In
addition to my vinyl LP record collection I'm selling, I have hundreds of reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes as well. This is an entry about one of
them that is for sale on eBay (see link below). Interested? Contact me by email, please, not by a comment.
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I have made field recordings of various nature sounds (
rain, lighting, crickets, birds, etc.) since my father bought me my first reel-to-reel tape deck, a
Voice of Music deck manufactured by V-M Corporation, in the early 50's. I dearly loved that deck.
photographer unknown
I was a little more mobile when I got a
Wollensack in the early 60's but I was still anchored by the electric cord to power it.
photographer unknown
When the
8-track tape format came out in 1963, I would make music compilations for friends and often I had to use their recordings which were sometimes in terrible condition. It drove me wild! I developed the technique of overlaying my field recordings to mask the noise from the bad records. It was pretty effective and my friends loved the finished product.
Well, the
Mystic Moods Orchestra came along in the mid 60's and, lo and behold, they did the exact same thing (
I sincerely doubt they were masking surface noise, though).
This debut recording from the Mystic Moods Orchestra came to be essentially by chance. Brad Miller, who had been recording old steam engine sounds for sound effects recordings, was inspired upon hearing a late-night DJ mix easy listening music with environmental sounds. He solicited arranger Don Ralke to record a series of easy listening songs, which were mixed with a thunderstorm. The congenial music combined with the rain and thunder proved to be a revelation to the general public, leading to several more successful mood recordings. Of the selections,
Local Freight contains authentic steam engine sounds, a nod to Miller's first passion, while the lonely cello combined with the sound of falling rain on
Autumn Leaves is quite striking. This is a space age pop classic.
The
Mystic Moods Orchestra was known for mixing
orchestral pop, environmental sounds, and pioneering recording
techniques. It was created by audiophile
Brad Miller. The first Mystic
Moods Orchestra album
One Stormy Night, was released in 1965 through
the label Philips. Throughout the rest of the 1960s and 1970s, the group
continued to release similar styled recordings and their recordings
continued to be reissued throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Miller was born in
Burbank, California,
and had developed an interest in railroading in his teens. After a few
years of hanging around rail yards and learning all the lore of steam
and diesel engines, he decided to record the sounds of some of the last
steam locomotives operating on a major rail line. Eventually, around
1958, he and his friend, Jim Connella, formed a company called
Mobile Fidelity Records and started cutting records from these field
recordings, which they released through railroading magazines and model
train shows. Sound effects recording was quite the rage at the dawn of
stereo, and one of these albums of train sounds was even reviewed
favorably in
High Fidelity magazine. A few years later, Ernie McDaniel
of San Francisco radio station KFOG decided to put one of Miller's
albums,
Steam Railroading Under Thundering Skies, and an easy
listening album, on separate turntables and broadcast them together. His
late-night stunt produced a barrage of listener phone calls (most of
which were positive), much to his surprise. He later related the episode
to Miller, who was inspired by the idea.
While working with arranger
Don Ralke, Miller recorded a series of
tunes, most of them Ralke originals, played by a string-laden orchestra,
then mixed in a variety of environmental sounds he had collected. He
took several months fine-tuning the blend, then cut a deal with
Philips
to release it under the title of
One Stormy Night, credited to the
Mystic Moods Orchestra.
With the help of producer Leo Kulka, Miller quickly developed a
series of
One Stormy Night clones:
Nighttide,
More Than Music,
Mexican
Trip,
Mystic Moods of Love. Don Ralke wrote most of the material and did
all the arrangements for the first few albums. John Tartalgia did a few
more, then
Larry Fotine became the primary arranger when Miller and
Kulka moved to the
Warner Bros. label. The musical content shifted to
mellow covers of current hits (
Love the One You're With), and Warners
modified the packaging of the albums to make sure there was no mystery
that these were records to serve as the preamble or accompaniment to
getting it on.
Erogenous came with an inner sleeve that, when pulled
out, showed a nude couple in soft focus.
In 1974, Miller founded his own label, called
Sound Bird Records, and
reissued many of the Mystic Moods Orchestra albums, as well as albums
of environmental sounds without music and more train recordings.
Discography
- One Stormy Night (1966, Philips)
- Nighttide (1966, Philips)
- More Than Music (1967, Philips)
- Mexican Trip (1967, Philips)
- Mystic Moods of Love (1968, Philips)
- Emotions (1968, Philips)
- Extensions (1969, Philips)
- Loke Token (1969, Philips)
- Stormy Weekend (1970, Philips)
- English Muffins (1971, Philips)
- Country Lovin' Folk (1972, Philips)
- Love the One You're With (1972, Warner Bros.)
- Highway One (1972, Warner Bros.)
- Awakening (1973, Warner Bros.)
- Clear Light (1973, Warner Bros.)
- Erogenous (1974, Warner Bros.)
- Being With You (1976, Sound Bird Records)
- Cosmic Force (1978, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab)
- Summer Moods (1985, Bainbridge Records)
- Stormy Memories (1990, Bainbridge Records)
Tracklist:
Side 1:
1 - A Dream / Conductor & Arranged By W. Shanklin, Composed By Wayne Shanklin - 3:55
2 - Minstrel Boy / Composed By Patrick, Ralke - 3:07
3 - Sayonara / Composed By Irving Berlin - 3:18
4 - One Stormy Night / Composed By L. Degar - 2:56
5 - In Your Arms / Composed By Ralke, Krueger - 3:04
Side 2:
1 - Fire Island / Composed By Ralke, Krueger - 3:15
2 - Aja Toro / Composed By Luttrell - 3:05
3 - Hot Bagel / Composed By Ralke - 2:08
4 - Local Freight / Recorded By Brad Miller - 4:58
5 - Autumn Leaves / Composed By Jacques Prévert, Johnny Mercer, Kosma - 4:40
Philips - PHI X 600205
Mystic Moods Orchestra ~ One Stormy Night, reel-to-reel tape is for sale on eBay
reel-to-reel tapes on eBay
Curl up in front of a roaring fire on a rainy night (
or a clear one, MMO will provide the rain) with your loved one and bliss on out.
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, September 10, 2014
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