Sunday, July 27, 2008

Did Delia Take the TARDIS to a Rave?

It's old news by now, but that's never stopped The Typing Monkey before. It seems that Delia Derbyshire, one of the pillars of the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, and the woman who turned Ron Grainer's Dr. Who score into one of the coolest TV show themes ever, made a recording in the mid to late 1960s that is essentially a blueprint for techno. Read all about it here.

Given that other electronic music pioneers have gotten or are getting the documentary treatment, it seems that films of Derbyshire and Radiophonic Workshop pioneer Daphne Oram are long overdue. Really, given Oram's fascinating life, a biopic seems like low-hanging fruit.

In the meantime, here is a too-short video of Derbyshire showing how to build an electronic beat using reel-to-reel loops: