#Radiophonic Workshop

[reecypontiff]

Sound on for Delia Derbyshire's catchy, bizarre and groundbreaking electronic "Ziwzih Ziwzih Oo-oo-oo" from the BBC's "Out of the Unknown" episode "The Prophet," based on an Isaac Asimov story. This was all painstakingly crafted on tape, before the age of synthesizers.

Derbyshire was the BBC Radiophonic Workshop genius behind the original arrangement of the Doctor Who theme, and one of the original pioneers of electronic music.

[radiofreeskaro]

Radio Free Skaro #928 - The Tribe of None

Radio Free Skaro #928 - The Tribe of None - New #DoctorWho theme arrangement! - All(?) of Classic Who coming to iPlayer! - Commentary for Mawdryn Undead, Part Four!

http://traffic.libsyn.com/freyburg/rfs928.mp3 Download MP3 If you’re looking for new things to hum as you while away the days to the 60th anniversary and its specials, wait no more! The new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme tune is now in the wild, along with the Fifteenth Doctor’s theme just aching to bust out of your speakers and into your heart. You’ll need all that love because although…

[downthetubes]

Electronic Sound magazine celebrates 60 years of Doctor Who with the help of The Radiophonic Workshop

Electronic Sound magazine is celebrating 60 years of Doctor Who with the help of The Radiophonic Workshop in their new issue

Electronic Sound magazine is celebrating 60 years of Doctor Who with the help of The Radiophonic Workshop in their new issue (Number 106, November 2023). A silver vinyl Radiophonic seven-inch also accompanies the magazine as well, the material including two Dalek tracks taken from the first story to feature the pepperpot perils. The cover story, “The Sound of Doctor Who“, boasts an amazing cast…

[science70]

BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Doctor Who (BBC Records, 1973).

[garadinervi]

Hannah Peel, Unheard Delia, (7" Single), ES775, Electronic Sound / Mute, 2021 [limited edition released with issue 75 of «Electronic Sound» magazine] [Covet The Cover]

Design: Mark Hall

[teledyn]

It's only missing the wine bottles

[postpunkindustrial]

The Delian Mode - Delia Derbyshire documentary

The Delian Mode (Kara Blake, 2009) is a a short experimental documentary revolving around the life and work of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire, best known for her groundbreaking sound treatment of the Doctor Who theme music. A collage of sound and image created in the spirit of Derbyshire’s unique approach to audio creation and manipulation, this film illuminates such soundscapes onscreen while paying tribute to a woman whose work has influenced electronic musicians for decades. 

  http://thedelianmode.com

[vinyl-artwork]

BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Fourth Dimension, 1973.

Photography by Andrew Prewett.

[nostalgia-tblr]

so anyway my bff visited earlier and we watched Salvage Hunters: The Restorers and one of the items in this episode was a sofa that had been in Doctor Who so obviously this caught my attention [ETA: I realise on re-reading that THIS is the point where the story headed into Sad Nerd Territory by most people's standards, not later on] and they went to a Dr Who shop in London(?) and they were trying to build up to this obviously exciting reveal and the shop guy said it was from the 70s and I went "Oh is it from Robots of Death?" and then yes it was from Robot of Death, I had correctly guessed which 1970s Dr Who seating was remarkable enough to make it onto fucking Salvage Hunters and I am sharing this because it left me both proud and ashamed and that's quite a confusing mix of emotions to have.

[sconesfortea]

Oooh cool, Jeremy Limb, who played Timothy Drake at the start of The Devil's Chord, is the son of Roger Limb, of the Radiophonic Workshop!

