New music from Tony Allgood, the man behind
oakleysound.com, featuring the following:
Oakley Modular both 5U and Euro
Roland Alpha Juno 2
Novation Summit
Oberheim OB-Sx (mostly preset C3 and small edits thereof)
Oakley SRE330 ensemble and ADR30 delay effects
"Takla Makan is the artist name of Tony Allgood.
During the 1980s Tony played keyboards in a variety of bands including 'Cairo' and 'Not Before Time'. In 1986 he started producing his own synthesizer instrumental music under the name 'Takla Makan'.
His musical output is very much inspired by the work of Mike Oldfield, Vangelis, Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream."
"I've got an overdrive module and I'm going to use it."
m3ld, pronounced 'meld', features two long format tracks, one in Dm (the saddest of all keys) and the other in Cm. And, yes, I probably did over do the overdriven synth lead sound on these two pieces. I just love a sawtooth VCO going into a highly resonant filter which then feeds an output limited high gain amplifier. There's something about the simplicity of that plaintive solo sound which gives it a wonderful and emotive ambience. I've long been inspired by the work of Mike Oldfield, and although I can't play guitar to save my life, I can't help but try to mimic the feel of his solo guitar work.
The other sound that I really like, and I've used it several times before as well as on m3ld, is the airy short vocal sound from the father of sampling, the Fairlight CMI. It's a 'preset' called 'ARR1'. When I was 15 I so wanted a Fairlight. Not only because Mike Oldfield and Jean Michel Jarre had one and it could do that sound, but also because it had a cool lightpen and a screen that had lots of wavy lines on it. Sadly, although I have fixed a few CMIs as part of my old day job, for my own compositions I have had to use samples of the real thing.
When I was younger I would spend hours writing album cover notes. And, at the end of these notes, would be the obligatory gear list. With pride I would write down a variety of home made gadgets (making them sound really quite mysterious) as well as my little Moog Rogue, Amdek RMK-100 and Roland RS-09. These days, I could write my gear on the back of a postage stamp; a small Oakley Modular, a Nord Lead A1, and a bunch of plug ins. However, for plug ins notable mention must go to U-He's Diva, Repro and Colour Copy, Synapse's The Legend, and Valhalla's Ubermod. Kids today don't know how lucky they are.
released July 16, 2020
Music composed and produced by Tony Allgood
https://takla-makan.bandcamp.com/album/m3ld
