One of the great stories of rock & roll is that of the three Wiggins sisters (Dot, Helen, and Betty), better known as the Shaggs. Growing up dirt poor in New Hampshire, the three girls were turned onto forming a band by their father, Austin Wiggins, who bought their instruments and payed for lessons. Despite their lack of musical expertise,... [+] Read More

One of the great stories of rock & roll is that of the three Wiggins sisters (Dot, Helen, and Betty), better known as the Shaggs. Growing up dirt poor in New Hampshire, the three girls were turned onto forming a band by their father, Austin Wiggins, who bought their instruments and payed for lessons. Despite their lack of musical expertise, Austin drove the girls down to a studio in Massachusetts, determined to get them on tape "while they were still hot." Striking a deal with a local fly-by-night record company called Third World, the Shaggs recorded their debut album, Philosophy of the World, in one day, recording a dozen tunes all written by Dot. One thousand copies were pressed and all but 100 of them quickly disappeared, along with the president of the company. The Shaggs started playing a regular, Saturday night dance back home in Fremont, NH, and added another sister, Rachel, on bass, to their ranks. When Austin Wiggins passed away in 1975, the group disbanded and never played together again. But over the intervening years, their lone misguided attempt at recording started gaining cult status. In a Playboy magazine interview, Frank Zappa called Philosophy of the World his third all-time favorite album, and by the time NRBQ had reissued it in 1980, its legendary status was already confirmed. Other, later, and slightly more profieicent recordings emerged on the compilation Shaggs' Own Thing, and both albums were produced for compact disc on Rounder, issued as simply The Shaggs. In 1999, RCA Victor finally reissued the original Philiosophy album with its original cover, notes, and sequencing, keeping the music of the Shaggs (which one can view as either guileless primitive art or just a garage band that really can't play or sing) alive into the new millennium. ~ Cub Koda, All Music Guide [-] Hide

For aficionados of Incredibly Strange Music, Lucia Pamela is a gift from God: a senior citizen who made a totally unknown, crudely recorded album in the late '60s that sounded like a garage nursing-home band. Pamela was a former Miss St. Louis and veteran entertainer with several decades of experience under her belt by the time she recorded Into... [+] Read More

For aficionados of Incredibly Strange Music, Lucia Pamela is a gift from God: a senior citizen who made a totally unknown, crudely recorded album in the late '60s that sounded like a garage nursing-home band. Pamela was a former Miss St. Louis and veteran entertainer with several decades of experience under her belt by the time she recorded Into Outer Space, although there seems to be no reliable way of compiling accurate biographical data. Like the much more famous Mrs. Miller, Pamela couldn't "sing" well in the conventional sense, but sang with the confidence of one who knows she is one of the best. Into Outer Space sounds like a time-warp '20s swing band, fronted by a wedding-party guest who's downed too many stiff ones. Most of the material comes from the pen of Pamela herself, who devised nursery rhyme-like ditties about walking on the moon, Indian alphabet chants, the year 2000, and only slightly less cockeyed love songs. The whole affair made its inevitable transition to CD in the 1990s Pamela faded into obscurity again after the re-release of her album, and died at the age of 98 on July 25, 2002 in a hospital in Los Angeles. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Bruce Haack, born on May 4, 1931, was one of the most musically and lyrically inventive children's songwriters of the '60s and '70s. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- his intended audience, his music was unusually expressive, combining homemade analog synths; classical, country, pop, and rock elements; and surreal, idealistic lyrics. Haack's... [+] Read More

Bruce Haack, born on May 4, 1931, was one of the most musically and lyrically inventive children's songwriters of the '60s and '70s. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- his intended audience, his music was unusually expressive, combining homemade analog synths; classical, country, pop, and rock elements; and surreal, idealistic lyrics. Haack's innovations and desire to teach still sound fresh, making his music a favorite with fans of analog synths and esoteric recordings. Followers like Luke Vibert and Add N to X championed his unique musical vision, which embraced concepts like "powerlove" and turned household appliances into synthesizers and modulators.

This musical vision appeared at age four, when Haack started picking out melodies on his family's piano; by age 12, he gave piano lessons and played in country & western bands as a teen. His upbringing in the isolated mining town of Rocky Mountain House in Alberta, Canada, gave Haack plenty of time to develop his musical gifts.

