The
Radiophonic Workshop - Burials in Several Earths (Room 13 Records)
10” boxset
/ CD
Out Now
9 / 10
Review by
Ioan.
To
many, The Radiophonic Workshop need no introduction. But if you are a newcomer
to this home of experimentation, noisescapes and innovation, then have a quick
read of this before proceeding.
The Radiophonic Workshop was founded in 1958 by Desmond Briscoe
and Daphne Oram as the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and was home to a maverick
group of experimental composers, sound engineers and musical innovators. Based
in a series of small studios within the corridors of the BBC Maida Vale
complex, the Workshop set about exploring new ways of using - and abusing (!) –
technology to create new sounds.
Drawing on the principles of musique concréte, found sounds, early
electronics, oscillators, handmade synths and tape loops the Workshop created
the other-worldly soundtrack to some of BBC television and radio’s most iconic
programs: The Body in Question, Horizon, Quatermass, Newsround, The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Chronicle and the iconic Doctor Who Theme which is still the high-water
mark for British electronic music nearly 50 years after it was recorded. Now,
nearly two decades after the Workshop was decommissioned, original members
Peter Howell, Roger Limb, Dr Dick Mills, Paddy Kingsland and
long-time associate composer Mark Ayres are back working together.
From the start of the title track, the immediately recognisable
dread inspiring layers of sound so associated with the Workshop are there and
already they unsettle. The deep throbbing electronica could soundtrack any
contemporary sci-fi or horror film and give John Murphy or Ben Salisbury and
Geoff Barrow a run for their money. As it comes to a finish, the fear is
somehow already entwined.
Things Buried in Water follows
and is a piano led piece with big echoey stereophonic effects. Layered on top
are ‘Numbers Station’ inspired sounds that transform into the haunting analog
bleeps and spurts that the Workshop is so famed for. Gentle, watery effects
bring the track back down to earth (so to speak).
Some Hope of Land is
a set of experimental sounds that take the listener on bizarre and unsettling
adventures. The effects ebb and flow with the playful analog sounds and the
devastating electronica. Just beautifully weird.
Not come to light is
the audio equivalent of a spaceship slowly landing on a seemingly uninhabited
plant. There is an overwhelming creeping dread evoked by the electronica that
is so seamlessly entwined with the historical emotions it’s music and effects
created in the unprepared minds of the 50s and 60s listeners.
Final track The
Stranger’s House has a John
Carpenter esque keyboard progression that leads onto some guitar backing and a
creeping piano accompaniment. And all throughout there is the ever present
creep of the ominous metronome keeping time in the background. The track
descends into unsettling, otherworldly sounds with the metronome speeding up
and the electric guitar and piano taking us to the final finish line.
Across the six tracks, the width and breadth of experimentation
and ability to take oneself off to different planes is both mind boggling and
impressive. The Workshop are truly pioneers of soundscapes and effects, and
everyone else simply paddles in their wake.
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