Bruce Haack - The Electric Lucifer (1970){2007 Remaster}
CD Liner Notes :
Originally recorded in 1968 and 1969 (and released in 1970) it is an album both unique in conception and superb in realization. An eminently listenable work where Pop-psychedelia and Moog/musique-concrete sounds coalesce around Haack's central metaphysical concept of "Powerlove", a force so powerful that it could end war and unify humankind. Acclaimed upon its original release (one of Rolling Stone's favourite albums of 1970 amongst many citations) yet unavailable for over three decades, "The Electric Lucifer" is presented here for the first time on CD! Remastered and restored from the original master tapes recently discovered in the Columbia vault (and featuring two previously unreleased bonus tracks), with hitherto unpublished photos from the original recording sessions and exclusive liner notes and recollections.
"The Electric Lucifer" is your gateway to the profound yet playful universe of Bruce Haack, a "far-out" place where flower-power and inner-space electronics collide!"
All Music Guide :
After hearing late-'60s rock & roll from his friend Chris Kachulis, Bruce Haack added acid rock to his already diverse sonic palette. The result was 1970s Electric Lucifer, a psychedelic, anti-war song cycle about the battle between heaven and hell. The underlying concept of this concept album is "Powerlove," a divine force that not only unites humanity but forgives Lucifer his transgressions as well. But though this album extols the healing powers of peace and love, Electric Lucifer uses often menacing music and lyrics to get its point across. "War" depicts the battle royale between good and evil with a martial beat and salvos from dueling synthesizers; a child's voice murmurs "I don't want to play anymore, " and a funereal synth melody replaces the electronic battle march. Haack's marriage of rock rhythms and his unique electronics creates a sound unlike either his previous work or the era's psychedelic rock, but songs like "Incantation" and "Word Game," with their percolating beats, buzzing synths and vocoders, are much trippier than most acid rock. The strangely forlorn "Song of the Death Machine" sounds a bit like a short-circuiting HAL singing "My Darling Clementine," while "Word Game" features cool, dark electro-rock and brain-teasing lyrics like "Ray of sun/Reason/Knowledge/No legends." Kachulis sings on both of these tracks, and his deadpan vocals complement the weirdness going on around him nicely. His involvement with Electric Lucifer also includes aiding the album's release on Columbia Records; though it was Haack's only major-label release, Electric Lucifer remains musically innovative and subversive. [The 2007 Omni Recording Corp reissue includes bonus tracks.] - Heather Phares
Almost Cool :
rating: 8.5
Working in relative obscurity for much of his career, Bruce Haack crafted a slew of albums between 1963 and the mid 1980s. As with many artists doing something a little bit ahead of their time, his work was largely unrecognized at the time he was creating it (despite being released on Columbia Records), and he died after a somewhat turbulent life. With a small, but growing batch of admirers, he was reworked by modern artists a couple years back on the Dimension Mix compilation, and fortunately a good portion of his work has now been reissued into the market. Originally released in 1970, The Electric Lucifer is considered by some to be one of the very first electronic pop albums. Working with an army of Moogs and other vintage synthesizers, Bruce Haack made himself know as a composer of "kids" music, but the weird (and sometimes dark) themes that propel this release forward found him pushing into different territory.
As one can gather from the title, The Electric Lucifer deals with a litany of religious themes, touching on temptation, the fall of the devil, and ultimately salvation. Many of these ideas and reflections are then run through a sort of technological spin, with the Moog-based music and odd vocals only furthering the vibe. "Electric To Me Turn" kicks things off, and is honestly one of the most catchy songs I've heard this year, regardless of era. As a load of swarming melodies pump and squiggle away, vocodored vocals veer back and forth between sung melodies and a sort of robotic doo wop.
One of the beautiful things about the release is that although it's very pop and rock oriented, it's never completely smooth sailing. There's a remarkable amount of noise and distortion on the release, and it literally sounds decades ahead of its time. "Cherubic Hymn" is more epic, with heavily layered vocals and instrumentation that makes it sound like some sort of bizarro rock opera song, as choruses give way to short spoken word sections and buzzy synth layers keep things constantly moving. Elsewhere, "War" seems to pack both sides of conflict into just under four minutes as a marching, buoyant (almost overly so) first half gives way to a sour, haunting latter section.
Like "War," "Song Of The Death Machine" takes darker lyrics and sets them to a slightly more playful music backdrop (with almost lullabye vocals in places), but as always there's something just not quite right about it all. In addition to the thirteen-track original release, a long interview with Haack is included on the reissue, as well as an alternate version of "Electric To Me Turn" (with sung vocals instead of vocodored ones). It's certainly not going to appeal to everyone, but those who enjoy strange pop music will wonder how they went so long without hearing it (I certainly did). It's a bit harsh at times, and does some completely unexpected things, but that's part of the joy of the release.