Seeking formal training to hone his ability, Haack applied to the University of Alberta's music program. Though that school rejected him because of his poor notation skills, at Edmonton University he wrote and recorded music for campus theater productions, hosted a radio show, and played in a band. He received a degree in psychology from the university; this influence was felt later in songs that dealt with body language and the computer-like ways children absorb information.

On the merits of one of his theatrical scores, New York City's Juilliard School offered Haack the opportunity to study with composer Vincent Persichetti; thanks to a scholarship from the Canadian government, he headed to New York upon graduating from Edmonton in 1954. At Juilliard, Haack met a like-minded student, Ted "Praxiteles" Pandel, with whom he developed a lifelong friendship. However, his studies proved less sympathetic, and he dropped out of Juilliard just eight months later, rejecting the school's restrictive approach.

Throughout the rest of his career, Haack rejected restrictions of any kind, often writing several different kinds of music at one time. He spent the rest of the '50s scoring dance and theater productions, as well as writing pop songs for record labels like Dot and Coral. Haack's early scores, like 1955's Les Etapes, suggested the futuristic themes and experimental techniques Haack developed in his later works. Originally commissioned for a Belgian ballet, Les Etapes mixed tape samples, electronics, soprano, and violin; the following year, he finished a musique concrète piece called "Lullaby for a Cat."

As the '60s began, the public's interest in electronic music and synthesizers increased, and so did Haack's notoriety. Along with songwriting and scoring, Haack appeared on TV shows like I've Got a Secret and The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson, usually with Pandel in tow. The duo often played the Dermatron, a touch- and heat-sensitive synthesizer, on the foreheads of guests; 1966's appearance on I've Got a Secret featured them playing 12 "chromatically pitched" young women.

Meanwhile, Haack wrote serious compositions as well, such as 1962's "Mass for Solo Piano," which Pandel performed at Carnegie Hall, and a song for Rocky Mountain House's 50th anniversary. One of his most futuristic pieces, 1963's "Garden of Delights," mixed Gregorian chants and electronic music and was one of Haack's favorites. Unfortunately, this work was never broadcast or released in its complete form.

Haack found another outlet for his creativity as an accompanist for children's dance teacher Esther Nelson. Perhaps inspired by his own lonely childhood, he and Nelson collaborated on educational, open-minded children's music. With Pandel, they started their own record label, Dimension 5, on which they released 1962's Dance, Sing, & Listen. Two other records followed in the series, 1963's Dance, Sing, & Listen Again and 1965's Dance, Sing, & Listen Again & Again. Though the series included activity and story songs similar to other children's records at the time, the music moves freely between country, medieval, classical, and pop, and mixes instruments like piano, synthesizers, and banjo. The lyrics deal with music history or provide instructions like, "When the music stops, be the sound you hear," resulting in an often surreal collage of sounds and ideas.

The otherworldly quality of Haack's music was emphasized by the instruments and recording techniques he developed with the Dance, Sing, & Listen series. Though he had little formal training in electronics, he made synthesizers and modulators out of any gadgets and surplus parts he could find, including guitar effects pedals and battery-operated transistor radios. Eschewing diagrams and plans, Haack improvised, creating instruments capable of 12-voice polyphony and random composition. Using these modular synthesizer systems, he then recorded with two two-track reel-to-reel decks, adding a moody tape echo to his already distinctive pieces.

As the '60s progressed and the musical climate became more receptive to his kind of whimsical innovation, Haack's friend, collaborator, and business manager Chris Kachulis found mainstream applications for his musical wizardry. This included scoring commercials for clients like Parker Brothers Games, Goodyear Tires, Kraft Cheese, and Lincoln Life Insurance; in the process, Haack won two awards for his work. He also continued to promote electronic music on television, demonstrating how synthesizers work on The Mr. Rogers Show in 1968, and released The Way-Out Record for Children later that year.

Haack's records were about to get even more way-out, however: Kachulis did another important favor for his friend by introducing Haack to psychedelic rock. Acid rock's expansive nature was a perfect match for Haack's style, and in 1969 he released his first rock-influenced work, The Electric Lucifer. A concept album about the earth being caught in the middle of a war between heaven and hell, The Electric Lucifer featured a heavy, driving sound complete with Moogs, Kachulis' singing, and Haack's homegrown electronics and unique lyrics, which deal with "powerlove" -- a force so strong and good that it will not only save mankind but Lucifer himself. Kachulis helped out once more by bringing Haack and Lucifer to the attention of Columbia Records, who released it as Haack's major-label debut.

