BBC Radiophonic Workshop: A Retrospective

---

---

Customer reviews

review by: colin j herd date: 2008-11-22 rating:
stunningly good
this is the best thing i've bought off amazon for a while. i love it, and you will too. i am too young to remember most of these tunes, except for the really famous ones like doctor who but i have this cd in the car and it is such fun to think, 'that sounds like it has to be, oh i don't know, the royal wedding theme', and then find out it is actually 'magic carpet ride' or something.

i really really enjoy listening to this and i would recommend it to everyone. some of these pieces are really,,,,,, beautiful.

---

review by: stipesdoppleganger date: 2008-11-21 rating:
A world of aural innovation and invention
Okay I'll get it out of the way early. Without doubt the most famous piece of music to emanate from the BBC,s Radiophonic workshop is the theme tune to Dr Who ( I still have this on 7" vinyl )- a serious contender for the best TV theme tune ever written ( now there's a debate) .It still sounds brilliant to this day , quirky , slightly spooky and alien yet memorable and quite catchy . Its on here in it's original form ( the new Dr Who theme has been updated with portentous strings ). It is however only a smidgeon of the output from the revered workshop .
This is a chronologically ordered compilation covering the output of the workshop from 1958 to 1997 before some dunderhead at the BBC( John Birt in a move that meant every BBC department that couldn't cover its costs had to be axed. The workshop was given five years to break even but due to it's high running costs- it needed engineers as well as composers - failed) decided to terminate( or exterminate it to use a more apt parlance) it so they could pay Chris Moyle's his inflated salary or some other such buffoonery . The double-disc collection is produced by Mark Ayres, surely the world's leading authority on the Radiophonic Workshop, having been a BBC composer and eventual archivist for the now sadly defunct department.
The earlier material from the likes of Delia Derbyshire is truly startling , almost avant garde in it's scope and compositional wizardry . "Talk Out" from 1964 is an extraordinary perspicacious piece of rhythmic music that even today might raise an eyebrow or two. I was especially pleased at the inclusion of Desmond Briscoe's music for the superb "Quatermass And The Pit [1967]" which still sounds eerie sinister and insidiously extraterrestrial.
As the years wore on the workshop came to rely more on standard electronic equipment and lost a little of it's singular sonic inventiveness.. The particular resourcefulness that saw people like Delia Derbyshire and Daphne Oram manipulate tapes and record strange natural or environmental sounds is sacrificed for a more sober less ingenious approach Some of the later material is a little rote and one or two are truly awful but others like the theme From Demon Headmaster, The - Look Into My Eyes and the stuff from "Blake's 7 - Series 1 - Complete [1978] " "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy [1981] " and Salem's Lot" not to mention the abbreviated little soundcsapes from programmes such as "The BBC Natural World Collection" and The Living Planet [1983] " are truly evocative .Miniature aural nuggets of magic.
Back to Dr Who then. The sound of the Tardis de-materialising or indeed materialising ( included here) was made by Brian Hodgson running his keys along the rusty bass strings of a broken piano, with the recording slowed down to make an even lower sound. Genius. No surprise then to learn that George Martin ,another technical studio whiz assisted Maddalena Fagandini with "Time Beat" which is also included here.
How many artists have been influenced by the Work Of The Radiophonic workshop? ....Well I don't know ..who do you think I am? Yet I'm willing to bet my Friday lunchtime treat that a great many influential innovative artists around today owe something to the work of a collection of what were in effect boffins and producers.



review by: date: 2008-11-08 rating:
About time!
This is a brilliant album, and long, long overdue. It showcases the work of the much-missed BBC Radiophonic Workshop between 1958 and 1997, including music from "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy", Radio 4's "PM" news programme, "The Demon Headmaster", the BBC's Natural World programmes and many others. I was particularly pleased to see the inclusion of Peter Howell's "The Astronauts".

Most of the album is essentially a CD re-issue of two BBC Radiophonic Workshop LPs: "21" and "Soundhouse", released in 1979 and 1983, but also contains some gems that have never before been released.

Of course, the collection contains perhaps the workshop's most famous recording - the theme from Dr Who, and the Tardis sound effect.

Along with the two recent CD collections of music by John Baker, this is a much welcomed addition to the slowly growing collection of music by the workshop issued on CD. It's taken an unbelievably long time, but at last, the full scope of the Radiophonic Workshop's composers' work is gradually getting the recognition it so richly deserves.

Sadly, as the progress in technology marched on, the BBC, in its "wisdom", decided that it could buy mass-produced "electronic music" more cheaply that the workshop could produce it, so in 1997 they closed the workshop for good, and in doing so lost the creativity and talent evident in so much of the work produced by the workshop over its life.

As the saying goes - "they don't make 'em like that any more".

Hopefully more albums are on the way...

---

Similar products

BBC Radiophonic Music
The John Baker Tapes Volume 1: BBC Radiophonics
The John Baker Tapes Volume 2: Soundtracks Library Home Recordings Electro Ads
Watch With Teacher
Doctor Who Series 4 Original TV Soundtrack

---

Similar categories

Music . Styles . Pop . Bestsellers
Music . Styles . Pop . General AAS
Music . Styles . Soundtracks . General AAS
Music . Styles . Dance & Electronic . General AAS
Music . Styles . Adult Contemporary . Bestsellers
Music . Styles . Miscellaneous . Spoken Word
Music . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . CD . CD Album
Music . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . Compilation

---