Description
Throughout the 1960s, Canadian composer Bruce Haack was as ubiquitous on children's and variety shows as were exotic animals from the San Diego Zoo - But he wasn't there to perform so much as demonstrate.
In his formative compositions for theatre and ballet, he had experimented with tape loops and musique concrete techniques; by the early '60s, he wasn't just playing around with electronic sounds, but also making the very gizmos that generated them. By day, Haack would eke out a living as a composer for commercials and a series of instructive, interactive children's records made with collaborator Esther Nelson.
But by night, Haack was making music that was decidedly adults-only.
Originally released in 1970, The Electric Lucifer was Haack's first work pitched to a contemporary rock audience, released by Columbia Records in the dying days of a post-hippie moment when bizarro outsider-psych could still find a home on a major label. If it was not the first rock record to feature electronics, it was certainly among the first to give them a starring role--both musically and conceptually.
