How Dubby Stylophone Sounds Got into Lee Scratch Perry’s Rainford
When it comes to sonic wizardy, there’s probably no man greater than Lee Scratch Perry, the Jamaican dub pioneer.
A bona fide living legend.
Remarkably, he’s still making records aged 83, and his latest one 'Rainford' (On-U Sound Records!) features the Stylophone.
The musician Gaudi, who plays in the band on the album recording said on Facebook, “Feeling honoured to be on this gem produced by Adrian Sherwood, with my piano playing, theremin, moog synthsizers, melodica and stylophone.”
Gaudi has been playing for over 30 years, in over 250 productions in all kinds of genre, from punk to experimental electronica, but he’s most at home in spacious, dubby soundscapes, so no wonder he likes a bit of Stylophone.
And we might be biased, but we think the stylophone and Mr Perry are a perfect match.
Here’s a the first single from the album, Let It Rain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OLmxpeVCfU&list=PLdpBGt9Vk1yFCsl6wJw6ao-3qbRkN0URC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OLmxpeVCfU&list=PLdpBGt9Vk1yFCsl6wJw6ao-3qbRkN0URC
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Jarvis Cocker Evolves the Stylophone With The Fat White Family
We’ve had a double whammy of Jarvis Cocker stylophone action recently.
The ex-Pulp frontman uses the GEN X-1 on his latest track ‘Must I Evolve?’, with his new band Jarv Is.
Incidentally, this is a question we often ask at Dubreq HQ about our musical instruments – and the answer is always a resounding “YES!”
But while we’d love the song to not only include the GEN X-1 but also be totally ABOUT the GEN X-1, the lyrics are not about synthesisers. In typical Jarvis style, he muses upon the ageing process, the miracle of creation and other stuff from inside his mind.
It’s a pretty epic song, and it includes the great line “Dragging my knuckles to Frankie Knuckles”.
In the process of making this track, Jarvis took a great photo of his “Stylophone Stack”, which featured the Gen X-1 mounted on top of 350S dual-stylus model. “Killer combination” he wrote, adding: “The results will be heard soon.’
Jarvis hasn’t stopped there, though…
He and DJ Parrot have recently remixed the single ‘Feet’ by the brilliantly chaotic The Fat White Family, the opener off their new album.
The track was an unusual disco-flavoured outing for the London band, something Mr Cocker has expanded upon for this remix, which has been embellished with, yes, the GEN X-1.
Have a listen/watch here.
[WARNING: the video includes a lot of moonwalking.]
https://youtu.be/TbwmvH4JeHc
A short history of Pulp and the Stylophone
Jarvis Cocker is no stranger to the Stylophone, of course, using it way back in 1992 on the B-side to Babies on a track called, appropriately, ‘Styloroc’.
In a 1994 interview with Record Collector magazine, he said: "’Styloroc’ was taken from demos we'd done earlier for Island. I tried to sing along with it, but it sounded like Whitesnake, so I recycled some lyrics from an old song that never got recorded, ‘Nights Of Suburbia’ and recited them over the top of this stylophone music.
You can check out the results here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOuH1gX0owU
He followed this up in 1993 with another dose of the Stylophone on a song called Stacks, the B-side to the single Razzmatazz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMHcI7hZp74
It’s worth noting that Candida Doyle, Pulp’s keyboard/synth player, uses a Stylophone 350s. And undoubtedly the most famous Pulp track to include the Stylophone was ‘Common People’.
When the band realised they had written an anthemic song, they used all 48 tracks in the studio to produce the heck out of it, adding in instruments that included the stylophone.
So our Jarvis has evolved along with the Stylophone, over 27 years, and long may the process continue!
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The Stylophone Orchestra Hits the Stage Once Again
Why use one Stylophone when you can use many? In fact, why use any other instruments at all? A revolutionary idea, I know…..
But not for Dr Leah Kardos, musician, project Leader of the Visconti Studio and Senior Lecturer in Music at Kingston University.
She’s the brains behind ‘The Stylophone Orchestra’ a unique ensemble comprised of University students, staff, and members of the general public.
To generate their layers of sound, they use the full range of stylophone instruments including the S1, Gen X-1, S2 and 350s, (augmented with some Korg Volca syths, a Suzuki Omnichord, vocal synthesiser and Moog Theremin.
If you’re reading this blog post hot off the virtual press, then you might have time to catch them live this Saturday (6th July) at Kingston's historic Marketplace. They’re playing a rare show as part of the International Youth Arts Festival.
It’s totally free and they’re on stage at 12:30pm.
Click this link for details, maps and directions: ‘The Stylophone Orchestra’ Live in Kingston
You can also check out, and follow, their Facebook for more details of future events: Stylophone Orchestra Facebook Page
The Kingston gig is not the first live outing for The Stylophone Orchestra’.
They formed in January played their debut show at the Stanley Picker Gallery a few months ago. Here are some of the highlights:
Why use one Stylophone when you can use many?
In fact, why use any other instruments at all?
A revolutionary idea, I know…..
But not for Dr Leah Kardos, musician, project Leader of the Visconti Studio and Senior Lecturer in Music at Kingston University.
She’s the brains behind ‘The Stylophone Orchestra’ a unique ensemble comprised of University students, staff, and members of the general public.
To generate their layers of sound, they use the full range of stylophone instruments including the S1, Gen X-1, S2 and 350s, (augmented with some Korg Volca syths, a Suzuki Omnichord, vocal synthesiser and Moog Theremin.
If you’re reading this blog post hot off the virtual press, then you might have time to catch them live this Saturday (6th July) at Kingston's historic Marketplace. They’re playing a rare show as part of the International Youth Arts Festival.
It’s totally free and they’re on stage at 12:30pm.
Click this link for details, maps and directions: ‘The Stylophone Orchestra’ Live in Kingston
You can also check out, and follow, their Facebook for more details of future events: Stylophone Orchestra Facebook Page
The Kingston gig is not the first live outing for The Stylophone Orchestra’.
They formed in January played their debut show at the Stanley Picker Gallery a few months ago. Here are some of the highlights:
What’s fascinating about Leah Kardos is that she likes to set challenging limits on her music, for instance using a solo piano, using only spam email text as lyrics or, in this case, using mainly stylophones.
Anyway, we’ll keep an eye on the Orchestra and let you know of any future videos and events.
Oh, if you’ve not yet got a GEN X-1, our portable analogue synthesizer, you can – and probably should - order one from our shop here:
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