the brilliance of bruce.

i’ve had the vinyl of these two albums for some time. because our record player and records are packed away in our storage unit, i finally had a good excuse to get cd copies.

bruce haack is one of electronic musics biggest heroes. he started producing music in the mid sixties using machines that he built, largely influenced by raymond scott and robert moog. some of his machines played music using the body as the interface. his first albums were all childrens records, usually meant to get children up and moving around. the electic lucifer albums are his only albums meant for adults. he did record a reportedly darker album called haackula, for some reason though it was never released.

the electric lucifer was released in 1970 and is the more psychedelic of the two albums. allmusic describes it as an “anti-war song cycle about the battle between heaven and hell”. the base of the album is the moog, with hand built machines adding textures and rhythms. the vocals, which are either bruce himself or his friend chris kachulis, are done through the vocorder for the most part. most of the songs are vaugely about hope, peace and the combining of technology and life. the music is by far the star.

electric to me turn
songs of the death machine

electric lucifer book 2 was recorded in 1979 but not released till 2001, three years after bruce’s death. it is said to be about the devil trying to temp jesus into telling him all his secrets. book 2 is much more lyrical driven with simple kraftwerkian production and a touch of disco. this gives the album a smaller more personal feel.

the ancient mariner
gastronomic plantyfication

this is from the documentary haack: king of techno, which i can’t recommend enough.