[spaceintruderdetector]

BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Out of This World (1976)

[wrathradesigns]

Forest of the Bone Witch “imaginary soundtrack album to a disturbing Folk Horror BBC series”

Photos Katie Metcalfe, Julia Kadel

Design @wrathradesigns

[mywifeleftme]

190: White Noise // An Electric Storm

An Electric Storm White Noise 1969, Island

I’ve read a decent amount on how White Noise’s An Electric Storm was made over the course of a year of painstakingly splicing tape by hand in a London flat, but not why they decided to make their pioneering electronic music opus so ooky-spooky. I guess when you coop up folks whose day job is making Dalek noises, you’re going to get something a bit deranged. The opening side’s psych pop is jaunty enough, though there’s often something vacant-eyed in its whimsy, like a carnival in a Stephen King story: your ear is drawn to the incongruous details that hint at some darker working behind the cutesiness. It prepares you well for the flip, where across its 11-minute runtime “The Visitation” opens multiple echo chambers full of sobs, previews the next decade of horror film title themes, and digs pits of gurgling electronic unease that spored whole genres of dark ambient music still evolving to this day. The album ends on a literal (well, fake literal) Satanic ritual in the form of “Black Mass: An Electric Storm in Hell,” which turns jazz drummer Paul Lytton into the Jacob’s Ladder poster. Leader David Vorhaus likes to wryly shake his head recalling how the A&R people at Island Records didn’t “get it” when he turned in the LP, but even as someone who does “get it” I uh get why they didn’t!

An Electric Storm is chiefly discussed for the means of its production, and that’s fair: despite digital advances in recording technology that make the most advanced techniques found here (phasing, flanging, looping) virtually effortless, it is uncanny hearing them deployed so extensively on music of this vintage. It’s the equivalent of watching a film from the ‘60s and seeing effects that look like The Terminator. The music rarely goes more than a few bars before melting into some other shape (a melodic phrase begun on one instrument is spliced so it resolves on another; the music drops out entirely, replaced by a collage of ratcheting noises, electronic bloops and choking cries somewhere between anguish and laughter). By turning over a third of “My Game of Loving” to cringey orgasm sounds, they even initiate the nascent electronic pop genre into the elite fraternity of styles that are a little too eager to prove they fuck.

The lyrics won’t win any prizes, but I do take issue with how dismissive some writers have been of these songs as songs. An Electric Storm is steeped in the psychedelic tropes of the day, but it doesn’t sound like the work of avid fans of like the Electric Prunes or whatever. One senses that Vorhaus and BBC Radiophonic Workshop regulars Delia Derbyshire and Hodgson have a general but disinterested notion of what the kids are into, and they feed it back to us through the filter of their own predilections. Derbyshire’s two co-writes in particular are anything but generic. The rippling transformations of “Love Without Sound” are as wondrous and eerie as a Winsor McCay Little Nemo strip, but it’s the opiated vocal by the otherwise unknown John Whitman and the strolling melody that ebbs in and out of the collage that give it a dreamy logic. “Firebird” has a Beach Boys-y bounce and gorgeously arranged harmonies to go with an array of synth tones so solid and colourful I want to play with them like toy blocks.

Though it didn’t set the charts ablaze, An Electric Storm developed a reputation as a tripper classic, and I was pretty psyched to find a copy in not too battered condition for a reasonable price at a shop this summer. I’m glad to have it on the shelf, and with the exception of the 45 seconds that makes my neighbours think I’m listening to weird and bad porn, I always enjoy the adventure when I get it on the table.

190/365

[as-warm-as-choco]

london suggestions/hang out/draw?

do i have any creatures here from london that would like to hang out in the next 8 days ? or any of you has any suggestions???

now im seein ian mckellen and some other play at shakespeare's globe, jazz festival (and postponing spirited away play at a later date so i can have better seats), museums (definitely want a doctor who museum too but the most well thought thing i find is worlds of wonder in liverpool?)

[downthetubes]

bluedot Festival includes Doctor Who celebrations and premiere of new BBC Radiophonic show, "Dawn of the Doctors"

Get set for a special celebration of Doctor Who at Jodrell Bank Observatory, and the premiere of a new BBC Radiophonic Workshop show

A special Sunday celebrating 60 years of Doctor Who takes place at Jodrell Bank in July featuring panels, performances, screenings and much more, as part of the bluedot Festival. With panels curated by Doctor Who expert Toby Hadoke, and music from Delia Derbyshire Day, the Manchester-based developing organisation which celebrates the work of Delia Derbyshire, and the live premiere of a new show…