Thelonious Moog

Dave M wrote in to let me know I haven't put up a post on Thelonious Moog. I did a quick search and sure enough, I haven't! Well, here it is. Title link takes you there. You will find a number of small but drool-worthy shots and the story behind the making of Thelonius Moog.

"The vintage analog synths used during this project are the key to these arrangements. Many of the stylings are a direct result or influenced by a particular synth sound or patch or rhythm. There are too many items to cover in depth, so I'll just touch on a few that were crucial to the sound of the disc.

A lot of the leads and most of the synth bass parts were done by the old standby Minimoog. A real no-brainer there. I would have to say the real "stars" were the RMI Keyboard Computer 1 (it gave its life for this recording – RIP, dear, sweet RMI, along with a Prophet Five that can actually be heard dying on Beshma Swing!), an Arp 2600, an EMS Synthi AKS, a pair of newly aquired Moog 900 series modulars, and a modular from a new analog synth company, Synthesizers.com. We also used a couple of extremely rare Buchla synths, the Music Easel, and a Series 100 modular. The goofy rhythms were supplied via an old Acetone beat box and something called a "drummer." I have to say that these pieces were the "stars," and we just played the melodies. The studio has many other traditional keyboards – piano/organs/clavinets and such – so we just threw the damn rulebook out that first night."