Volume 9 in our ongoing Mood Mosaic series, exploring music auteurs work from outside the pop mainstream, presents a fascinating collection of 60’s Electronica. Max Crook and Scott Ludwig are geniuses of the homegrown electronic keyboard and sound boards, today simply labelled synths. They came to prominence backing Del Shannon in the early 1960’s when Max Crook and Del Shannon together wrote the singers first demos, including Runaway. A prominent feature in the backing on the recording is Crook’s Musitron, an embryonic synth of his invention, and it featured again in the follow ups to Shannon’s worldwide no.1 hit. Following this Crook (who also released singles under his own steam as Maximillian) and Ludwig, drummer and player of another invention the Sonicon, intermittently recorded their own material and even took it on the road. An incongruous sight, two very square looking guys appearing in supper clubs and High School auditoriums, dressed in sparkling silver jackets, surrounded by the Musitron, Sonicon and later one of the first Moogs. We present the best of their late 60’s own studio recordings, the length of an LP as it might have been, plus as a special bonus an excerpt of a live show from 1968 when the pair take the audience through an explanation of their instruments capabilities. This is Outsider Music at its most intriguing, the writer of a no.1 in 1961 single turns to Electronica to further develop their career. The album has been put together by musician and author Mark Brend who wrote a chapter on the pair in a book published last year, together with the assistance of Max and Scott who delivered copies of their rather precious recordings for the first time ever. They also supplied photos and invaluable insights into the world of the Musitron and Sonicon.
Runaway / Overnite Run / The Diamond / Space Child / Hero / Punk Walk / Firefighters Theme / Future / Our Electronic Bag / Beeswax / Pulse Rate / Razz My Berries Bonus - Live In Concert ‘68 : Explanations & Demonstrations / Summertime / House Of The Rising Sun