Listening Oddities: Raymond Scott – Manhattan Research Inc.

With the 170+ GB of music that I have in my Itunes program, there are bound to be a few odd albums sprinkled in.  Albums that, out of context, seem really strange that anyone would listen to them.  I decided to share a few of the oddities with you and hopefully you will list some of your interactions with strange music that you have stumble across over the years.

Raymond Scott – Manhattan Research Inc.

Raymond Scott was an electronic music pioneer and composer who created a lot of the electronic instruments in the 50’s and 60’s, used in music and commercials over the years.  He sold much of the rights to his music to Warner Brothers who adapted much of his work into cartoon friendly versions and much of his electronic experimentations were used with commercial jingles and announcements of the time.

My introduction to Raymond Scott was when I heard J Dilla’s “Lightworks” which sampled a Scott tune of the same name.  Some quick research at the time revealed that several other notable artists had sampled his music including Soul Coughing, TV On The Radio, Madlib and Gorillaz.  I had to know more and Manhattan Research Inc. was soon added to my collection.

The album is an odd collection of assorted jingles, film excerpts and random electronic music all created by Raymond Scott.  It includes jingles from big name companies including Wrigley’s, IBM, Sprite and Vicks..  The electronic music he created is very odd but cutting edge for the time and to juxtaposition it with the commercials of the time adds an odd layer to this 2 disc set.

When would you put on something like this?  When you are chilling and having a beer with a few friends in dim lighting.   Or when you are looking to broaden your appreciation of a different era and want to explore what things were like in media form during the 50’s and 60’s.

Samples:

The song sampled by J Dilla

When Will It End?

This not so PC advertisement