Bruce Haack & Ms. Nelson - The Electronic Music Record For Children

Got a couple of experimental kids' records from the 1960s by Bruce Haack, a Canadian experimental musician who wanted to introduce the youth to the wild new world of electronic music, and maybe teach them a thing or two along the way. After an initial chortle at just how druggy everything sounds, and how wonderfully dated the voiceover bits are, there's actually a lot of amazing stuff contained here. Even now it sounds completely unique and experimental, and I love that he's thrown himself into making something that will appeal to adults and children alike for its wide-eyed curiosity and uncondescending barrage of tunes, songs, poems, rock'n'roll, looped and sampled weirdness and otherworldly tones. At one point a girl is made to recite all the former US presidents in order, and we've got stories about aliens and robots and rubber bands and motorbikes accompanied by far-out early electronic music. These records have genuinely brightened up my day, and illustrate just how patronising and unimaginative the bulk of modern children's entertainment has become since the more DIY days of the sixties. The earnestness and enthusiasm with which they were created really shines through and I can see why they were deemed worthy of a repress. Even if you don't have kids and haven't been a kid for some time, like me, these records will charm and delight you.