(Australian 1975 - 1981)
Synthesizer fanatic Steve Maxwell Von Braund teamed in the mid-70s with Geoff Green to form Cybotron in 1976, but Von Braund had already caused a considerable stir by releasing what is largely regarded as Australia's first fully electronic album, Monster Planet (Clear Light Of Jupiter, 1975). Influenced by contemporary "Krautrock" electronic outfits like Can, Amon Duul, Faust and Tangerine Dream (not surprisingly, the German-born Von Braund had been an associate/friend of some of these musicians) the ambitious suite impressed with its rich layers of synths, treated sax and electro-percussion. [Wikipedia]
Having already released a self-titled album in 1976 and Colossus in 1978 (see
earlier post), Mark Jones joined on bass for Braund's next LP 'Implosion', and engineer Gil Matthews was back playing drums and keyboards and their contributions added a more conventional sound to the proceedings. Stylistically, the album retained the heavy keyboard driven symphonic flavour but also incorporated a pop tinge as displayed on "Encounter" and "We'll Be Around" in which Cybotron were exploring newer pastures in the Yello/Yellow Magic Orchestra vein. "We'll Be Around" was a significant Cybotron moment: here a bright and breezy slice of electronic dance-pop is enlived by hand claps and vocoder vocal treatments which repeat the simplistic title phrase over and over. The artistic intent even predates the British synth pop explosion (Depeche Mode, latter day Human League, Soft Cell etc) by a good year. "Encounter" / "We'll Be Around" was issued as a single in December, 1980 (Cleopatra records), although it was unlikely that Cybotron would ever snare a hit single!
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L-R: Steve Braund, Mark Jones,
Gil Mathews |
"Eureka" opens the album with a beautifully sustained collection of cascading synthesizer notes and drones before the bass and drums kick in, adding considerably to the air of brooding menace. Also included here is a previously unreleased and slightly longer mix which is boosted throughout by crashing guitar chords (played by Gil Matthews). Heavy metal electronica never sounded so sweet, powerful and dramatic all at the same time!
Meanwhile, the album's two epic tracks - the nine minute "Implosion" and the 10 minute "Black Devil's Triangle" - find the band in more familiar and sprawling electronic mode. The pulsating "Black Devil's Triangle", in particular, is reminiscent of the spacey minimalist sound that Klaus Schulze developed on his run of classic albums such as Cyborg and Moondawn. It's a brilliantly formulated piece of controlled electronica, once again quite unlike anything else heard in Australia at that time.
"By the time we came to record Implosion, Geoff and I had parted our ways", explains Braund. "Actually before Colossus came out, Colin had left the band so we got another drummer in briefly. Then we got Mark Jones to play bass. The sound of the band had changed by then. I didn't make the change because I felt I had to; my tastes had changed and I liked a lot of those new bands as well. To me the music scene was a progression from one thing to another. I was just progressing from one scene to another, so the sound started to change. Also because I was doing most of the compositions after Geoff had left".
"By then I had a four-track machine myself and I'd demoed all the songs and did all the layering of parts and that's how most of the songs came together. I'd do that in my little studio in my house in Richmond. I'd work every night so I had all the parts worked out. Then I added the drum machine to these demos. When we got into the studio, Gil played all the drum parts and Mark added his bass parts. We started the album in Gil's studio and transferred it over onto the muti-tracks at Armstrong's to finish it off. Jeremy was the executive producer and he'd organise things. In the studio I'd sit next to Gil and basically work closely with him, tell him what I wanted plus he'd always have ideas to add. We'd do a few trial mixes as we'd go along until it all fell into place".
"With the Implosion album, I was aiming for a more commercial sound. I did want to keep the old progressive sound to a certain extent but just to vary it a bit. For "We'll Be Around" we added the vocoder. That just happened in the studio. We were just mucking around with different things and we decided to put the vocoder on the record. For that song I think we must have only had a half-formed idea of what to do; it didn't sound quite right. So we put all the parts down, I added my sax and then when we added the vocoder to the vocals it all came together. For other tracks like "Black Devil's Triangle", I wanted that to be the deep spacey one. I'd worked that out in my demo studio. I was playing that track to various people at the time who were a bit doubtful that I'd be able to do the album on my own. That was to prove to them that I could" [extracts from AZTEC release Implosion booklet]
This post consists of MP3's (320kps) ripped from CD and includes full album artwork for both vinyl and CD releases. The bonus tracks (except for Eureka) are recordings that were destined to be released on a follow up album to Implosion, but for various reasons never made it, and the band eventually imploded.
Please note that this album is no longer available through AZTEC or any other distributor.
01. Eureka (6:56)
02. Implosion (8:52)
03. Suite 16 / 9th Floor (3:07)
04. Encounter (6:08)
05. Black Devil's Triangle (9:56)
06. We'll Be Around (3:13)
Bonus Tracks
07. Abbey Moor (5:05)
08. Peter Gunn (3:29)
09. Unorganisation (5:52)
10. Detective (3:10)
11. March (4:37)
12. Eureka (Guitar Version) (7:32)
Cybotron were:
Bass – Mark Jones
Drums, Guitar, Keyboards – Gil Matthews
Keyboards, Saxophone [Alto] – Steve Braund