There is a primordial glee that comes with donning a mask and pretending like you're Frederick Douglass, or a flapper, or Spider-Man - anyone but yourself. But to alter one's voice - this is a more subtle delight. You probably recognize the sound of the vocoder, even if you've never heard the name. The vocoder is a speech synthesis system that changes the human voice into a robotic purr, allowing users to disguise themselves behind… more »
Despite the fire and brimstone that characterized reggae's revolutionary emergence in the 1970s, I have always had an abiding affection for the evolutionary period that immediately preceded that breakthrough, when the music seemed caught between two worlds. The style is usually referred to as rocksteady - post-Ska, but still experimenting with and expanding the possibilities of that one-drop, loping afterbeat; and though Rastafarian ideology was already beginning to swiftly gospelize the music (anthemed most notably… more »
