Robot Invasion: VOCODERS on The Sound Of Plaid

Attention: open in a new window. PDFPrintE-mail

General ECC News

Show archive now available:

Part 1: [DOWNLOAD] ...or listen: 

Part 2: [DOWNLOAD] ...or listen:

How To Wreck A Nice Beach book coverHide, evolver!  It's a ROBOT INVASION!

 

Well, at least it sounds an awful lot like a robot -- it's the vocoder, and its our topic for this week's episode of The Sound Of Plaid.  For those that slept through the breakdancing craze in the 80's or Clockwork Orange in the 70's, the vocoder is that studio gadget that takes a human voice like yours and transforms it into a transformer ("more than meets the eye...").  But the vocoder's history is more than beats -- it was a top-secret military project that heads of state used to speak securely throughout World War II.

This bizarre and unlikely army-to-electro history isdetailed in the book How To Wreck A Nice Beach by Dave Tompkins.  It's a great read, loaded with great tales of how this music studio magic trick started its career by saving (or maybe destroying) the world, serving as a private telephone line between presidents and prime ministers.  It's also loaded with a great playlist of vocoder-laced music, be it the Clockwork Orange soundtrack, Kraftwerk, the majority of electro, Daft Punk, and beyond.

Join TradeMark and Frilly for the secret history of the vocoder on this week's episode of The Sound Of Plaid, live from the Centrum Sztuki Wspólczesnej (aka the Center for Contemporary Art) in Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, Poland.  Many chances to hear the show, and if you can't make the times below, you can hear it at The Sound Of Plaid Archives later in the week.

 

 

LIVE Thursdays on DFM RTV INT (DFM Radio International):

8p-10p PST
11p-1a EST
0400-0600 CET

 
  ...and DFM's Tuesday repeat: 9a-11a PST
noon-3p EST
1700-1900 CET
 
  Sundays on KAOS Radio Austin:
11a-1p PST
  1p-3p CST
1900-2100 GMT
 
  Thursdays on Shouting Fire:

6p-8p PST
9p-11p EST
0200-0400 GMT