Comments on: open call for robot vocals (music post)

By: zzz

zzz — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:20:25 +0000

don’t the quirky chillout group “bent” do some tracks with sexy vocoder vocals

By: ThP

ThP — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:30:26 +0000

The above Neil Young songs are from his album Trans. Never reissued in the US after the LP, the import CD remains expensive.

Also on Trans is the grungy catchy “Computer Cowboy (AKA Syscrusher)” with all vocoder vocals much like the catchy riffed Sample and Hold. I think this might be the first cyberpunk song on a major label. Neil wrote Computer Cowboy less than a year after William Gibson’s Burning Chrome appeared in Omni magazine as a short story. There are very few other sources of inspiration in 1984 to read (or know at all) about hackers anonymously infiltrating other computers in cyberspace. Evidently Neil coined the word Syscrusher, I’ve never seen an earlier reference. “Fork in the Road” can be considered a follow up, themed around today’s heavy dependence on battery powered consumer electronics and electric cars, but alas no vocoder. :)

By: dandosama

dandosama — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:01:39 +0000

I did not take the time to read any of the posts above so my apologies if these have already been mentioned

Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cpSv2mNhhc

The Guild – Do You Want to Date my Avatar (chorus is not quite a classic vocoder but close enough I’d say and it is just a fun little song. Video ain’t too shabby either.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cpSv2mNhhc

Kraftwerk – Die Stimme Der Energie – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZtWvmbKepg

and of course the classic

Laurie Anderson – O Superman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzYu88jIDYs

Can’t wait to see your playlist. Fun!

By: weekendpyro

weekendpyro — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:12:02 +0000

3 Tage Wach by Lützenkirchen I’m just like you man robotic vocals are a huge obsession with me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNk-uXH9mos

Please get back to me if you like it!

By: Ant

Ant — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:08:16 +0000

ELO have been mentioned, the Prologue from Time is Cylon through and through!

Few others that come to mind..

Daydream in Blue by I monster http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6_hzqae2tw

Flight of the Conchords – Robots (ok, so only pretending to be a vocoder :-) ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvrva8NoMLM

Judie Tzuke – That’s Where My Heart Used To Be

By: Macker

Macker — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:59:12 +0000

I’m surprised no one has suggested any and all “MC Hawking” songs!

By: species 125

species 125 — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:10:06 +0000

Just to clarify my previous comment, the Kylie album is “Showgirl Live” and the track is titled “Space – Prequel”

By: Nebulous

Nebulous — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 07:03:23 +0000

As an electronic musician and someone else who is heavily influenced by vocoders, I tend to meet alot of other musicians who feel the same way.

So, here are a few to add to the list:

The Mannequin Depressives cover of Kraftwerk’s “The Model” and the original songs “Zero Tolerance” and “Autofire (remix)”
http://www.myspace.com/MannequinDepressives
http://www.mannequindepressives.com/~mannequin/cgi-bin/MDindex.cgi?topic=Listen

Jon Ryman’s (absolutley wicked) album 1984. I highly recommend this.
Check out songs: “Autocue” and “Rhythm Machine”.
http://www.myspace.com/jonrymanmusic

And — of course — Bony M gets super creds for the song “Nightflight to Venus” which I’m pretty certain uses the same model of Roland vocoder that was used for the 1970s Battlestar Galactica centurions.

Ciao!

— Jared (Nebulous) Brookes.

P.S. Is this is the blog of Adam Lebowitz, by chance? Drop me a line at my email sometime.

By: Jason Regan

Jason Regan — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:23:06 +0000

Sorry – at a risk of monopolising and getting boring, John Foxx (founder, first and best singer with Ultravox) has used the vocoder throughout his solo career. From ‘Metamatic’ try ‘Underpass’, pretty much all of ‘Cathedral Oceans 3′ (very beautiful soundscape album), or finally title track from ‘Mirrorball’ which he recorded with the Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie.
I’ll leave you alone now…

By: Jason Regan

Jason Regan — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:01:53 +0000

Plus…. Radiohead’s ‘Fitter, happier’ from ‘OK Computer’ (appropriately enough) and a more obscure one would be the band Fashion who went through various lineups in the early to mid 80’s. The track ‘Streetplayer’ from the album ‘Fabrique’ is full of vocoder : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3HLh5MW1mQ