i've been listening to todd rundgren's "a cappella" a bit lately. this album was my first encounter with rundgren, when it was released way back in 1985. it was around that time that i was breaking away from the stuff that most of my friends were listening to (van halen, iron maiden, metallica), and this was a welcome avenue of escape. the cool thing about this album is that it's, well, a cappella. he sampled and digitized his voice to create all of the sounds that you hear on the album.
i remember a couple years ago, when bjork's "medulla" was released. she was saying things like "instruments are dead, this is the new way forward" (i'm paraphrasing, but you get the picture) and people were making a big deal about it...but todd rundgren did this some twenty years ago. he's this cult figure that's always been on the fringe and it seems to me that he doesn't really get credit for the things he's done.
he can write a pop song as well as anyone ever as, but he won't anymore because he's been there and done that. he's considered an innovator in rock, electronic, prog, and music videos. he was using computers in music long before it was the norm. he was prolific as a producer, working with a bunch of bands with many different styles of music (although i'm not sure if he's still producing now). the only albums of which he's produced that i can recall off the top of my head are meatloaf's bat out of hell and xtc's skylarking, but i know there are a lot more.
listen:
johnee jingo
mighty love
something to fall back on
1 comment:
That stuff's great!
I'd heard of Todd of course but mainly for the production work you mentioned. This acapella stuff is sweet. Johnny Jingo rocks! :-)
Post a Comment