Sam Spence - Sam Spence Sounds

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4...according to our Brett on Thu 08 Apr, 2010.

Hmm, here's an interesting one! Skimming the lengthy biography on the back of the LP Sam Spence seems to have gone from traveling around Europe studying composition to becoming involved on the periphery of the Krautrock 'scene' to working on music for advertising to finally contributing tunes to shows like The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, Sponge Bob and loads more. What we have here seems to be a compilation of his earlier analog synth works, short incidental-type pieces of quiet wonder and charm. The electronics are always the focus but he's not always flying solo, most tracks feature drum work of some kind and other instrumentation does make itself known (most obviously the wah-wah guitar of the more funk flavoured tracks and the vocal choir which contributes to one of the oddest hymns to world unity you'll ever hear). Obviously fans of the Radiophonic Workshop stuff will be interested but a modern comparison's tricky because of the highly varied nature of the tracks. I will say that at times I'm quite reminded of the excellent last Black Devil Disco Club LP and I've got to give this a similarly strong recommendation too.

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•   Born in San Francisco in 1927, Samuel Spence is a peculiar piece in the complicated krautrock puzzle. As an American ex-pat working in a community of German rock musicians in the early 70’s, Spence shared his alien status with the likes of David Johnson and Malcolm Mooney (Can), Carole Muriel (Brainticket), Maria Archer (Embryo), Bill Barone (Wallenstein) and the band Sweet Smoke.

•   While in Munich, Spence was introduced to Eckart Rahn who owned the Kuckuck label. The pair discussed the idea of recording an album of electronic music which would appeal to ambient and experimental enthusiasts who were searching for cosmic sounds after the rise of krautrock bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. After the release of two moog-fuelled singles including a cover version of Focus's 1972 hit single ‘Sylvia’, Rahn agreed to release Spence’s debut LP of synthesizer based pop music which would sit amongst his eclectic Kuckuck roster, which also included the minimal electronic pulses of Deuter, the experimental field recordings of Ernst Schultz and the avant garde releases of Peter Michael Hamel and Terry Riley.

•   Having continued to expand his successful career in symphonic music Sam would, by the end of the 1970's, return to orchestral film music seizing further opportunities to work as a composer recording over 500 cues for films made by the NFL back in his native USA. For vinyl junkies Spence’s American Football music existed on a series of library records manufactured by the NFL until it was finally commercially released in the mid 90's. Still residing in Germany, Spence continues to make theme music, and in recent years he has been heard on shows such as ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’, ‘King Of Queens’, ‘Saturday Night Live’, ‘FBI’s Most Wanted’, ‘The Tonight Show With Jay Leno’, ‘Sponge Bob Squarepants’ and several TV and radio commercials.

Moog Shot 28 * Waterworld * Moog Shot 9 * Swamp * Sunken Ship 2 * Word As One * Cosmetic 2 * Electric Texas * Moog Shot 11 * Ringo * Frog Spawn * Moog Shot 1 * The Searcher * Sylvia * Ice Glaze * Moog Shot 13 * Flying Low * Moog Shot 25 * Psycho 2 * Moog Shot 15 * Wie Ein Blitz * Moog Shot 22 * The Net * Industrial Science * Psycho 1 * Sunken Ship

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