Keith Richie : Music

Music and indieOpolis related blog postings moving.

krichie — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:19:00 GMT

All future music and indieOpolis related blog postings will be created here, and you can Subscribe here !

I've ported a few key music related posts there to set the stage for the remainder of the "History of musical influences..." and "Tangerine Dream collection project" postings.

Check it out!

- Keith

When the heck did you find the time to do all this music?

krichie — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:04:00 GMT

A few folks have asked me this question over the past few months, primarily, because at the end of 2005 I released 3 CDs, and then I've released 3 more this year. First of all, most of this music already existed. I just hadn't polished it up, and was unsure of exactly the distribution method I wanted.

I figured I would do a quick post and give you a bit of history on this.

A longtime ago....in a virtual studio far, far away (Roughly 1999, 2000)

I had plenty "Melodies" in my head, and some down on paper and recorded, but I didn't have a way of really getting my music out there to be heard. (See my History of Musical Influences.... postings)

Back in the day, there was this place called mp3.com. (It still exists, but is totally not what it once was). The OLD mp3.com, allowed any artist to upload their music, in mp3 format, and call it an album. Users could come to the site, and have and order a "Burned" CD of a single artists music, or a custom cd with music from multiple artists. If you were not an audiophile, and didn't really care about total quality, this was great. The OLD mp3.com, allowed artists to get paid by streams to their music, downloads, and CD purchases.

This was really cool for me, and allowed me to get some stuff heard and get comments on my music early on. (And back then, it was pretty terrible :))

Unfortunately, many people learned how to game the system, so they would upload one stupid track, and then create spiders and such that would cause their earnings to roar sky high. Obviously, this wasn't very profitable for mp3.com, so they stopped doing it :) And eventually sold it off. (I won't go any further with this, as I'm sure most of you knew about them, and there was plenty of coverage of it...)

Once MP3.com was dead, I reconsidered many different ways of getting my music out there. There are literally tons of web sites that allow artists to do pretty much the same thing, and all of them have their pros and cons. I had come across CDBaby at the time, but personally didn't like the way their web site looked. I then created indieopolis.net initially to develop a platform that allowed artists to do pretty much the same thing as MP3.COM, but only with "Pay for download" and CD production. I realized shortly after, that I did "Not" want to get into the business of running a full scale indie music site, as there were tons of these out there, and rather I wanted to concentrate on my music rather than running an indie site. I decided to just use the name indieopolis as a name for my music and a few others who were interested, as far as distribution, that was somebody else problem.

In the mean time, there were a couple of other sites that I tried, and hated. I won't go into a diatribe of why, they just didn't fit with what I wanted.

Then one day CDBaby started allowing folks to sign up for their digital distribution deal that enabled you to have any CD you sold through them, to be channeled to tons of digital download sites such as iTunes, MSN Music, Rhapsody, Napster, etc....for a small fee of course :). Since this was exactly what I wanted, and really didn't want to get into the business of physical CD's, this was perfect. Of course, this still requires a physical product to be sent to them, that is then used as masters to send to the individual digital distribution companies. I figured if I started selling lots of physical product, there are places I can use to help out with getting them made.

Roughly mid 2005, I decided to give CDBaby a try, and started re-mastering all my material I had that was ready to go.

I had about 3 full CD's worth of material ready to go, and 2 or 3 more that were still being polished up, thus a bunch of music seemed to be churning out pretty quickly :), but mind you, this was music that's been sitting around for nearly 8 or so years, just trying to find the perfect distribution avenue :).

In 2005, I released the following 4 CDs:

Sidetracks - Volume 1

Sidetracks - Volume 2_DARN_LOUD

Sidetracks - Volume 3 - The Heikkenen Exclusive

Réalité De Destination

In 2006, I spent some time polishing up more music and released:

Sidetracks - Volume 4 - Eye of the Innocent

Mark Akin and I finally stopped talking about it, and decided to start colaborating, and in the process decided to work together to get his CD released:

AlienCarChase

Mark is a Multi-Platinum Soundtrack recording artist for the insanely popular anime series Dragonball Z, with syndication on Cartoon Network. He’s also shared musical credits with Dream Theater, Bootsy Collins, Buckethead, Sum41; and Saliva to name a few. He has had music on MTV’s Real World with Pop-Tronic band ‘TripRocket’.
His style is diverse, ranging from Hard Rock to Electronic Soundtrack Vibes, to all out Metal Mayhem. Mark also teaches at Murphy’s Music in Irving, Texas.

I was inspired and put together

The Maestoso Interstellar Suite

So, in answer to the original question....I didn't just come up with all this stuff in the past year or so :). I still have about 2 more full CD's worth a material that needs polishing up, and once I have the time (Probably AFTER we release Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007), I might have some more personal time to get back to work on them.

- Keith

John Mayer needs a Haircut

krichie — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 02:16:00 GMT

So I'm packing today for my trip, and preferrably I fly America Airlines if at all possible. I'm one of those guys who actually likes to read the America Way magazine and I usually stuff the complimentary copy of the magazine in my bag if I don't finish it before my flight completes.

Well, anyways....A couple of months ago John Mayer was on the cover and they had an article about him. My wife is a BIG fan of John Mayer. She simply loves him and his music. I like him to, but it only goes as far as really diggin' his music and his ability as an artist. My wife on the other hand, is bleepin' nuts about him. So what do I do? I store the magazine in my laptop bag and eagerly await when I can give her the copy I have with the cover article about her favorite artist.

So it's been a couple of months, and I forgot about it, but when cleaning out my bag today, I pull it out and lay it on the table for her. When she gets back to the house, I figured I might get a response such as

"Thanks honey! You were thinking of me, I love you so much for that"

"Gee honey, now I know that when you travel you're keeping me in your thoughts, what a great husband you are"

"Cool, thanks honey. I appreciate this, it's really cool"

but instead what do I get? What are the first words out of her mouth?

"He needs a haircut".

I was devastated. Argh!!!

- Keith

Review of Sidetracks - Volume 3 by Bill Binkelman of Wind and Wire

krichie — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 00:33:00 GMT

Bill Binkelman, founder and current webmaster of Wind and Wire, performed the following review of Sidetracks - Volume 3 - The Heikkinen Exclusive.

With his permission, I'm including the review in it's entirety here, and have incorporated quick links to the samples of each track from the CD that he speaks directly on throughout the review.

Thanks Bill!

KEITH RICHIE

Sidetracks Volume 3 (The Heikkinen Exclusive)

Indieopolis (2005)

In the liner notes, keyboardist Keith Richie cites musical influences as diverse as Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter, Enya, Deep Forest, Kraftwerk and Vangelis. Listeners might be apprehensive about how such a mishmash of inspiration will be translated on this CD of nineteen tracks. Have no fear, because, while there is a fairly wide assortment of music styles on Sidetracks Volume 3, the album itself holds together quite well, owing to Richie’s recognizable keyboards which help maintain continuity. Also, nine of those nineteen tracks are actually short transitional pieces, entitled “Relaxed Breathing Sessions” in the liner notes. These brief musical interludes and their accompanying nature sounds serve to unify the disparate songs into the “whole” of the recording.

Richie is certainly ambitious. Sometimes, this ambition gets the better of him when his artistic vision is slightly undercut by less than spot-on execution (such as less than optimal keyboard sounds). However, I can easily forgive him this when I take into consideration how diverse and wide in scope the music on Side Tracks Volume 3 is. If I had to categorize the CD’s music, it’s probably safest to list it as either electronica or electronic new age, although elements of world fusion and EM can be heard as well. “Arctic Shores” has Vangelis’ gravitas and flowing melodicism with twinkling bell tones, forlorn horns, and swirling washes. “Ghost Town” attempts to paint a musical portrait of the title, even going so far as to include sound effects such horses walking. Mychael Danna-ish strings are blended with short bursts on shakuhachi flute and plenty of synth embellishments in the background, e.g. sparkling bell trees. Sadly, the sound effects may tend to pull you “out of” the music. However, maybe you will enjoy their novelty more than I did. “Ptilopteri Waltz” is properly delicate with a waltz-like cadence and melody played on plucked harp with an undercurrent of strings. It’s here that Richie’s vision is booby-trapped somewhat by the solo violin sounds which are of lower quality than I think the song deserves.

