern and electronic music.  Afro Celt Sound System was a core band on Echoes from their debut album Volume 1: Sound Magic in 1996 to what might be their final release, Flight in 2018. Initially helming it all, along with Martin Russell and James McNally, was Simon Emmerson. He was a joyous man, slightly round and bald and always enthusiastic. A truly visionary musician, he always sought the authentic in everything he did, even the CDs he recorded for the Lush Cosmetic company. I interviewed Simon and the Afro Celts a lot on Echoes and they played live on the show twice. We’ll hear two features in the podcast. The second one is from 2014 when Afro Celt was in legal limbo due to a split, so Simon created the Fresh Handmade Collective project for Lush Cosmetics. The first though, is an overview of ACSS and includes Simon, James McNally and Iarla O’Lionaird talking about the creation and direction of the band.

After the Afro Celt feature we’ll hear a second interview from 2014. When the Afro Celts split into two factions and legal wrangling over ownership of the name, Simon went off on some other projects including The Imagined Village and The Fresh Handmade Collective. The Collective made all kinds of albums for the Lush cosmetic company to use in their spas. But it wasn’t your usual, vapid spa music as you’ll hear.

Steve Roach Interview Playlist 2023

Didon's Arabic World Fusion: The Echoes Interview with Carmen Rizzo & Meriem Ben Amor

We explore the Arabic fusion of Didon. We talk to producer Carmen Rizzo (Niyaz, Huun-Huur-Tu, Delerium, Alanis Morissette) and Tunisian singer Meriem Ben Amor about their fusion of traditional vocal sounds and electronic arrangements heard on their debut, Tunisian Tale. It is sensual, mystical and mysterious in the Echoes Podcast.

DIDON INTERVIEW PLAYLIST

Klaus Schulze: The Complete Totally Wired Interview Part Two.

In this Podcast, the second part of our two-part 1982 interview with Klaus Schulze. He’s an Icon of Echoes, an Icon of Electronic Music and an icon period. All three are German electronic composer Klaus Schulze. He left the planet last year on April 26, but from 1969 until that date, he released hundreds of albums and shaped a generation of electronic artists including Steve Roach, Jean-Michel Jarre, Hans Zimmer, and many more. I have an interview with Schulze recorded in 1982 at his home in what was then West Germany. I talked with him for about three hours, and today, we’ll hear part two of that interview.

Albums like Moondawn, Timewind, X, and more, provided the soundtrack for many an imaginary movie during those years. There was something about the pulsing sequencers, free form, note-bending Moog solos, and spiraling, Escher-like architecture that spoke of a world outside of conventional rock or classical music. For artists like Steve Roach, Klaus Schulze was life-changing.

 The first time I heard Timewind, it was the classical mystical experience, like a drug experience or near death experience. He had and continues to have a very significant influence on the music. -Steve Roach

Just imagine being ensconced in plush couches, dim lighting, and the blinking lights of a giant Moog Modular, racks of keyboards and the haze of Klaus’s ever-present cigarettes. Then settle in for this 86 minute interview,

Hear our obituary feature on Klaus Schulze here.

FIVE ESSENTIAL KLAUS SCHULZE CDs

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Klaus Schulze: The Complete Echoes/Totally Wired Interview Pt.1

In this Podcast, an Icon of Echoes, an Icon of Electronic Music and an icon period. All three are German electronic composer Klaus Schulze. He left the planet last year on April 26, but from 1969 until that date, he released hundreds of albums and shaped a generation of electronic artists including Steve Roach, Jean-Michel Jarre, Hans Zimmer, and many more. I have an interview with Schulze recorded in 1982 at his home in what was then West Germany. I talked with him for about three hours, and today, we’ll hear part one of that interview.

Klaus Schulze was part of the original genesis of Echoes and was voted as one of the 30 Icons of Echoes. The albums he recorded in the 1970s and early 80s reside at the core of music experiences for myself and the central Echoes staff. Albums like Moondawn, Timewind, X, and more, provided the soundtrack for many an imaginary movie during those years. There was something about the pulsing sequencers, free form, note-bending Moog solos, and spiraling, Escher-like architecture that spoke of a world outside of conventional rock or classical music. I remember synthesist Mark Shreeve of Redshift describing the 1977 album, Mirage as if it had “formed out of thin air, untouched by human hands.” Klaus’s music had that transcendental power, as if it came from somewhere beyond this plane of existence.

Klaus had recorded 16 albums at the time of our first interview, his latest being Trancefer. His only release in America at that point was his 1977 album, Body Love. Instead they were only available as expensive imports which we were happy to search out and pay for.

This interview features Klaus Schulze at the height of his powers as an artist.

FIVE ESSENTIAL KLAUS SCHULZE CDs

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