Electronic Toys 1 & 2
Two oldies but absolute goldies and, it now seems from their apparent discontinuation, rarities too. Here we have two favourites of mine from the old Cosmoblog days. Electronic Toys is a superb, must-own two volume compilation set of retro electronic and synthesizer music and sound effects – many on Volume 1 of which have been used in various old British tv shows (kids shows and programmes for schools & and colleges especially), films, advertisements, radio, etc. Like me, you’ll probably hear a few of these tracks and be wondering where you’ve heard them before… It was these compilations which got me into the works of cult electronica artists Fred Weinberg and Bruce Haack.
Personal favourites are the legendary Fred Weinberg with the superb “A Child’s Life” (an all-time fave of mine), Bruce Haack’s robotastic “Party Machine” and Fred Weinberg again with “1958 Revisited” plus the always great Brian Bennett with “Ergon” – a track that I just know I’ve heard somewhere before (but where?!). Dave Richmond’s “Movin’ Along” is a nice tune which sounds like it could have been a theme to a schools & colleges programme or used on the schools & colleges clock. Eric Peters’ “Keystone Capers 2″ is very interesting: I remember very well that it was used as the theme tune to a mid-80s BBC kids stop motion animated show about a couple of robots which was on right before the BBC’s daytime phone-in show Open Air. Anyone out there remember what it was called? Also, the music was used in the bizarre and now infamous Superman IV deleted scene (and previously rumoured to have been destroyed until it turned up on the dvd special edition a couple of years back) in which Nuclear Man Mk.1 is born as played by British actor Clive Mantle. The beginning of Mort Garson’s “The Ride Of Aida” reminds me a touch of The Prodigy’s “Firestarter”. Benny Hill fans will probably enjoy Gil Trythall’s “Yakety Moog”.
Both Electronic Toys compilations are an absolute must-own for collectors of library, tv music, synth, moog, obscure and early electronica music. Besides the music, the other great thing about these compilations is the packaging containing a sweet selection of photos of gorgeous model Danny Sutton by the legendary Bunny Yeager – as you can see from the images I’ve scanned and scattered amongst this post. Enjoy! 
V/A
Electronic Toys
QDK
1996
1 Cecil Canterburn – Catching Game
2 Rex Brown Company/Wersi Electric String Orchestra/Berry Lipman – Round Up
3 Dave Vorhaus – The Diy Machine (a)
4 Dave Richmond – Movin’ Along
5 Ron Geesin – Ambling Antics
6 C. Larson & M. Landy – Highway E1
7 Gerhard Trede – Technischer Bewegungsablauf
8 Eric Peters – Keystone Capers 2
9 Ted Atking/Alain Feanch – Childrens Carnival
10 Dave Vorhaus – Mainframe Blues
11 Gerhard Trede – Gefahrenzone 1
12 Roland Kovac – Bits
13 Dave Vorhaus – Three O (a)
14 Eric Peters – Mechanical Movement
15 Heinz Funk – Menuett
16 Brian Benett – Ergon
17 Steve Gray – The Sausage Machine
18 Mladen Franko – Zoolife
19 Ron Geesin – Jolly Pranks
127 mb
Ripped & encoded by X-Y-Z-Cosmonaut @ 320 kbps.
V/A
Electronic Toys 2
QDK
1999
1 Harry Breuer – Saturn Ski Jump
2 Gil Trythall – Yakety Moog
3 Mort Garson – Son Of Blob
4 Jim Cuomo – Earthshine
5 Harry Breuer – Moog Foo Yong
6 Fred Weinberg – A Childs Life
7 Bruce Haack – Party Machine
8 Harry Breuer – Paris 2079
9 The Mindexpanders – Love Syndrome
10 Kid Baltan & Tom Dissevelt – Sonik Re-Entry
11 Mort Garson – The Ride Of Aida
12 Walter Sear – Circuit Breaker
13 Gil Trythall – Martha White Theme
14 Harry Breuer – Space Express
15 Kid Baltan & Tom Dissevelt – Song Of The Second Moon
16 Fred Weinberg – 1958 Revisited
134 mb
Ripped & encoded by X-Y-Z-Cosmonaut @ 320 kbps.