“Lost in Beijing” fares much better and nicely blends male chorales, muted bass drums, and smooth synth washes, eventually folding in some cool wood block percussion and Berlin-esque electronics. I’m not sure what to make of “Mellow Fellow,” a jarring contrast resembling an English-style chill-out track (after a new age-ish opening) with snappy snare beats and thumping bass. At nearly nine minutes long, it has to work hard to sustain listener interest. “Sun in Central Park” may be my favorite song on the CD, uniting elements of Berlin school at the outset with contemporary electronica featuring a great midtempo beat and lots of high quality synth work. Another solid number is “Ambient Highway” which has the sound of a thunderstorm at the beginning (nature sounds abound throughout the CD) with sampled steel drums, synth chorals, especially nice synth string washes, and a sweeping visual sensation that grows more and more dramatic as the cut builds into something more closely akin to Vangelis’ cinematic soundscapes than ambient music.

While not a perfect album, Sidetracks Volume 3 certainly offers solid evidence of Richie’s keyboard and composing talents. As long as you’re not opposed to nature sounds (especially between selections during those “Relaxed Breathing Sessions”) and you favor electronic keyboard music with lots of melody and structure, you’ll find plenty of good music contained herein. However, fans of the Berlin school should be aware that despite the liner note mention of Tangerine Dream, I think Vangelis and perhaps Kitaro are better comparisons for the album.

Bill Binkelman

Music Reviewer

New Age Reporter

My Top 10 Songs for the month ending July 2006

krichie — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 03:09:00 GMT

The results are in!

Following is the top 10 of my songs based on digital downloads and CD's for the month ending July 2006!

Enjoy!

- Keith

Review of Rain in Central Park on Space Junkies Magazine

krichie — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 03:23:00 GMT

This is so cool :)

Wednesday Elektra of Space Junkies Magazine has created a song review of Rain in Central Park from my CD Réalité De Destination, and she described it exactly how I envisioned it!

Because Space Junkies is only a monthly online magazine, every issue is removed after it's publication run and replaced with a brand new issue, thus a direct link would die in a month so.....to read the review:

Navigate to http://www.spacejunkies.net
Select Enter
From the Navigation Drop down at the top of the page, select MP3 Reviews and hit Go.
Scroll down and click on my name :)

Once the publication cycle is complete, I'll save the review locally for future reference. Till then, check it about above!!

- Keith

Dreamy, majestic, and ambient music sure to relax and calm the spirit while performing MOSS testing :)

krichie — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 19:56:00 GMT

The Maestoso Interstellar Suite

Well, it certainly helps calm my spirit while performing MOSS and WSS 3.0 testing :)

You can play all the samples by clicking here, or to listen to individual samples, please visit The Maestoso Interstellar Suite Information page. This CD can be purchased here!

At the beginning of June 2006, during our family vacation, I had plenty of time to listen to my collection of electronic music from many popular artists. This allowed me to reflect and search my long term memory to remember events that occurred in the early 80’s so that I could add additional postings to my blog on musical influences.

This sparked a bit of inspiration for me to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time….To create a per say “Space Music” album. I told myself I wasn’t going to work on any new material over the next Few months and focus more on marketing the work that I already had, but lest to say, when we got back Home after our vacation, inspiration overrode and won again :). I gave it quite a bit of thought, and then got to work the next day on the collection of music on this CD.

The end result is one continuous piece of music split across 6 movements, which spread just over 60 minutes. (Well, really 7 unique segments if you count the intermission :)).

This CD is more than just an attempt at creating a space music release, but more of a tribute to many artists who created great works in the early 80’s, and whom inspired many an aspiring musician like myself.

