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Catalogue Number

JB-10819 / PB-10819 (7" Single of 'Mars'/'Venus')
RVC-2111 / RL 81919 / ARL1-1919 / ARD1-1919 (LP)
RCC-1023 / RK 81919 / RCAV 60518 (Cassette)
RCD1-1919 / RCAV 60518 / RCA 60518 / 60518-2-RG / RCD1-1919 (CD)

Label

RCA

Date Released

1976

Total Playing Time

52:08

Tracks

1. Mars, The Bringer of War (10:54)
2. Venus, The Bringer of Peace (8:39)
3. Mercury, The Winged Messenger (5:22)
4. Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity (17:26)
   Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age
5. Uranus, The Magician (9:45)
   Neptune, The Mystic

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24 by 24 inch poster.	Sticker from the front cover of the record.

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In his free-form introduction to Holst's material, for instance, Tomita suggests that the listener is strapped aboard a spaceship, waiting to blast off. After the countdown, he launches into a version of Mars which, while imitating some acoustic instruments, recalls the synthesizer parts of many rock compositions.

The echoing string sounds of Venus also suggest the pop usage of the synthesizer. Similarly, the wide-ranging eclecticism of the timbres heard in Mercury transforms this whimsical piece into a highly sophisticated form of pop imagery.

Tomita often used the contrast between purely electronic and instrumental-like sounds as a source of humor. In Jupiter, for example, the jousting of these elements creates a carnival atmosphere.

Things begin to get more serious - and more electronically-oriented - in Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age. Both here and in Uranus, The Magician, Tomita depicts a journey toward the fringes of the solar system and outer space: the unknown.

This is the point at which real philosophical content merges with Tomita's pop style. And it is this content, combined in Neptune with the goofy spaciness that pervades the earlier cuts, which makes Tomita's concept something more than escapist entertainment.


Tupper Saucy, "The Planets - Tomita (1976) RCA Red Seal", Silencer Online Music Magazine, 20 July, 1996

What motivates a person to undertake to faithfully reproduce orchestral music on a heap of synths? A one-man misanthropic mission to put all human musicians out of work? Maybe an alien encounter? In this case, the latter seems the more likely explanation, given the sounds Tomita coaxed from his arsenal of boxes when he recorded his version of Holst's Planets suite. That and his claim that he was shown how to create the sounds by music teachers of a hugely advanced civilization from another universe.

The beginning of this album has to be heard to be believed and it's the perfect bait to reel you in for the whole experience. It's one of the main themes from the work, played on a music box, accompanied by a sound which conjures up a spacecraft coming in to land, which in turn is then interrupted by astronauts' voices chattering away in their alien 'wah' dialect. Download the file called 'Astrovoice' and strap yourself in tight for a real flavour of what I'm ranting about here. It's hilarious but spot on.

This is no half-baked adaptation but a note-by-note transcription of the work. Often, it's so faithful to the spirit of the original piece that you'd imagine that Holst might have really dug it, though sometime after its release, it was taken out of circulation for few years by a court order obtained by Holst's relatives, who claimed that Tomita had manhandled the composition. Jeez, he only got the robots in to do a better job.

Given the popularity of old synthesizers now, the lexicon/palette of sounds on this album is strikingly familiar and it gives the electronica maestros, eulogised elsewhere in these pages, a damn fine run for their money. There's a place for all the cheesiest keyboard sounds as they're each effortlessly put in their perfect settings. In fact, Rick Wakeman never sounded so bad.

It's not really so many giant steps away from the friendly neighbourhood of the repetitive beat but, era notwithstanding, the sounds are amazing, lending much credence to Tomita's claims of inter-galactic evening classes. Many are very reminiscent of those which form the soundtrack of the film, 'Forbidden Planet', a score so strange and wonderful that it demands more than just a footnote here.

Apparently reviled and adored in equal proportions by those who've heard of him, probably many of the former bought his albums when they were marketed in the 70s as THE music of the future. Not that it sounds dated to 90s ears. Even now, there's no stopping the Honorary President of the Japan Synthesizer Programmers Association. He's packed a lot into over thirty years of knob-twiddling. During that time, amongst other madcap shenanigans, he's held 'Sound Cloud' concerts, where whole clusters of sound are sent across continents, then whacked out into space. He's even got a new album scheduled for release this year, entitled ...ahem... 'Bach Fantasy', but take my word for it: THIS is the one you need.

Rick, Tomita eats your heart out...



Sleeve Notes

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This Album was Produced, Arranged, Programmed for Synthesizers, Performed, Recorded and Mixed Down by Isao Tomita
Electronically Created by Isao Tomita
Produced by Plasma Music, Inc.
Recorded in 1976
Sound Design and Dolby Surround Remix Supervisor: Nathaniel S. Johnson
Engineer: Marian Conaty
Dolby Lab Consultants: Robert S. Warren and Michael V. DiCosmo
Monitored Exclusively on Snell Acoustics Loudspeakers Designed by Kevin Voecks

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