As the '70s started, Haack's musical horizons continued to expand. After the release of The Electric Lucifer, he struck up a friendship with fellow composer and electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott. They experimented with two of Scott's instruments, the Clavivox and Electronium. Unfortunately, nothing remains of the collaboration, and though Scott gave Haack a Clavivox, he didn't record with it on his own. However, he did continue on Lucifer's rock-influenced musical with 1971's Together, an electronic pop album that marked his return to Dimension 5. Perhaps in an attempt to differentiate this work from his children's music, he released it under the name Jackpine Savage, the only time he used this pseudonym.

Haack continued making children's albums as well, including 1972's Dance to the Music, 1973's Captain Entropy, and 1974's This Old Man, which featured science fiction versions of nursery rhymes and traditional songs. After relocating to Westchester, PA, to spend more time with Pandel, Haack focused on children's music almost exclusively, writing music for Scholastic Magazine Records like "The Witches' Vacation" and "Clifford the Small Red Puppy." He also released Funky Doodle and Ebenezer Electric (an electronic version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol) in 1976, but by the late '70s, his prolific output slowed; two works, 1978's Haackula and the following year's Electric Lucifer Book II, were never released.

However, Haackula seems to have inspired Haack's final landmark work, 1981's Bite. The albums share several song titles and a dark lyrical tone different from Haack's usually idealistic style. Though Bite is harsher than his other works, it features his innovative, educational touch: a thorough primer on electronics and synthesizers makes up a large portion of the liner notes, and Haack adds a new collaborator for this album, 13-year-old vocalist Ed Harvey.

Haack's failing health slowed Dimension 5's musical output in the early '80s, but Miss Nelson and Pandel kept the label alive by publishing songbooks, like Fun to Sing and The World's Best Funny Songs, and re-released selected older albums as cassettes, which are still available today. Haack died in 1988 from heart failure, but his label and commitment to making creative children's music survives. And while Dimension 5's later musical releases -- mostly singalong albums featuring Miss Nelson -- may lack the iconoclastic spark of the early records, Nelson and Pandel's continued work reveals the depth of their friendship with Haack, a distinctive and pioneering electronic musician. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Decades after their brief yet influential career first ground to a sudden and mysterious halt, the Silver Apples remain one of pop music's true enigmas: a surreal, almost unprecedented duo, their music explored interstellar drones and hums, pulsing rhythms and electronically-generated melodies years before similar ideas were adopted in the work... [+] Read More

Decades after their brief yet influential career first ground to a sudden and mysterious halt, the Silver Apples remain one of pop music's true enigmas: a surreal, almost unprecedented duo, their music explored interstellar drones and hums, pulsing rhythms and electronically-generated melodies years before similar ideas were adopted in the work of acolytes ranging from Suicide to Spacemen 3 to Laika. The Silver Apples formed in New York in 1967 and comprised percussionist Danny Taylor and lead vocalist Simeon, a bizarre figure who played an instrument also dubbed the Simeon, which (according to notes on the duo's self-titled 1968 debut LP) consisted of "nine audio oscillators and eighty-six manual manual controls...The lead and rhythm oscillators are played with the hands, elbows and knees and the bass oscillators are played with the feet." Although the utterly uncommercial record -- an ingenious cacophony of beeps, buzzes and beats -- sold poorly, the Silver Apples resurfaced a year later with their sophomore effort, Contact, another far-flung outing which fared no better than its predecessor. After the record's release, the duo seemingly vanished into thin air, perhaps returning to the alien world from whence they purportedly came; however, in 1996 the Silver Apples mysteriously resurfaced, as Simeon and new partner Xian Hawkins released the single "Fractal Flow." American and European tours followed, and a year later a new LP, Beacon, was released to wide acclaim. The follow-up Decatur appeared in 1998, and was soon joined by A Lake of Teardrops (a collaboration with avowed fans Spectrum) as well as The Garden, the long-unreleased third and final effort from the original Simeon/Taylor partnership. However, on November 1, 1998, the Silver Apples' van crashed while returning from a New York gig; the accident left Simeon with a broken neck and spinal injuries, casting his continued musical career in grave doubt. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

In the mid-'60s, Frenchman Jean-Jacques Perrey -- an electronic musician who had helped popularize the Ondioline, a keyboard which produced sounds similar to the violin and the flute -- teamed up with American composer and arranger Gershon Kingsley for a couple albums of then-futuristic electronic pop. Using tape recorders, scissors, and... [+] Read More

