"The Essential Perrey &
Kingsley"
Perrey & Kingsley, 1970
Back in the day when electronic music was a newborn, a few brave souls
gathered around their primitive synthesizers and banged out beeps and pops,
splicing together futuristic worlds of bubble gum terrain and happy little
martians. The best among these were musical partners Jean-Jacques
Perrey and Gershon Kingsley. They started making music together in 1965,
and by the early 1970's they were masters at the synth pop, easily listening
genre. Instead of going for an "art for arts sake" aesthetic, they went
straight for the pop/lounge appeal. Their main instrument was the Moog
synthesizer, the weapon of choice for early electronic music makers (see
the review of the
"The Plastic Cow Goes
Moooooog" by Mike Melvoin). But rather than just relying on
the Moog, they also brought in traditional instruments and other natural
world sound elements. Within the walls of their experimental recording
studio in New York, Perrey and Kingsley created music that had honestly
never been heard before. Even though the music was new, Perrey and Kingsley
made sure their music touched on and worked with sounds that people would
know--i.e., barnyard sounds, babies crying, swans honking, bees buzzing.
What good was electronic music if it couldn't be enjoyed and easily understood
by everyone? They created landscapes where jungle and farm animals went
into orbit ("Barnyard in Orbit," and "Jungle Blues from Jupiter"), were
the space aliens were quirky and friendly ("The Little Man From Mars,"
and "Girl From Venus"), and where toys came to life with the cogs of giant
electronic machines ("Computer in Love" and "Toy Balloons). In the last
few decades, artists such as Perrey and Kingsley have readily been accepted
into the lounge genre as being the talented grandchildren of artists like
Esquivel
(following his unconventional arrangements) and Martin
Denny (because of the natural tropical sounds he included in his exotica
music). As fun as Perrey and Kingsley are, be warned that a little goes
a *long* way.
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