Hi,Everyone.
What are your favorite Moog-saturated albums?
Thanks.
All of them.
But Switched On Bach has to be the top one. It’s the one that I couldn’t believe was done with a monophonic analog synth when I first heard it. (I was 3 years old when it came out, so I discovered it years later around 1975)
In second place, I would have to say Kaleidoscopic Vibrations. I remember that a local TV station used a few of the songs on that album as intros to some of their programs. One was called “La couleur du temps” (a thirty minutes weather program) that had the song “The Savers” from that album as main musical theme.
Early Synergy, Tangerine Dream (before 1984), Amin Bhatia “Interstellar Suite”, Tomita, Carlos SOB are my favorites.
SAGA
The Minotaur from MOOG: The Electric Eclectics Of Dick Hyman. Modular Moog with a cheesy rhythm box and lots of octave portamento (Keith Emerson would follow suit with Lucky Man). Loved it.
Journey to the centre of the earth…
There is some brain melting resonance on that one!
Eden.
+1
Brain Salad Surgery by ELP, hands down my favorite. Switched on Bach is a close second.
Moog Indigo by Jean-Jacques Perrey hits the top of my list. 
E.V.A. can even rock a dance floor today, and The Elephant Never Forgets has been with me since childhood; it was the title track for “El Chavo del Ocho”, a classic latin TV series, something between Sesame Street and Gilligan’s Island
I think I first heard the MiniMoog on pop records like Chicory Tip’s Son of My Father, and then on Rick Wakeman’s Six Wives. The solos on Anne Boleyn were probably what did it for me.
From then it was Yes and ELP, closely followed by Wendy Carlos’ Moog albums and Tonto’s Zero Time, and Tangerine Dream, and any synth stuff I could find. Back in the 70s I just had to hear synthesizers.
Most of those records have stood the test of time for me. The Wendy Carlos albums sound even more beautiful now I understand them, and ELP’s live version of Aquatarkus amazes me every time.
My all time favourite synth album would probably have to be Tim Blake’s Crystal Machine, though. There’s MiniMoog on there, but the real brilliance is with Tim’s double modified EMS synthi.
Why is Tim Blake’s 2nd solo CD priced at EUR184.00 on his website?!?
FYI; that’s a Moog modular on 'Son of My Father, both on Moroder’s original and Chicory tip’s version.
Very good question. 
I’ll have a look at that and email him. (Or I could sell you my copy for a bargain 150 Euros. 
)
Thanks. I was foolish enough to think it was a Mini because that’s what they used on Top of the Pops (which was always unreliable when people were miming). I didn’t know there was a Georgio Moroder original version, either. I haven’t heard it since 1971 or whenever it was and I’d never heard of him back then.
So that’s got me curious and I’ll do some searching on that. This is one of the things I love about the Internet - all the stuff I didn’t know that I didn’t know. 
I’ve always been big into Air’s Moon Safari, it’s actually the album that brought my attention to Moog in the first place when I was just starting out learning about synths. That album’s riddled with Minimoog.
You’re welcome!
They’re indeed using a Moog musonics minimoog in this playback performance from 1972:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GCqFjifGsY
I was told by one of the band members that the song was recorded with a large Moog modular consisting of at least 3-4 box units “with loads of
leads being crossed from one to another”. The synth parts were laid down track after track being re-programmed each time, making it nearly
impossible to reproduce live on stage. The song was recorded at Air studios in London, which was owned by George Martin, and it’s likely that
it was George’s Moog. Note that this was not the same instrument used by The Beatles on the “Abbey Road” album. George bought his own
custom Moog with sequencer in Sep '69.
Another hit song from the same year ('72), Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now”, was also recorded at Air studios and probably used the very same Moog.
Francis Monkman (ex Curved Air, SKY etc.) told me that he did the synth work on this song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKvmlj2k_fM
cheers,
Micke
Thanks for that. That’s all new information to me. I’ve just listened to Moroder’s original version for the first time.
Incidentally another early Moog influence for me would have been the Solar Fire album by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. I already loved synths by then, but that’s one hell of a great album and I was amazed when I first heard it. Manfred Mann tends to be overlooked as an early synth user, which isn’t right. He had his own distinctive MiniMoog style.
Incidentally one of Mann’s Minis, probably the one used on Solar Fire, was sold to Tim Blake, and now has a third owner in England. It always had tuning issues, which the current owner traced to a dodgy capacitor, and not to the oscillators. It must have had that problem for 25 years or more before being diagnosed and fixed. Mann had four Minis as far as I know. One had an extra oscillator and a small ribbon controller instead of a wheel. I’ve only seen photos, but someone I know has tried it and liked it. For whatever reason, though, his last Mini was a standard Model D, and was sold to someone in Europe.
Some great albums here, I’d like to mention Patrick Moraz’ “The Story of i”…cool blend of prog and Brazilian styles & percussion, screaming Minimoog solos and wasn’t this the first record to feature the Polymoog? And wasn’t Keith Emerson pissed off about that? I seem to recall in a Keyboard interview that he implied that he consulted heavily on it, but the first one went to PM and that this was the thing that soured his relationship with the Moog company at that time and moved him in the direction of using the Korg PS-series (obviously he still had the GX-1).
Yup, those two are awesome!
As no one has mentioned it, Pictures at an Exhibition by ELP. There’s nothing better than a Hammond tonewheel playing tag with a Moog modular.