In the mid-'60s, Frenchman Jean-Jacques Perrey -- an electronic musician who had helped popularize the Ondioline, a keyboard which produced sounds similar to the violin and the flute -- teamed up with American composer and arranger Gershon Kingsley for a couple albums of then-futuristic electronic pop. Using tape recorders, scissors, and splicing tape, they recorded variations on pop motifs that, while kitschy from a latter-day perspective, represented the state-of-the-art in electronic sounds at the time. Two LPs, The In Sound from Way Out! and Kaleidoscopic Vibrations, were released by Vanguard in the late '60s. Perrey also recorded several albums of Moog music as a solo artist, and came back into vogue in the 1990s with a feature in the book Incredibly Strange Music. Everyone from Stereolab and µ-Ziq to the Beastie Boys and hip-hop super-producer Timbaland featured ideas borrowed from Perrey-Kingsley prominently on tracks of their own, while Perrey began recording again, both on his own and with fellow Frenchmen Air. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Recalling Twinkle for anything other than the 1965 death ballad "Terry" demands a feat of memory far beyond the majority of British Invasion fans. But dismissing her as simply a one-hit-wonder whose greatest subsequent claim to fame was having a follow-up covered by the Smiths ("Golden Lights") is an injustice that this collection goes out of... [+] Read More

Recalling Twinkle for anything other than the 1965 death ballad "Terry" demands a feat of memory far beyond the majority of British Invasion fans. But dismissing her as simply a one-hit-wonder whose greatest subsequent claim to fame was having a follow-up covered by the Smiths ("Golden Lights") is an injustice that this collection goes out of its way to remedy. "Terry" itself is magnificent -- Phil Spector meets the Shangri-Las on a rain-slicked English back-road. Banned by both the BBC and British TV's top pop show, Ready Steady Go, on the grounds of bad taste, it made the U.K. Top Five without touching the brakes and should have set up Twinkle for never-ending fame. And it might have -- one can only imagine what would have happened had her early career been handled by Andrew Loog Oldham, for example, as opposed to a last-gasp hurrah. For Twinkle's own team was considerably less well-versed in her requirements, while she herself swiftly lost patience with the star machine cranking noisily around her. The shimmering "Golden Lights," the follow-up single, was a barely disguised assault on the ease with which fame changes people, written from the point of view of a faithful girl spurned by her newly glittering boyfriend, while a sparkling cover of Reparata & the Delrons' "Tommy" was harpooned by Twinkle's own loathing of the song. By 1966, Twinkle had retired from the music industry; she was just 17. The first 14 tracks here wrap up Twinkle's heyday with every track she recorded for Decca, and almost all of them stand as shimmering peaks of Invasion-era pop. Three years elapse before "Micky" and "Darby & Joan" finally usher in the partnership she should have been enjoying the first time around. Coaxed out of retirement by Oldham, a new Twinkle 45 proved a mighty highlight for his short-lived Instant label (a subsidiary of Immediate), and that despite Oldham delegating production duties to Michael D'Abo. A third song from that period, "Soldier's Dream," closes the set out with what would have been her follow-up 45, had Twinkle not retired once again. In the great scheme of things, Twinkle was little more than a blip on the British pop scene of the mid-'60s -- how many other artists, after all, scored just one career-defining hit, only to discover they either didn't have, or didn't want, a career in the first place? Twinkle, however, deserves more. She wrote her own songs, she styled her own act, and she had a voice that puts one in mind of the late Kirsty MacColl -- yes, it really was that good. Most important of all, however, she followed her own heart and trusted her own opinions. And, at a time when even the big boys were yes-men, that spoke louder than songs. ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Shaggs' Own Thing is a compilation album, including all songs from the band's 1969 debut album Philosophy of the World, and others they made between then and 1975. Don't come to the Shaggs' for pop sensibility, or even for readily understandable melodies or rhythms. The original songs, mostly written by Dot Wiggins, almost sound as though they... [+] Read More