I hope you enjoy listening to this work, as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Keith Richie

History of Musical Influences by that SharePoint Guy - Part 3 - 1980-1981

krichie — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 06:07:00 GMT

History of Musical Influences by that SharePoint Guy - Part 3 - 1980-1981

Before I start with 1980, let me note that I'm afraid the same thing that happened after I made my previous post in this series of becoming inspired to create a piece of work based on the artists in that time frame is going to happen again :).

Shortly after posting part 2 of this series, I got inspired and wound up composing The Maestoso Interstellar Suite. (See the blog posting on this) I finished that CD, and it should be live on CDBaby any day now, then shortly thereafter, distributed to the digital download services.

Now that I'm working on Part 3, it's already happening again :).

1980

During this year, I discovered Kraftwerk. Interestingly enough, as I was listening to my limited Kraftwerk collection, a member of my team must have noticed my link to their official site on my blog Music category. (Btw, if you have not visited Kraftwerk's official site, it's actually pretty darn cool). This team mate made the statement something to the effect of "You're about the only other person I've seen since High school that lives in America that actually has heard of Kraftwerk as well"

Jean Michelle Jarre came to my attention by hearing Oxygene and Equinoxe. (I really don't follow Jean, but he was still an important part of the story at this time).

There was also work by Brian Eno brought to my attention as well as Gary Numan . You've got to thank Gary for his song Cars, now considered a classic rock staple.

The early 80's introduced me to so many different inspirational artists, it would be impossible to list them all. And I can't end 1980 without mentioning The Cars, themselves. Every single one of their albums up to 1980 were in my regular play list all the time and into 1981. I know I wore out at least 10 different cassette copies of Panorama, along with constantly swiping my brothers vinyl copy :) I even own a copy of Greg Hawkes solo release, Niagara Falls.

1981

The only thing I can say about 1981, is simply, Vangelis and Chariots of Fire. This entire release is a fantastic work of art IMO.

During these years, I heard a lot of music utilizing a Vocoder. With my latest round of listening to my Kraftwerk collection, I've been playing around with a virtual synth version of a Vocoder, and thinking about doing yet another CD on the Kraftwerk like style. It's undecided, but inspiration is happening yet again :).

Next up, 1982-1983

- Keith

Previous Posts in this series:

Additional references and links:

My High School Fight Song

krichie — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 06:13:00 GMT

My wife is planning her 20 year High School reunion, so I've set her up a SharePoint site to utilize for coordination, etc, and so all her friends can meet at one place, discuss, plan, etc (Yes, there's Classmates.com, Reunion.com, etc, but those have limitations for what she wants to do).

It's also the high school that I went too. She was in the 1986 graduating class, and I followed in the 1987 graduating class (Yes, I met my wife in High school. But she wouldn't have anything to do with me until after high school :), so it wasn't like we were high school sweethearts...Although that would have been nice :))

The whole reunion organizing really has my wife in high gear. She excels at coordinating events, etc, and I think she's really having the time of her life with it. To help out, I decided (at first) to do a little loop of our high school fight song, to place on the site and hopefully help to build momentum for this reunion. Knowing me, it turned into more than just a loop :)

So, I thought I'd share "My" version of our high school fight song :)

You can listen to it here: My High School Fight Song

- Keith

SPSiteManager Postings - The Maestosso Interstellar Suite Complete -

krichie — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 04:46:00 GMT

SPSiteManager Postings

Throughout this week, I hope to get some SPSiteManager postings complete matching the SPUserUtil series.

For a recap of the SPUserUtil Series:

I'm not sure of the flow of scenario examples, but I imagine that I'll start with the analysis portion, and do a series on the varying level of analysis options, then kick off into the repartition operation, as these are the two most used operations.

I'll cover the way SPSiteManager checks against Capacity Planning Guidelines, then provide some examples of how we use it for working with our customers to look for problems.

Of course, once problems are detected, I'll then demonstrate how we use the tool to help eliminate those problems and help our customers manage their servers.

The Maestosso Interstellar Suite - Complete?

On the lighter side of things, I spent some time this past weekend fleshing out Part II of The Maestoso Interstellar Suite, and think I'm just about finished with this CD. With that, I have removed the full length previews (Sorry guys :) ).

Part I was massaged a bit to clear up some other artifacts in the song that I wanted to change, and Part II was expanded into 4 segments. The latter 2 segments are what you may have heard in my previous posting.

The end result is one continuous piece of music split across 6 movements as noted below:

Play All Samples

Part I

Movement I (Event Horizon)

Movement II (Naked Singularity)

Intermission

Part II

Movement III (Inertial Frame of Reference)

Movement IV (Redshift)

Movement V (Time Dilation)

Movement VI (Causality)

Ok, so there's really 7 segments if you include the intermission :)

I really dig how this little distraction came together, and I'm quite pleased with the end result. While working on this project, it completely reminded me of what I loved about the early 80's electronic music I listened to then and now. This is in fact how Tangerine Dream did most of their concerts in the early 80's. One continuous set of music split across various movements, but more on that in my next few postings of the "History of Musical Influences by that SharePoint Guy...".

Also, for those of you familiar with my Sidetracks - Volume 3 release, you'll notice I put it together in a somewhat similar fashion, making it one complete 70 minute continuous piece of music.

Hmmm, so...This will mark the 6th completed CD I'll have ready soon (Well, if you count the early years, and yet unpublished CD's, it equates to about 10 CDs worth of music over the past 5 years....) Hmmmm, is it time for a Best Of CD? :)

- Keith

The Maestoso Interstellar Suite - Part II

krichie — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 16:33:00 GMT

First I want to thank those who placed comments on and the emails I received with comments on Part I of The Maestoso Interstellar Suite. I was quite surprised at the many positive comments. I was hoping "someone" would like it, but didn't realize it would generate so many kudos back.

Over this past weekend, I started working on Part II. Nowhere near complete, but it's a start. The versions available there will not be the final versions. Once I have them wrapped up, I'll reduce the links to just a couple minute samples etc as I prepare it for release.

I'm in Redmond this week to work on the Desired Configuration Monitoring project for SharePoint. I have no estimate of when the DCM for SharePoint will be complete, but I'm here to help get it going.

During my down time this week, I also have a few changes and enhancements I've made to SPSiteManager (More on those in a later post) that I'll need to finish up this week and get posted. One of the bigger items, is a Document Version Purging option to allow you to purge document versions that are no longer needed within a date range or version count option.

The Maestoso Interstellar Suite

krichie — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 02:29:00 GMT

Today was the last day of my vacation before I head back to the office for more fun :). My family and I took a road trip to Orlando and spent a week at Disney World. During the road trip, I had plenty of time to listen to my collection of TD material and other electronic music. This allowed me to reflect and search my long term memory to remember events that occurred in the early 80's for my next few postings for the "History of Musical Influences..." series I'm working on.

See

I won't go into much detail in this posting about my early 80's influences and save that for the next post in the series, but I wanted to call out that while thinking and meditating on those early years...I couldn't forget the great work of Vangelis. For those of you who may not know, Vangelis is responsible for two of the most infamous Soundtrack works in the world (IMO), Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner. But I remember him most from his Heaven and Hell release. Heaven and Hell can be heard throughout the TV Series Cosmos, written by Carl Sagan and broadcast via PBS. It was Cosmos that actually introduced me to Vangelis. While listening to Heaven and Hell, and reflecting on other Vangelis work, it inspired me to do something I've wanted to do for a long long time....To create a per say "Space Music" album.

I told myself I wasn't going to work on any new material over the next few months and focus more on marketing the work that I already had, but lest to say, when we got back in Texas on Saturday inspiration overrode and won again :). I gave it quite a bit of thought, and then got to work on Sunday working on The Maestoso Interstellar Suite. For a short period of time, you can listen to the entire first part. of this release. Keep in mind though...It's a whopper at 31 minutes!

