Track Listing

1. Radio Sheffield - David Cain
2. Radio Nottingham - John Baker
3. Boys And Girls - John Baker
4. Mattachin - Delia Derbyshire
5. Pot Au Feu - Delia Derbyshire
6. Time And Tune - John Baker
7. Tomorrow's World - John Baker
8. Reading Your Letters - John Baker
9. Blue Veils And Golden Sands - Delia Derbyshire
10. The Missing Jewel - John Baker
11. Artbeat - David Cain
12. Fresh Start - John Baker
13. Christmas Commercial - John Baker
14. Sea Sports - John Baker
15. The Delian Mode - Delia Derbyshire
16. Happy Birthday - Delia Derbyshire
17. The Frogs Wooing - John Baker
18. Milky Way - John Baker
19. Structures - John Baker
20. New Worlds - John Baker
21. Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO - Delia Derbyshire
22. Festival Time - John Baker
23. The Chase - John Baker
24. Towards Tomorrow - Delia Derbyshire
25. Quiz Time - John Baker
26. P.I.G.S. - John Baker
27. Autumn And Winter - David Cain
28. Door To Door - Delia Derbyshire
29. Factors - John Baker
30. War Of The Worlds - David Cain
31. Crossbeat - David Cain
32. Air - Delia Derbyshire
33. Time To Go - Delia Derbyshire

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #139533 in Music
• Released on: 2002-10-07
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

BBC Radiophonics At It's Best
It makes a change to listen to something from the BBC Radiophonic workshop other than Doctor Who. This Cd is a brilliant showcase of what the radiophonic workshop was up to back in the 60's/early 70's and to know most of the music was made from everday objects it's Fantastic and its a great tribute to the people who actually made the tunes.

'Musique Concrete' as fresh as the day it was plucked
It is with mixed feelings and some surprise that I see this has finally come out on CD. Please keep this one a secret. It's far too delicate to survive being culturally hegemonized with some tedious driving dance beat. I have had the vinyl LP for years and have always jealously thanked the higher powers that charlatans with no sense of history did not use it to lend proxy 'quality' to modern electronic pop. I guess it's only a matter of time before this disc gets plundered for hooks - alas. This is 'collage music' from a time where you had to do it with razor blades. Analogue sampling from the 1960s and 1970s, manipulated tape, tone generators and all that. What's striking is how much SPACE there is in these sounds, a quality which comes from the short duration of most of the tracks (it's experimental library music financed by BBC license payers), and the complete absence of drum tracks. With some of these samples, twanging rulers, clinking milk bottles and the like, who needs 'real' percussion anyway? Musically, we hear childish rhymes, martian heat rays, backwards medieval chants ("his wish, faith to the master"), riffs, loops, clicks and beeps of all kinds. Some of the samples are recognisable from the 1969 White Noise album that Delia Derbyshire also worked on. If you dig that album, get this too. A splendid aural complement to the vogue for TV idents, test cards and 'Schools and Colleges' graphics. The John Craven's Newsround 'and finally' tag also makes an appearance. A must buy for all eclectic electronauts and sonic gourmets everywhere.

An historic reissue, not before time...
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop (RW) is perhaps best known for "realising" the Doctor Who theme music but various other LPs have shown the RW's range and talents. This was the first LP issued by the RW and showcased three composers and their different ways of working. Standout items are John Baker's gleefully ironic "Christmas Commercial" and Delia Derbyshire's ambient wonders "The Delian Mode" and "Blue Veils and Golden Sands", eerie pieces of tape manipulation and atmospherics that, in Delia's words "just melt you".

This is a bizarre gem of an album full of short, weird, quirky little pieces (most under 1:30) created with immaculate wit and skill.

I can't, in all honesty, give this five stars as only hardcore RW geeks or Delia Derbyshire fans (in which both categories I place myself) will love it but it's still an interesting listen.