CanuckistanMusic :
Isolation is often a recipe for madness. However, in the case of electronics pioneer Bruce Haack, a solitary childhood tucked away in the shadow of the Alberta Rockies merely stoked his knack for invention. As a teenager in the village of Rocky Mountain House, Haack tutored locals on the piano and organized sundry country and western bands for their listening pleasure. When bigger skies beckoned, Haack set his sights on the University of Alberta, settling on psychology after being rejected by the Faculty of Music for his poor notating skills. In 1954, a tape sent off to the Juilliard School secured him a scholarship at the prestigious institution, landing the still wide-eyed Haack in the Big Apple "with a chicken sandwich and sixty dollars"
Haack spent much of the sixties assembling various electronic devices, as well as appearing on talk shows playing the novel eccentric genius to a no-doubt befuddled Middle America. On Johnny Carson and then Mike Douglas in 1965, for instance, Haack showcased his latest contraption, the Dermatron, a synthesizer played by leading an electrical current through physical contact with another person. Musically, much of Haack's output at the time focussed on the didactic with a string of electronic children's records on the Dimension 5 label. But with simmering anti-Vietnam sentiment threatening to boil over in 1970, the already 39-year-old Haack threw himself in with the peace movement, skirting the metaphysical and the physical with Electric Lucifer, a rock concept LP centred on a utopian energy or "power love" that would seemingly unite the world in the face of war.
Electric Lucifer was released to critical acclaim (Rolling Stone ranked it among its favourites of the year), though it was subsequently lost amidst the rustic post-sixties Americana of the time, losing out in the peacenik/anti-war sweepstakes to the likes of Jefferson Airplane ( 'We Could Be Together' ) and CSNY ( 'Ohio' ). And while that sort of flower-in-the-rifle-barrel idealism now seems rather quaint - especially with this seemingly insatiable U.S. war machine - the proto-electronics on Electric Lucifer sound almost fresh in their primitivism. The opening track, 'Electric to Me Turn', unveiled Haack's latest assemblage, the Adam I, essentially a rudimentary vocoder built for forty-eight bucks with parts picked up on Canal Street in lower Manhattan. The pulsating synthesizers must have created quite a stir with the pot-addled Woodstock generation. The remainder of the disc is as eclectic as the man himself - 'Supernova' soundchecks Terry Riley, while 'War' is pure Wendy Carlos. 'Chant of the Unknown' offers up quirky electronics that predate the Residents. And the coolest track, the menacing 'Program Me', where thundering kettledrums shore up a robotic voice bleating, "my heart beats electrically", could be straight out of the Gary Numan songbook.
Haack followed up Electric Lucifer with the underwhelming sequel Electric Lucifer Book 2 (recorded in 1978 though not seeing the light of day until its 2001 CD release). But after his untimely demise at the age of 57 in 1988, Haack's oeuvre slid further into oblivion, only to be later rescued somewhat with a string of reissues by the crate-digging Japanese (bless them) and the 2004 documentary Haack: the King of Techno by filmmaker Philip Anagnos. - Michael Panontin
All Music Guide :
Biography
Bruce Haack, born on May 4, 1931, was one of the most musically and lyrically inventive children's songwriters of the '60s and '70s. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- his intended audience, his music was unusually expressive, combining homemade analog synths; classical, country, pop, and rock elements; and surreal, idealistic lyrics. Haack's innovations and desire to teach still sound fresh, making his music a favorite with fans of analog synths and esoteric recordings. Followers like Luke Vibert and Add N to X championed his unique musical vision, which embraced concepts like "powerlove" and turned household appliances into synthesizers and modulators.
This musical vision appeared at age four, when Haack started picking out melodies on his family's piano; by age 12, he gave piano lessons and played in country & western bands as a teen. His upbringing in the isolated mining town of Rocky Mountain House in Alberta, Canada, gave Haack plenty of time to develop his musical gifts.
Seeking formal training to hone his ability, Haack applied to the University of Alberta's music program. Though that school rejected him because of his poor notation skills, at Edmonton University he wrote and recorded music for campus theater productions, hosted a radio show, and played in a band. He received a degree in psychology from the university; this influence was felt later in songs that dealt with body language and the computer-like ways children absorb information.
On the merits of one of his theatrical scores, New York City's Juilliard School offered Haack the opportunity to study with composer Vincent Persichetti; thanks to a scholarship from the Canadian government, he headed to New York upon graduating from Edmonton in 1954. At Juilliard, Haack met a like-minded student, Ted "Praxiteles" Pandel, with whom he developed a lifelong friendship. However, his studies proved less sympathetic, and he dropped out of Juilliard just eight months later, rejecting the school's restrictive approach.
Throughout the rest of his career, Haack rejected restrictions of any kind, often writing several different kinds of music at one time. He spent the rest of the '50s scoring dance and theater productions, as well as writing pop songs for record labels like Dot and Coral. Haack's early scores, like 1955's Les Etapes, suggested the futuristic themes and experimental techniques Haack developed in his later works. Originally commissioned for a Belgian ballet, Les Etapes mixed tape samples, electronics, soprano, and violin; the following year, he finished a musique concrete piece called "Lullaby for a Cat."
As the '60s began, the public's interest in electronic music and synthesizers increased, and so did Haack's notoriety. Along with songwriting and scoring, Haack appeared on TV shows like I've Got a Secret and The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, usually with Pandel in tow. The duo often played the Dermatron, a touch- and heat-sensitive synthesizer, on the foreheads of guests; 1966's appearance on I've Got a Secret featured them playing 12 "chromatically pitched" young women.
Meanwhile, Haack wrote serious compositions as well, such as 1962's "Mass for Solo Piano," which Pandel performed at Carnegie Hall, and a song for Rocky Mountain House's 50th anniversary. One of his most futuristic pieces, 1963's "Garden of Delights," mixed Gregorian chants and electronic music and was one of Haack's favorites. Unfortunately, this work was never broadcast or released in its complete form.
Haack found another outlet for his creativity as an accompanist for children's dance teacher Esther Nelson. Perhaps inspired by his own lonely childhood, he and Nelson collaborated on educational, open-minded children's music. With Pandel, they started their own record label, Dimension 5, on which they released 1962's Dance, Sing, & Listen. Two other records followed in the series, 1963's Dance, Sing, & Listen Again and 1965's Dance, Sing, & Listen Again & Again. Though the series included activity and story songs similar to other children's records at the time, the music moves freely between country, medieval, classical, and pop, and mixes instruments like piano, synthesizers, and banjo. The lyrics deal with music history or provide instructions like, "When the music stops, be the sound you hear," resulting in an often surreal collage of sounds and ideas.
The otherworldly quality of Haack's music was emphasized by the instruments and recording techniques he developed with the Dance, Sing, & Listen series. Though he had little formal training in electronics, he made synthesizers and modulators out of any gadgets and surplus parts he could find, including guitar effects pedals and battery-operated transistor radios. Eschewing diagrams and plans, Haack improvised, creating instruments capable of 12-voice polyphony and random composition. Using these modular synthesizer systems, he then recorded with two two-track reel-to-reel decks, adding a moody tape echo to his already distinctive pieces.
As the '60s progressed and the musical climate became more receptive to his kind of whimsical innovation, Haack's friend, collaborator, and business manager Chris Kachulis found mainstream applications for his musical wizardry. This included scoring commercials for clients like Parker Brothers Games, Goodyear Tires, Kraft Cheese, and Lincoln Life Insurance; in the process, Haack won two awards for his work. He also continued to promote electronic music on television, demonstrating how synthesizers work on The Mr. Rogers Show in 1968, and released The Way-Out Record for Children later that year.
Haack's records were about to get even more way-out, however: Kachulis did another important favor for his friend by introducing Haack to psychedelic rock. Acid rock's expansive nature was a perfect match for Haack's style, and in 1969 he released his first rock-influenced work, The Electric Lucifer. A concept album about the earth being caught in the middle of a war between heaven and hell, The Electric Lucifer featured a heavy, driving sound complete with Moogs, Kachulis' singing, and Haack's homegrown electronics and unique lyrics, which deal with "powerlove" -- a force so strong and good that it will not only save mankind but Lucifer himself. Kachulis helped out once more by bringing Haack and Lucifer to the attention of Columbia Records, who released it as Haack's major-label debut.
As the '70s started, Haack's musical horizons continued to expand. After the release of The Electric Lucifer, he struck up a friendship with fellow composer and electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott. They experimented with two of Scott's instruments, the Clavivox and Electronium. Unfortunately, nothing remains of the collaboration, and though Scott gave Haack a Clavivox, he didn't record with it on his own. However, he did continue on Lucifer's rock-influenced musical with 1971's Together, an electronic pop album that marked his return to Dimension 5. Perhaps in an attempt to differentiate this work from his children's music, he released it under the name Jackpine Savage, the only time he used this pseudonym.
Haack continued making children's albums as well, including 1972's Dance to the Music, 1973's Captain Entropy, and 1974's This Old Man, which featured science fiction versions of nursery rhymes and traditional songs. After relocating to Westchester, PA, to spend more time with Pandel, Haack focused on children's music almost exclusively, writing music for Scholastic Magazine Records like "The Witches' Vacation" and "Clifford the Small Red Puppy." He also released Funky Doodle and Ebenezer Electric (an electronic version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol) in 1976, but by the late '70s, his prolific output slowed; two works, 1978's Haackula and the following year's Electric Lucifer Book II, were never released.
However, Haackula seems to have inspired Haack's final landmark work, 1981's Bite. The albums share several song titles and a dark lyrical tone different from Haack's usually idealistic style. Though Bite is harsher than his other works, it features his innovative, educational touch: a thorough primer on electronics and synthesizers makes up a large portion of the liner notes, and Haack adds a new collaborator for this album, 13-year-old vocalist Ed Harvey.
Haack's failing health slowed Dimension 5's musical output in the early '80s, but Miss Nelson and Pandel kept the label alive by publishing songbooks, like Fun to Sing and The World's Best Funny Songs, and re-released selected older albums as cassettes, which are still available today. Haack died in 1988 from heart failure, but his label and commitment to making creative children's music survives. And while Dimension 5's later musical releases -- mostly singalong albums featuring Miss Nelson -- may lack the iconoclastic spark of the early records, Nelson and Pandel's continued work reveals the depth of their friendship with Haack, a distinctive and pioneering electronic musician. - Heather Phares
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