The Maestoso Interstellar Suite will actually be a combination of about 4 pieces spread between 2 parts. I haven't finalized the naming but I'm working towards the following structure:

Part I - Event Horizon & Naked Singularity
Part II - Blueshift/Redshift.

Give it a listen, and I encourage your comments, feedback, etc!!

History of Musical Influences by that SharePoint Guy - Part 2 - 1978-1979

krichie — Wed, 24 May 2006 03:45:00 GMT

History of Musical Influences by that SharePoint Guy - Part 2 - 1978-1979

1978

During this year, I discovered ELO, The Bee Gees (No, it wasn't the Disco releases like Stayin' Alive, etc that really caught my attention with them, but more on their mellower releases, like Spirits Having Flown :)), and stuff like Dream Weaver by Gary Wright.

Probably the second most influential band I discovered this year was Rush. And boy was it a rush for me :). Sequential Circuits released the Prophet 5 which was used by just about every favorite artist of mine, and Superman The Motion Picture was released. Yet again here we go with John Williams creating yet more inspiring music for me.

John Williams is great, but there was another artist named John that really got me hooked, and it was probably this year that I decided and said to my self

"When I grow up, I wanna be just like John Carpenter!"

Yep, the quintessential horror movie King John Carpenter.

This was the year that Halloween was released. (Yes, I saw it when I was 8 years old :)), and the pulsing sequence in the main title was all I needed to hear. I thought this was the coolest thing...dark, eerie, electronic. I was hooked :), over the years, this began a buying spree of everything he produced as well. It was this thing alone that made me want to do soundtrack work. Later, as I discovered that he also wrote; directed; and scored more movies....I knew for sure that eventually some day, I would do something similar to what John did.

(I know I'm jumping ahead in years here, but My personal favorite John Carpenter tunes are Chariot of Pumpkins from Halloween III, the Theme song from The Fog, and from the Big Trouble in Little China Soundtrack Lo Pan's Domain and Into the Spirit Path are both great tracks.)

He's the primary reason I wanted to get into doing short films, and is the inspiration behind my Original "N"otion Picture soundtrack Réalité De Destination.

There were tons more artists this year, but these were the primary ones who influenced me during that classic year of 1978.

1979

I honestly can't remember anything specific from 1979 :) Except of listening to more music from the other artists in this post and the previous :) Oh well, if I remember...I'll update it later :).

In closing...I'm not Jack Burton, but I figured this was a nice way to end this post :). Or not.

Next up, 1980

- Keith

Previous Posts in this series:

History of Musical Influences by that SharePoint Guy - Part 1 - 1976-1977

Additional references and links:

The Tangerine Dream Collection Project - Part 2 - The cost estimate and the wifes' reaction!

krichie — Wed, 24 May 2006 00:37:00 GMT

The Tangerine Dream Collection Project - Part 2 - The cost estimate and the wifes' reaction!

The Wifes' Reaction

So I told my wife about my little project, and to my complete utter amazement, she stated "Ok"

After I got back up off the floor from falling out of my chair (I don't think she realizes just how much this is going to cost yet :)), I started thinking of how I wanted to attack backfilling my collection.

Should I start with replacing the destroyed media first?
Or should I just start chronologically from the beginning?

I think I'll go with the chronological pattern first (as much as possible :). What stinks about this, is that I'll be replacing all the earlier releases which I either had at one time, and were damaged, etc. So it will be tough until I start getting to a lot of the newer releases I haven't even heard yet.

The Cost Estimate

Based on my current Items to Acquire list, which is currently sitting at 136 items, with an average of $10 per CD...simple math tells us that this will run me $1,360 at a minimum.

Obviously I want to order as many as possible if I order them online, to save costs with shipping and handling.

Some of you may be asking

"Why don't you just purchase as many as you can from the Digital Distributors like MSN Music, iTunes, etc?"

Well, I could do that...but I want the to be able to rip using the highest quality for my media server.

"Why don't you use someone like MusicGiants who provides Hi-Fi music downloads using Windows Media Audio Lossless encoding?"

