Description
The White Songbook, sub-titled Legacy. Volume One., is the fifth full-length studio album by the American synthpop band Joy Electric, released on BEC Recordings in August 2001, a division of Tooth & Nail Records. (This is the first volume of the Legacy Series.) The album was performed by Joy Electric – