Delia Derbyshire, Dudley Simpson, Brian Hodgson, & David Vorhaus - ESL 104/The Tomorrow People

Produced by the UK's Thames Television between 1973 and 1979, The Tomorrow People was a sci-fi drama show for kids that ran for eight series. A large portion of The Tomorrow People soundtrack was taken from the Standard Music Library's "ESL104" LP. In fact, all but four tracks from "ESL104" were used to score The Tomorrow People.

Standard Music Library was established in 1969 as suppliers of specialist production music for film, television, radio and commercials. The styles range from orchestral, jazz, dance and a variety of world music, to avant-garde composers such as Brian Eno. ESL 104 was one of their first releases, and the original record was used to provide incidental music to several 1970s Doctor Who stories, episodes of ATV's Timeslip and Thames' The Tomorrow People. Delia and Brian recorded the majority of the tracks on ESL 104 under their "Nikki St George" and "Li De La Russe" composing hats, with David Vorhaus, an avant garde American composer who formed Camden Town's Kaleidophon studio with Derbyshire and Hodgson, composing the remaining tracks.

They were highly experimental composers, with no access to synthesisers, using a very innovative approach to composition and scoring with physical manipulation of tape loops, cut up recordings and oscillators as well as traditional instrumentation. The work of Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson could be said to be a precursor to today's ubiquitous use of samplers. In 1963, these applications were so technically advanced for their time that Delia was able to construct the legendary Doctor Who theme through filtered oscillation, cutting, speeding up, and assemblage note- by-note, in a two week period. Again, no synthesisers were used. The heightened, unearthly sound of Doctor Who was born. Delia was able to take the forms of musique concrète, originally developed by by Pierre Schaeffer, with the use of microphones and magnetic tape recorders, and organically bring the truly experimental and the popular together and present it to a mainstream audience.

Director Douglas Camfield eschewed the normal route of asking Dudley Simpson to compose the incidental music and instead selected a number of stock library tracks. The majority of the tracks originate from ESL 104 and two other tracks, the legendary 'Delian Mode' and 'Blue Veils And Golden Sands' originated from the BBC Radiophonic Music album that had been released in 1968. 'Blue Veils' was originally composed for a World About Us documentary about the Tuareg tribes of the Sahara. This Delia composition was composed and constructed using filtered electronic oscillators to give the "shimmering heat haze" atmosphere to accompany the footage. It also uses manipulations of Delia's voice and the ringing of a now infamous green lamp shade. It seems quite fitting that Camfield should use such an atmospheric piece to underscore the fiery destruction of the world in Inferno and her 'Blue Veils and Golden Sands' emphasises Stahlman's complete obsession and madness. Her 'Lure Of the Space Goddess', a kind of swirling electronic woodwind effect, also surfaces from ESL 104 to provide further mood and an uneasy underscore to the environs of Project inferno.

If you are a fan of early electronic/experimental music then I can't recommend this enough. This contains some of Derbyshire's finest work. To view more Delia Derbyshire/BBC Radiophonic music from the archives click here.


Track List:
1. The Tomorrow People
2. Lure of the Space Goddess
3. Battle Theme
4. Homeric Theme
5. Greek Concrete
6. Attack of the Alien Minds
7. Gothic Submarines
8. Whirring Menace
9. Souls In Space
10. Time Capsule
11. Restless Relays
12. Planetarium
13. Wet Asteroid
14. Way Out
15. Fresh Aire
16. Delia's Theme
17. Tentative Delia
18. Delia's Idea
19. Delia's Psychedelian Waltz
20. Delia's Resolve
21. Delia's Dream
22. Delia's Reverie
23. Delia's Fulfilment
24. Build Up To
25. Snide Rhythms
26. The Tomorrow People Theme

Download: ESL 104/The Tomorrow People
Download Size: 37MB

KPM1104 | Delia Derbyshire - Electrosonic

Electrosonic (aka KPM1104)is a 1972 KPM Library record electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire made with Brian Hodgson and Don Harper while moonlighting from day jobs at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. One of the most enigmatic albums in the KPM sound library of the early 70s,a haunting batch of spare electronic tracks by Delia Derbyshire, who is best remembered for her musical work for the Dr Who! television series. The tracks here are far more mellow and contemplative than her previous work. Most numbers are short and built around simple, spare themes played by Delia with a gently flowing approach that's often quite melodic, even though the tunes themselves echo with a fair bit of darkness. The overall sound isn't as funky as you might expect from other KPM releases, but it more than makes up for that with an incredible array of sounds, techniques, and odd little notes, all of which come across with a "voice" that's far different than some of Delia's better known electronic music contemporaries.

Year of Release: 1972
Label: KPM Library (Catalog KPM1104)
Genre: Electronic, Experimental, Library
Bitrate: 192kbps

Track List:
1. Quest
2. Quest (Fast)
3. Computermatic
4. Frontier To Knowledge
5. The Pattern Emerges
6. Freeze Frame
7. Plodding Power
8. Busy Microbes
9. Liquid Energy
10. Liquid Energy (Bubbling Rhythm)
11. No Man's Land
12. Depression
13. Nightwalker
14. Electrostings
15. Electrobuild
16. Celestial Cantabile
17. Effervescence
18. The Wizards Laboratory
19. Shock Chords

Download: Delia Derbyshire - Electrosonic
Download Size: 41MB

Video: Delia Derbyshire, Loop Composer

Watch in high-definition on Youtube

January 22, 2013 Update: I posted this back in 2010. This music-video collage is still just as impressive as the first time I had the pleasure of watching it. I'm sure there were plenty of people who missed this post the first time around, and since we're in the process of re-uploading content for the blog, I thought I would bump this post to the top of the blog so that it can be shared with an entirely different group of visitors. Unfortunately AK_Alias seems to have disappeared since then. I last heard from him back in 2010, a few months after this was posted. I have yet to see him appear on the internet under this alias. AK if you happen to see this, or anyone who knows him, please contact me.

While searching for Delia Derbyshire videos, I recently stumbled across this amazing video, "Delia Derbyshire, Loop Composer". AK_Alias is the artist behind this project. He likes to refer to his creations as 'sync|sound' music videos, stating "the audio and video are treated as a single chunk of media." Upon watching his first video, I was immediately reminded of Negativland, the infamous plunderphonics group which have made a few appearances here on Meltd0wn in the past. AKA's videos are a form of visual plunderphonics, as he cuts up various scenes, images, sounds, and samples, and then arranges them into a collage that entices both the visual and aural senses.

AKA goes on to further describe his videos as being the result of taking a hip-hop approach to music and video. This thought also crossed my mind while watching his videos, as "video scratching" is made use of in much the same way a DJ would use turntables to manipulate the sound of a vinyl record. Clips are often brought forth throughout, accompanied by music and spoken word samples, then promptly altered by being "scratched", expanded, shrunk, thrown in reverse and rearranged. Each small clips helps to build the collage, whether it is incorporated into the beat, or to introduce various sound effects.

While AKA prefers to describe his creations in a nutshell as "instrumental hip-hop using videos as samples", he doesn't spare any genre from being sucked into his cacophony of visual and aural delights. The hip-hop element is present, but it is also subtle, as AKA brings so many other elements into the fold. Classical, jazz, rock, library music, tv show clips, spoken word bits, standup comedy and many other types of samples are used extensively throughout his videos.

The subject of this video is Delia Derbyshire, a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop who pioneered several magnetic audio tape editing techniques. She is another artist who has appeared on Meltd0wn in the past, and her albums can be found here. I believe the footage of Derbyshire seen in this video is taken from the amazing documentary "Alchemists of Sound". Others sampled include: Tristram Cary, Milton Babbitt, Chuck D, Aretha Franklin, Dennis Chambers, Jaco Pastorius, Joy Division, James Brown, Bernard Herrmann, David Lynch, Piano Tooners, Jimmy Page, Charlie Parker, Elastica, Homer Simpson, and Richard Pryor.

I hope you enjoy AK_Alias' work. Please be sure to check out the links below to his profile and channel on Vimeo, and take the time to leave him a comment regarding his work. He is taking a break at the moment to work on other projects, but I have a feeling you will be seeing his work again on Meltd0wn in the future.

AKA_Alias on Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/aka
Sync|Sound Music Channel:
http://vimeo.com/channels/syncsound

With this video I plan to start sharing at least one video a month, if not more, here on Digital Meltd0wn. Some of you may remember that at one time I regularly posted videos here. It wasn't a concept that I purposely abandoned, but one that I was forced to slowly filter out as the amount of free time I had available to me dwindled to a virtually nonexistent level. I have also created a Youtube channel for Digital Meltd0wn, which you can find here: http://youtube.com/digitalmeltd0wn I haven't uploaded many videos yet, but I will host the majority of the videos featured here, as well as a few that I have yet to share. If any of you would be interested in contributing to the Digital Meltd0wn Youtube channel, please leave a comment and let me know. I'm just looking for someone who would be willing to upload a couple of videos a month.

Delia Derbyshire & Brian Hodgson - The Legend of Hell House (Unreleased Score) (1973 - 320kbps)

Most of you who have followed this blog for some time now are familiar with my fondness for Delia Derbyshire's work. I have managed to collect the majority of her solo albums, as well as projects she contributed to, namely for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. However, there has been one album that has eluded my grasp until now, due to the fact that it was never officially released. The album in question is the score for 1973 horror film, "The Legend of Hell House", which she composed along with fellow BBC Radiophonic Workshop member Brian Hodgson in Hodgson's Electrophon studio in London. I had hoped that it would appear somewhere on the internet for years before finally discovering this on the old Isbum's Place blog, which is now no longer active. The score was ripped from DVD by a fellow who goes by the name of "The Master Cylinder", who happened to run one of the many sub-blogs on Isbum's Place. The Master Cylinder is a well known figure among rare soundtrack/score enthusiasts, having ripped and released soundtracks and scores for hundreds of movies that were never officially released. This particular release was numbered MC 208.

