Moog Indigo
Studio album by
Jean-Jacques Perrey
Released1970
GenreElectronic[1]
Length31:09
LabelVanguard
ProducerJean-Jacques Perrey
Jean-Jacques Perrey chronology
The Happy Moog
(1969)		 Moog Indigo
(1970)		 Moog Sensations
(1971)
Singles from Moog Indigo
  1. "Passport to the Future"
    Released: 1970
  2. "Gossipo Perpetuo"
    Released: 1972
  3. "The Rose and the Cross"
    Released: 1973
  4. "Soul City"
    Released: 1973

Moog Indigo is the ninth studio album by the French electronic music pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey, released in 1970 on the Vanguard Records label. The name album is a reference to Jazz song "Mood Indigo" by Duke Ellington.[2]

Composition and recording

In 1963 Perrey with the American guitarist Vinnie Bell did a session for Kai Winding, in which Perrey played the Ondioline and Bell played the guitar. After that Vinnie along with Perrey recorded several successful commercials and when Jean-Jacques got a contract with the Vanguard Records label. Perrey asked him to be the lead guitarist for his recording sessions as "Soul City" and "E.V.A.".[3][4] The latter is a tribute to the first man to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong.[5]

Perrey's version of "Flight of the Bumblebee" composed by Russian composer Rimsky Korsakov, uses real bee sounds.[6][7][8] Perrey stated how he made this version to the Computer Music Journal magazine:

For this composition, I took a Nagra tape recorder to an apiary in Switzerland to record the live sounds of bees buzzing about their hive. I took these bee tapes back to New York, where my studio had a variable-speed tape recorder. Using this machine, I transposed the bee buzzes to the subdivisions of the 12-tone equal-tempered scale and rerecorded them on another tape machine. Then, using manual splicing techniques, I edited the melody for one verse. Just this part took 52 hours of splicing work. People told me that I was crazy, but I told them to listen to the result! We added an accompaniment to the melody, recreating the "Flight of the Bumblebee" played by living bees.[9]

"Gossipo Perpetuo" versioned Moto Perpetuo written by the Italian violinist and composer Niccolo Paganini[10] and also used "stuttering vocal samples" and "various Moog settings soaring up and down the scale while congas and shuffling drums hit a samba beat."[4] "The Elephant Never Forgets" is a Perrey's adaptation of "Turkish March" composed by German composer Ludwig van Beethoven.[11][12] His middle part was arranged by American composer Harry Breuer.[5] "18Th Century Puppet" shows clear nods to the baroque composition,[1] and "Hello, Dolly!" by Jerry Herman was versioned.[13]

Release

Moog Indigo was released on Vanguard Records label in 1970, being Perrey's fourth and final studio album to be released on that label.[14][15] The album was followed by the single "Passport to the Future", which reached No. 20 on the Adult Contemporary (known at the time as Easy Listening) and No. 106 on the Billboard Hot 100.[16][17] The song also reached #94 in the Cashbox Singles chart.[18] In 1997 when Fatboy Slim remixed the track "E.V.A.",[19] it was released as single on 15 February, peaked at #79 in British charts[20] and also had a music video.[21] In 2017, Moog Indigo was reissued in a 180 gram 12-inch-Vinyl format by Vanguard label.[22][23]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[24]
Exclaim!9/10 [1]
Paste[4]

Retrospective reviews of the album have been generally favorable. Alan Ranta from Exclaim! magazine declared that "are countless creative opportunities to be found in this half-hour trip that have yet to be fully explored, and for the rest of us, it's an opportunity to experience a landmark album of electronic pop that stands the test of time."[1] Robert Ham of Paste magazine stated that "what keeps these records in circulation is the humor that artists like Perrey brought into the mix and how the sounds and spirit found within the grooves call to mind an era when the skies suddenly felt limitless."[4]

The Musoscribe website commented that Perrey's work should not be taken in the same context as other pioneers of electronic music such as Jean-Michel Jarre or Hans-Joachim Roedelius since: "His work wasn't as edgy and experimental as that of those other guys." He also felt that it "is a collection of incredibly catchy tunes, delivered in the funnest way imaginable."[25] A retrospective review by AllMusic reviewer Donald A. Guarisco describing the album as "a solid choice for fans of the room with a sense of humor".[24] Moog Indigo was ranked as the 66th best album of 1970 by uDiscover Music.[26] The Album of the Year website gave it an average score of 75 based on AllMusic and Exclaim! reviews.[27]

Legacy

"E.V.A." was sampled numerous times by hip-hop and rap artists.[28] Notable examples include "Just To Get A Rep" by Gang Starr (1990),[29][30][31][32] "Lower da Boom" by Artifacts (1994),[33] "Gameplan" by Lord Finesse (1995),[34] "3000" by Dr.Octagon (1996),[35] "Same Ol'Thing" by A Tribe Called Quest (1997),[36] "Lunch Money" by Pusha T (2014),[37][38][39][40] and "Every Little Thing I Do" by Jamila Woods and Taylor Bennett (2017).[41]

In 2004, "E.V.A." featured in a Zelnorm commercial[42] and in an 2016 Apple advertising campaign "Shot on iPhone".[35] For years, his music was used in different entertainment media; "E.V.A." appeared in the 2018 film, Ocean's 8.[43] Mexican comedian Roberto Gomez Bolaños (most known professionally as Chespirito) used some Moog Indigo pieces for his television series: "Country Rock Polka" was used in his namesake series,[44][45] and "The Elephant Never Forgets" was used as the theme song for the series El Chavo del Ocho.[46][47] The latter also was the main theme of the Canadian TV program The Buck Shot Show.[48]

Track listing

Side A

All tracks are written by Jean-Jacques Perrey, except where noted

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Soul City"
2:05
2."E.V.A."
3:11
3."The Rose and the Cross"Gilbert Sigrist2:39
4."Cat in the Night"
  • Prilly
  • Badale
  • Gary Carol
3:34
5."Flight of the Bumblebee"Rimsky-Korsakov, arr. by
  • Perrey
  • Breuer
  • Carol
2:11
6."Moog Indigo"
  • Perrey
  • Badale
2:57

Side B

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Gossipo Perpetuo"Paganini, arr. by
  • Perrey
  • Breuer
  • Carol
2:09
2."Country Rock Polka"
  • Breuer
  • Prilly
2:31
3."The Elephant Never Forgets"Beethoven, arr. by
  • Perrey
  • Breuer
  • Carol
2:29
4."18Th Century Puppet"Mozart, arr. by
  • Prilly
  • Breuer
2:41
5."Hello, Dolly!"Jerry Herman, arr. by
  • Perrey
2:00
6."Passport to the Future"Paul Mauriat and André Pascal, arr. by
  • Perrey
  • Badale
2:42
Total length:31:09

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Ranta, Alan (19 April 2017). "Jean-Jacques Perrey - Moog Indigo". Exclaim!. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  2. ↑ "En notas musicales - Robert Arthur Moog". Ruiz-Healy Times. 23 May 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  3. ↑ "Welcome to Vinnie Bell .com!". Dana Countryman. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Ham, Robert (17 April 2017). "Jean-Jacques Perrey: Moog Indigo Reissue Review". Paste. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Jean Jacques Perrey's Top 20". Dana Countryman. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  6. ↑ "The Fairy Tale Life of French Composer Jean-Jacques Perrey". Red Bull Music Academy Daily. 14 November 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  7. ↑ "Obituary: Jean Jacques Perrey". Listen To The World. 11 November 2016. Archived from the original on 30 September 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  8. ↑ The NEH Preservation Project, Annotations (18 May 2017). "Electronic Composer Jean-Jacques Perrey Hears the Future". WNYC. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  9. ↑ Fourier, Laurent, "Jean-Jacques Perrey and the Ondioline", Computer Music Journal, Vol. 18, No. 4, Winter 1994, MIT Press
  10. ↑ Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series. Library of Congress Copyright Office. 1971. p. 247. Retrieved 23 December 2021.
  11. ↑ "Descubre de dónde salió la famosa canción del Chavo del Ocho" (in Spanish). América Televisión. 2 December 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  12. ↑ "Conoce el secreto detrás de la canción de "El Chavo del Ocho"". Soy502 (in Spanish). 5 December 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  13. ↑ "Comme dans une comédie musicale". France Musique (in French). 2 November 2016. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  14. ↑ Taylor, Timothy Dean (2001). Strange Sounds: Music, Technology and Culture. Psychology Press. p. 228. ISBN 9780415936842. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  15. ↑ "Jean Jacques Perrey's Autobiography, Part Two". Dana Countryman. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  16. ↑ "Top 40 Easy Listening". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 30 May 1970. p. 54. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  17. ↑ "Passport to the Future (song by Jean-Jacques Perrey)". Music VF, US & UK hits charts. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  18. ↑ "Top 100 songs from Saturday June 20, 1970". www.ultimate70s.com. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  19. ↑ Lamm, Olivier (6 November 2016). "Jean-Jacques Perrey, Robin des bois du son électronique". Libération (in French). Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  20. ↑ "Jean Jacques Perrey". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  21. ↑ "Jean-Jacques Perrey's E.V.A." Synthtopia. 28 January 2009. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  22. ↑ "Vanguard Reissuing Jean-Jacques Perrey's 'Moog Indigo'". Synthtopia. 24 February 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  23. ↑ "On The Record: Jean Jacques Perrey's Moog Indigo Review". antimusic.com. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  24. 1 2 Moog Indigo at AllMusic
  25. ↑ "Album Review: Jean Jacques Perrey - Moog Indigo". Musoscribe: Bill Kopp's Music Magazine. 26 June 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  26. ↑ Armstrong, Sam (10 March 2022). "Best Albums of 1970: 71 Records You Need To Hear". uDiscover Music. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  27. ↑ "Jean-Jacques Perrey - Moog Indigo". Album of The Year. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  28. ↑ "Musical spelunking #2: The Moog Modular". Compulsion Games. Archived from the original on 9 September 2021. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  29. ↑ "Electronic music pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey has passed away". NME. 6 November 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  30. ↑ Ketchum III, William (5 November 2016). "Jean-Jacques Perrey, Electronic Music Pioneer, Dies At Age 87". Okayplayer. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  31. ↑ "The 25 Best DJ Premier Beats". Complex. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  32. ↑ Lynch, Sean (7 February 2014). "The Best Visual Artist-Directed Music Videos of All Time". Complex. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  33. ↑ "Les samples de Artifacts". Du-bruit.com. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  34. ↑ "Lord Finesse". Oldschool Flava. 3 March 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  35. 1 2 Robbins, Caryn (23 February 2017). "Classic Jean-Jacques Perrey Title 'Moog Indigo' to be Reissued on Vinyl". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 7 January 2022.
  36. ↑ "Samples of E.V.A. by Jean-Jacques Perrey". Second Hand Songs. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  37. ↑ Reed, Ryan (19 November 2014). "Hear Pusha T's Trippy, Kanye West-Produced New Track". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  38. ↑ "Ten oddball samples found in classic hip-hop tracks". Mixdown Magazine. 9 March 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  39. ↑ "Who Flipped it Better? Gang Starr vs Pusha T". The Boombox. 21 November 2014. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  40. ↑ "Listen to Pusha T's "Lunch Money" (Prod. by Kanye West)". twistedsoulmusic.org. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  41. ↑ "Chance the Rapper Previews New Soul for Real-Sampled Song". Rap-Up. 23 August 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  42. ↑ "Jean-Jacques Perrey's Web Page of Fun". Dana Countryman. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  43. ↑ Spellberg, Claire (13 June 2018). "The 'Ocean's 8' Soundtrack Is Officially The Badass Playlist You Need This Summer". Elite Daily. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
  44. ↑ "El Chavo del Ocho: Curiosidades". Europapress (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  45. ↑ "Murió Jean-Jacques Perrey, el precursor de la música electrónica". El Universo (in Spanish). 7 November 2016. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  46. ↑ "Insólito: el secreto detrás de la canción de El Chavo del Ocho". MDZ (in Spanish). 11 September 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  47. ↑ "Cómo tocar El Chavo del 8 en guitarra, acordes y letra". Guitarraviva (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  48. ↑ storeemployee, record (16 July 2016). "Vintage Vinyl: The Buckshot Show's First Album – 1983". Turn It Up! Records & Hi-Fi. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
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