4 votes

Delia Derbyshire - The Delian Mode | The unsung heroine of electronic music

10 comments

  1. [4]
    firstname
    (edited )
    Link
    edit: sorry about the re-posting, damn youtube has some time stamp issues and i had to use another upload in lower quality, higher quality version here Delia Derbyshire has been referred to as...

    edit: sorry about the re-posting, damn youtube has some time stamp issues and i had to use another upload in lower quality, higher quality version here

    Delia Derbyshire has been referred to as "the unsung heroine of electronic music" or "the grandmother of electronic music", and she is one of my few absolute idols, my number one within music maybe, i certainly fell in love when i found her. I get goosebumps just thinking about her and her work. She is, without a doubt, a musical genius on par with the great.

    If someone could point me in the direction of the birth of electronic music, i would be thrilled. Her work done during the early 60s is the closest i have gotten so far during my own exploration.

    If you have any interest in music, and especially electronic, i urge you to listen to her recordings available. Most known for the creation of the intro to the original Doctor Who tv show, which is spectacular. Her interpretation of Bach's Air is out of this world if you understand the work she put into it. And songs like Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO could be described as electronic dance music before there even where any, the word future-tech comes to mind when i describe it, since it would be decades until we saw people on a dance floors listening to genres like techno.

    I grew up listening to hip-hop, EDM of all kinds, trip-hop etc. And none of it would probably have been made as is, without her groundbreaking and pioneering work.

    Sadly most of her personal recordings and compositions found in her attic after hear death in 2001, has not been released, due to copyright laws. Storing it away is a tragedy. And if i don´t get to listen to what is hidden before i die, it would sorrow me deeply.

    2 votes
    1. [3]
      cfabbro
      Link Parent
      Offtopic: Oh, did the second attempt also have a timestamp on it as well? Friggin' YouTube. That auto-timestamp adding "feature" is so damn obnoxious! p.s. Just FYI though, you can manually remove...

      Offtopic: Oh, did the second attempt also have a timestamp on it as well? Friggin' YouTube. That auto-timestamp adding "feature" is so damn obnoxious!

      p.s. Just FYI though, you can manually remove the timestamp in a YouTube link you submit here. Just look for #t=XmYs or &t=### and remove that part of the link. Doing that will ensure people who visit the video will start at the beginning.

      1. [2]
        firstname
        Link Parent
        Yeah, it´s hard to tilt my mood, but fuck me! I tried doing what you just said, but in the address bar while surfing youtube, and did try and use the "share" function to. Next time i will try and...

        Yeah, it´s hard to tilt my mood, but fuck me! I tried doing what you just said, but in the address bar while surfing youtube, and did try and use the "share" function to. Next time i will try and edit the link outside of my browser instead. It`s perhaps partly my own fault missing a letter or something. The damn medications i have to take are quite sedating, and it´s hard for me to focus if i stay up longer then "planned". One of the drawbacks =/

        1 vote
        1. cfabbro
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          Although I am no longer heavily medicated, I used to be and know that sedated feeling (and the excess sleep it causes) all too well... :( So no worries. And if you do miss a timestamp in a...

          Although I am no longer heavily medicated, I used to be and know that sedated feeling (and the excess sleep it causes) all too well... :( So no worries. And if you do miss a timestamp in a submission, and only notice it later just ping Deimos and he can fix it for you. :)

  2. [6]
    firstname
    (edited )
    Link
    @cfabbro I am pinging you with this since you seem to perhaps be the only person interested in Delia since i submitted this. A couple of years ago i was not able to find the album Electric Storm...

    @cfabbro I am pinging you with this since you seem to perhaps be the only person interested in Delia since i submitted this. A couple of years ago i was not able to find the album Electric Storm In Hell by White Noise anywhere on the internet, i was just able to read about it.

    Delia was part of setting up the studio where it was created, and producing its music as well of course. But i feel like her technical knowledge, combined with her inventions was what made it possible. Surely an interesting album. Highly experimental.

    I have been listening to it today and its pretty good and super interesting, i can see how the top youtube comment is:

    I mean this was the real beginning of Eletronic Rock! They were more revolutionary than Pink Floyd, Silver Apples and United States of America, and, indeed, Kraftwerk too! Just real revolutionary Krautrock (Popol Vuh, Tangerine Dream, Cluster, Neu!, but really not Kraftwerk, In confess) can be named with it. What an underrated masterpiece, a real rock classic!

    1 vote
    1. [4]
      Amarok
      Link Parent
      Pop over to /r/vintageobscura and I'm sure you'll find a lot of people who are very interested in this. That's reddit's super-secret cratedigger club. ;) Seems like they've already found plenty of...

      Pop over to /r/vintageobscura and I'm sure you'll find a lot of people who are very interested in this. That's reddit's super-secret cratedigger club. ;) Seems like they've already found plenty of her works.

      This shit is wild. :D

      1 vote
      1. [3]
        firstname
        Link Parent
        ooh! I love these kinds of obscure hard to find subreddits, thank you! I think i flew by there years ago(a small bell rang), i must have never noticed what it was really. And they seem to have...

        ooh! I love these kinds of obscure hard to find subreddits, thank you! I think i flew by there years ago(a small bell rang), i must have never noticed what it was really. And they seem to have been able find a lot of her works indeed! This is pure gold for me, i cannot thank you enough.

        1 vote
        1. [2]
          Amarok
          Link Parent
          Make sure to check out their releases, it's a killer collection.

          Make sure to check out their releases, it's a killer collection.

          1 vote
          1. firstname
            Link Parent
            Dude, this is amazing! How am supposed to find time to explore all of this... Well, here we go, i´ll get back to you in a year and let you know what i think about the lists.

            Dude, this is amazing! How am supposed to find time to explore all of this... Well, here we go, i´ll get back to you in a year and let you know what i think about the lists.

            1 vote
    2. cfabbro
      Link Parent
      Thanks for sharing that album! It was bizarre and clearly very experimental, but really interesting to listen to and I thoroughly enjoyed it. p.s. I think @amarok might be interested in checking...

      Thanks for sharing that album! It was bizarre and clearly very experimental, but really interesting to listen to and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

      p.s. I think @amarok might be interested in checking it out too. It seems right up his alley.