Well, for me...Each CD is like a fine painting :). Some people collect paintings...I collect CDs of my favorite artists:)

Truthfully, there are only a few artists in which I would just insist on having hard copies of CDs. TD is one of them. I want to ensure I have the hard copies as backups in case I have to re-rip again. That's just that :) Until we're able to download (legally that is) uncompressed 24bit audio :) I'll stick with the CDs, as a lot of new music (Especially from TD) is coming out in 24bit formats.

The plan

I think the best way to tackle this, would be for me to order at least 5 CD's per month on each months self allowance for this project.

That would allow me to complete this task in just over 2 years (around 27 moinths :))

But, if I find good copies of CDs in used shops, etc...Obviously I'm going to go that route, for cost savings and time savings.

I'll probably use Amazon as much as possible as they have the widest stock of TD material at this time. Once I get into the "Current years" releases, I can go to the official TD site and order from there if necessary, for specialty items.

Also, after each purchase is established, I'll update my Items currently in my collection list and the others with the source location so in the end, we'll have a complete list to refer back to just in case.

With that in mind, here are the first 5 CDs that I'll be purchasing.

Stay tuned for Part 3 "The first order"

- Keith

Previous Posts in this series:

The Tangerine Dream Collection Project - Part 1

Additional references and links:

History of Musical Influences by that SharePoint Guy - Part 1 - 1976-1977

krichie — Mon, 22 May 2006 15:34:00 GMT

History of Musical Influences by that SharePoint Guy - Part 1 - 1976-1977

I don't necessarily plan on detailing in chronological order the events that marked the musical influences on me, but I'll use it as the basic outline. Just note we may take a segue here and there as the synapses in my brain fuse back together and old buried memories are reborn :)

The purpose is not to just note the electronic Musical Influences, but all musical influences. I think you'll see that at the end, you'll see why it's my passion to do music for film..

1976

Logan's Run. I won't go into a plethora of detail on Logan's Run itself, except that I am patiently waiting on the remake of this and this is the earliest form of electronic music I can remember at this time, that evoked a bit of emotional "Oooooo....What's that!" from me :)" Jerry Goldsmith did the orchestral music, but I'm not sure who actually did the electronic pieces.

1977

Star Wars. Other than a simple masterpiece of science fiction and cinema, this was probably one of the first albums I ever listened to and owned. It, of course, was my introduction to John Williams. My parents constantly nagged me to please stop playing that same album on the family turntable day in, and day out. Uh, well...It was the only album I owned :), I found myself mesmerized by the music, and then I heard "the five tones".

It was probably a month or so of hearing "the five tones" all over TV, Radio etc before I actually saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but when I realized it was also John Williams, it had to be immediately added to my collection :) I remember that when my parents would ask me what I wanted for Christmas at this time, I would tell them anything that John Williams has done. I'm not sure they even knew who he was, and I didn't even own a turntable at the time.

It was also about this time I started hearing music from Kraftwerk, although I didn't realize it was them at that time. As well, I kept hearing things "Moving in Stereo", and was immediately hooked. It was a couple of years later, but my brother and I became serious fans of The Cars. For my brother, it was the everything about The Cars. For me, it was learning who Greg Hawkes was. I still have his Niagara Falls LP :).

I'll end with a little Popcorn by Gershon Kingsley.

Next up, 1978-1979

- Keith

Ranking	Song	CD
1	Keeping the dream alive	Sidetracks - Volume 3 - The Heikkinen Exclusive
2	Ciarra	Sidetracks - Volume 1
3	Swiss Chocolate Factory	Sidetracks - Volume 1
4	Black Magic	Sidetracks - Volume 2
5	Heading to the Post Office	Sidetracks - Volume 1
6	I Dream of Brighter Days	Sidetracks - Volume 2
7	Electric Panda	Sidetracks - Volume 2
8	Blip Trippin	Sidetracks - Volume 2
9	Dew from the Mourning Star	Sidetracks - Volume 2
10	Seattle Walk	Sidetracks - Volume 2