Shaggs' Own Thing is a compilation album, including all songs from the band's 1969 debut album Philosophy of the World, and others they made between then and 1975. Don't come to the Shaggs' for pop sensibility, or even for readily understandable melodies or rhythms. The original songs, mostly written by Dot Wiggins, almost sound as though they were precariously built, note-by-note, at the time of recording. The tunes wander up and down the scale, the way a song spontaneously created by a small child might do. The Wiggins sisters' (Dot, Helen, and Betty on the first album, joined by sister Rachel later) mastery of their instruments is rudimentary at best, and their sense of rhythm is somewhat unusual. Some song introductions sound convincingly as if the band is merely tuning up. Yet, on most of the songs, the sisters seem to be completely in synch with each other in terms of time and pitch, sharing some innate familial metronome. However, lack of musical expertise on the part of the Shaggs does not prevent this collection of songs from being a charming and intriguing listen. This is a rare, raw, look into the minds of a family of sweet, sad, but hopeful young girls, who are struggling to understand the world. The Shaggs' world is full of boyfriends who vacillate between being mean and being nice in an instant ("What Should I Do?," "Sweet Thing"), unrequited loves who don't know the girls are alive (the endearing "My Cutie") and beloved but misbehaving pets (the cult classic "My Pal Foot Foot"). The song "Philosophy of the World" echoes the age-old truism that people often want what they can't have. "Who Are Parents?" is a devoted tribute to the "ones who really care," even though they do make the rules. The title cut "Shaggs' Own Thing" is an engaging, off-kilter dialogue between the girls' father and a young male friend about a date stolen from the other, as the girls play an instrumental background. There are some cover songs in the set, but ironically, the girls play the original tunes much more tightly. Their expression of these seemly autobiographical songs is the core of what makes this album worthwhile, particularly for devotees of the Shaggs. ~ Susan Bachner, All Music Guide [-] Hide

1998's Hush Little Robot is the most comprehensive and easily available release of Bruce Haack's pioneering electronic music. This German collection culls its track listing from his middle works, emphasizing 1969's rock concept album Electric Lucifer, and the 1974 children's album This Old Man. The result is a mix of robotic nursery rhymes and... [+] Read More

1998's Hush Little Robot is the most comprehensive and easily available release of Bruce Haack's pioneering electronic music. This German collection culls its track listing from his middle works, emphasizing 1969's rock concept album Electric Lucifer, and the 1974 children's album This Old Man. The result is a mix of robotic nursery rhymes and dark, psychedelic, electronic rock;:the two extremes of Haack's repertoire. Hush Little Robot's lighthearted tracks, like "School for Robots," "This Old Man," and "Thank You" feature banjos and Haack's vocal impersonations of a computer and an old man, along with plenty of random bleeps and bloops from his homemade synths. The best of the children's songs jam their lyrics full of educational information, as well as silly puns and voices: "Bods" features a sparkly keyboard line and lyrics about how body language conveys more than words -- pretty far-out stuff for 1974. The Eastern-tinged "Shine On" is a mantra explaining the properties of light, and "Elizabeth Foster Goose" explores the history of nursery rhymes in Haack's uncommon style. Haack's experimental side also shines on Hush Little Robot. "Rubberbands," from 1968's Way-Out Album for Children, is not only one of the earliest pieces on the album, but also one of its most adventurous, featuring echo-drenched synths interrupted by boinging noises and squeaks that sound like a robot with some loose gears. And Electric Lucifer's spooky, acid-tinged numbers like "Incantation" and "Word Game" feature rolling bass, droning keyboards and electronic percussion for a very different -- but not unrecognizable -- take on psychedelic rock. "Word Game" in particular is a high point in Haack's career, containing both the wide-ranging sonics and cryptic lyrics that are his trademarks. Atop fuzz bass and phased keyboards, vocalist Chris Kachulis intones "Universe: one poem. Love: E-V-O-L. Evolve. Revolve: To love again." Hush Little Robot completes the Haack experience by concluding the album with two college radio interviews he did around the release of Electric Lucifer. Though his music ably speaks for itself, hearing the soft-spoken Haack explain his synthesizers and the peaceful, futuristic themes of his music adds an extra dimension of understanding. A tantalizing glimpse at Haack's prolific body of work, Hush Little Robot is a must for fans of vintage synths and esoteric recordings. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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The group's two '60s albums (Silver Apples and Contact) were previously combined as a two-fer a few years before this identical release, but as this is on a major label, it will find wider distribution. It also benefits from the addition of newly penned historical liner notes from Simeon and vintage photos of the band, along with a diagram of... [+] Read More

The group's two '60s albums (Silver Apples and Contact) were previously combined as a two-fer a few years before this identical release, but as this is on a major label, it will find wider distribution. It also benefits from the addition of newly penned historical liner notes from Simeon and vintage photos of the band, along with a diagram of the Simeon (the instrument) and Danny Taylor's drum setup. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide