Joe Meek & The Blue Men “I Hear A New World”
What a fine outer space adventure album! Several years before British producer Joe Meek and the Tornadoes scored an international super-hit with Telstar, Meek had composed and recorded his masterpiece, “I Hear a New World,” an imaginative musical look at a different life on the Moon.
In 1960, the moon remained very much a wide mystery, and was thus ripe for soundtrack imaginations. Meek stepped forward to create a lunar adventure record, a record well ahead of the times. Joe Meek:
“I wanted to create a picture in music of what could be up there in outer space. At first I was going to record with music that was completely out of this world but realized that it would have very little entertainment value, so I kept the construction of the music down to earth.”
Helping to keep Meek’s compositions “down to earth” was Rod Freeman, the musical director and arranger for the project (the music itself was performed by the Blue Men, formerly the skiffle group the West Five). Freeman, it seems, saved IHANW from becoming a stereo sound effects record. Accounts of Meek’s early demos for IHANW are that the tracks were a challenging listen.
The music production and engineering for this recording was truly quite unique and visionary. In a pre-synthesizer world, Meek used a wide array of homemade electronics and unique instruments to achieve a signature sound. Most notably, perhaps, was the Clavioline, a three-octave keyboard instrument somewhere between an organ and a simple analog synthesizer. The Clavioline handles many of the lead melodies on this record (Telstar too!). The Hawaiian guitar was widely used. Different types of echo effects (tape echo and chamber echo) are also used liberally, and to great effect. It is important to note that Meek recorded this, along with most of his productions, at his home recording studio in North London.
IHANW was never wholly released until recently. In 1960 a sampler EP was released by Triumph Records, including only four of the twelve original tracks. Recorded in stereophonic sound, the sampler was sent to retail stores as a demonstration of what “stereo” was capable of (then, a young technology). An interesting marketing technique!
The 2001 CD release on RPM is well done, with the 12 original tracks, plus 30 minutes of interviews with Meek (probably only appealing to enthusiasts), as well as a brief film clip of Meek from 1964, for computer viewing. Good readings available inside, too (from which many of the facts included here are taken).
There are discernable musical highlights inside this record, however it is recommended to listen to “I Hear a New World” in its entirety at first, and with headphones. Meek takes you on a memorable journey around the moon, stopping in to visit different lunar civilizations! Don’t miss it!
“The Bublight”
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