Updated: September 16, 2024 – added more info about this recording and uploaded compressed mp3s of the tracks.
Yes – this is another discovery I did while reading the ‘Switched-on‘ book with Bob Moog’s biography. In the section where the efforts of Wendy Carlos are discussed, and the enormous boost this gave to the popularity of the Moog synthesizer. Because of the succes of Switched-on-Bach an enormous list of vinyl discs showing off the Moog capabilities. But none of these recordings could tip the brilliance of Switched-on-Bach – most of the recordings were simple moog tune recordings, filled with guitar, drums etcetera.
One of those recordings I wasn’t really aware of, is by Isao Tomita – called ‘Switched on Rock’. Covering famous tunes by the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and more of the like. There is quite some information about this recording, but you will probably not find it under the name of Tomita, but ‘Electric Samurai‘.
I even found a source for downloading the MP3’s, because you won’t find the record in shops. Below this page I have included the tracks for you. But be warned: it ís Isao Tomita for sure: you can identify the spacey sweeps and voices, but you won’t find the subtlty of his recordings such as his later recordings such as Kosmos, Firebird and others.
Lost Turntable
I found this review, made by Jose of lostturntable (which is a very interesting website to visit and read about rare records).
Isao Tomita is one of the big three of early synthesizer music, right behind Wendy Carlos and Jean-Michel Jarre. His 1974 release, Snowflakes Are Dancing, which reworks compositions by Claude Debussy, was revolutionary when it came out. It charted on the American Billboard charts and even netted Tomita a few Grammy nominations.
But it wasn’t his first album. This was. Released in 1972, Switched On Rock is another in a seemingly endless line of synthesizer covers albums that flooded record stores after the runaway success of Wendy Carlos’ Switched-On Bach.
Like most Switched-On Bach copies, Switched-On Rock lacks the complexity and craft of Carlos’ original work. Carlos went through the hassle of recording layers upon layers of synthesizer melodies to build incredibly complex and detailed recreations of Bach’s original compositions. Synthesizers of the time were not polyphonic, so if you wanted a rich, full sound that meant lots of overdubbing.
Tomita didn’t go that route. He instead kept things simple. There’s some polyphonic work going on here, but not nearly at the level that’s found on Carlos’ record. Also, it’s not an entirely electronic album, with acoustic drums showing up on most tracks. Tomita also played it safe with track selection. As the title suggests, Tomita covers rock tunes here, not classical works. Rock songs, especially the rock songs he chose, are a hell of a lot easier to re-arrange for synthesizer than Bach or DeBussey, that’s for sure. They’re all little more than a basic melody and a backbeat. Lots of Beatles covers, Simon & Garfunkel, Elvis and other oldies.
That’s not to say that the album is boring or bland. Far from it. What Tomita lacks for in complexity here, he more than makes up for with weirdness. I’m not good with technical terms, so I don’t know what effects Tomita was applying here, I just know that it sounds weird. His synthesizers sound drunk, with the sounds often having a strange wobbling or bouncing effect added to them. And everything is put through an echo, giving it all a etheral dreamlike quality.
The album had a limited release. It came out in Japan first, and then was later released in the UK. There, Tomita was billed as “Electric Samurai” because Orientalism sells. It never got a release in the states and from what I can find online, there’s never been an official release on CD either, making it one of the rarest releases in the Tomita catalog.
Farewell to Electric Samurai
This post was written by Marius-Christian Burcea on the Journeys to the infinity website, in remembrance of the passing of Isao Tomita in 2016.
“Isao Tomita ceased his terrestrial existence on 5 May following a chronic heart failure. He was 84 years old. A private funeral was attended by close family members only. His last wish was to complete the musical Dr. Coppelius. It was scheduled to be performed in Shibuya’s Bunkamura Theater on November 11 and 12, featuring a 3D hologram of Hatsune Miku (a virtual character singing synthesizing technologies modeled from Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita). Tomita anticipated his death when he declared that Dr. Coppelius could be finished after his death:
“My priority right now is staying healthy, but I’d like to finish ‘Dr. Coppelius’ as much as possible so that, even if something happens to me, others could finish it”, Tomita told The Japan Times last December.
Dr. Coppelius is the epilogue of a musical odyssey carried out in over 4 decades of innovation.
‘Electric Samurai’ is the name under which Isao Tomita produced his first recordings with the modular synthesizer Moog III. Tomita is responsible for importing the first Moog to Japan (1971), an instrument so bizarre at the time that postal workers in Tokyo refused to deliver the expansive package to the young artist. It was necessary for Robert Moog himself send a picture to Tokyo Central Postal Office to demonstrate that the giant metal device was indeed a musical instrument. Only after Moog’s intervention, Tomita was able to take home the precious synthesizer.
One of his ambitions was to challenge Wendy Carlos’ success from 1968 Switched on Bach, the first classical music album played on synthesizer (Platinum disc, three Grammy awards). To learn to play on Moog III Isao Tomita had to change his perception of what an instrument means and to invent a personal musical language. Unlike the American precedent, Tomita focused not on J.S. Bach’s work, but on Claude Debussy’s creation and launched in 1974 Snowflakes are Dancing (re-recorded in the quadraphonic format in 2012 under the name Clair de Lune). The album became a landmark in the programming of analog synthesizers and a triumph of electronic polyphony. Switched on Bach is monophonic (the Moog did not allow you to play two notes at once) Tomita managed to create polyphony by recording each section of Snowflakes are Dancing one by one for 14 months. Thanks to this album, Isao Tomita became the first Japanese artist nominated for Grammy….”
The Tracks ….
It’s quite difficult to find back the recordings on this album, leave alone finding the record itself (although sometimes it shows up on eBay). I was able to download the (compressed mp3) tracks of the album. Here they are…