Original 1973 Movie Poster

I wish I could find out more information about the ripping job MC performed on this release. I couldn't find a DVD version of this film containing 5.1 surround sound. One common way to rip the audio from a DVD is simply to isolate the 5.1 surround sound and rip it to mp3 format. If a disc doesn't include 5.1 surround sound it makes the whole process a bit trickier, and heavy editing is usually required to remove dialogue and other sound found in the movie. Perhaps The Master Cylinder himself will grace us with his presence and be able to elaborate a bit on this particular release, but I'm not sure if he is still around.

Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to watch this film, so I can't say for sure how complete this score actually is. Judging from the length of the album, I find it very unlikely that this is a 5.1 surround sound rip. The album clocks in at just over 10 minutes in total length, which leads me to believe that there was more music which had to be edited out due to the fact that it contained dialogue and various other sounds from the movie. There are also a few places where the audio seems to jump just a bit, although it isn't noticeable enough to be a distraction.

Given the facts mentioned above, I debated as to whether or not I should share this here, but in the end I decided to go ahead for the following reason: To the best of my knowledge, this is the only version in any form of the score for The Legend of Hell House in existence, making it the only way many people will have the opportunity to listen to music from one of Delia Derbyshire's final projects. There are also a few people who frequent this blog that are big fans of Delia's work, and will be excited to see this regardless of how complete it is. Musically speaking, this may turn out to be one of the weaker selections of the Halloween Countdown for some, however I can't emphasize the significance of this collection of music enough.

As for the music, it is very different from the majority of Delia's work, which tends to be more rich and bold in nature. This is a bit more subdued, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that it is boring. Brian Hodgson is best known for creating sound effects for the sci-fi television series, Doctor Who, and is responsible for the strange sound effects that can be heard. The majority of the tracks on this release feature a haunting minimalistic ambient-like atmosphere, with minor amounts of percussion and brass. My favorite thing about the music is that it combines sounds that seem both organic and mechanical in nature. Hodgson's strange sound effects can be heard throughout each cue, the majority of which sound like spirits calling out from the beyond and letting out tortorous moans, although what sounds like muffled sexual moans can be also heard in some places. There is a very small amount of dialogue found on track 5, though it fades out almost as quickly as it appears.

I'm not going to go into detail about the plot of the movie, as plenty of information can be found online. You can find the wikipedia article for the film here, and the IMDB page here. Unfortunately there is neither a tracklist or album cover for this release. The "album cover" is simply a cropped-out section of the original movie poster I created so that I could have a folder image for my harddrive, and there isn't a track listing to include since this isn't an official release. If any of you can provide any further details surround this release please take the time to leave a comment.

Year of Release: 1973
Label: NA / Bootleg Release
Genres: Soundtrack/Score, Horror
Bitrate: 320kbps

Download: Delia Derbyshire & Brian Hodgson - The Legend of Hell House
Download Size: 24MB

White Noise - An Electric Storm

White Noise is an electronic music band formed in London, England in 1969 by American born David Vorhaus, a classical bass player with a background in both physics and electronic engineering. He was initially joined by BBC Radiophonic Workshop composers Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson, both ex of electronic music project Unit Delta Plus.

In 1968 White Noise released the groundbreaking album An Electric Storm on Island Records. The album was created using a variety of tape manipulation techniques, and is notable for its early use of the first British synthesizer, the EMS Synthi VCS3. Amongst many oddities, the first track on the album Love Without Sound employed speeded up tape edits of Vorhaus playing the double bass to create violin and cello sounds. 'I use voices a lot too, but not as conventional vocals. I always use a lot of voices, and if somebody having an orgasm in the background is used as part of one of the waveforms, it makes the sound more interesting, without the listener actually knowing what they're hearing.' Interview with David Vorhaus

Although not initially commercially successful for Island, it has over the years proved to be a cult classic, namechecked by such contemporary artists as The Orb and Julian Cope, influencing such contemporary acts Broadcast and Add N to (X). Derbyshire and Hodgson left White Noise and moved on to other projects after An Electric Storm, while Vorhous would go on to release an additional four albums under the same name.
(Year of Release: 1968)

Track List:
1. Love Without Sound
2. My Game Of Loving
3. Here Come The Fleas
4. Firebird
5. Your Hidden Dreams
6. The Visitations
7. The Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell

Download: White Noise - An Electric Storm (82MB)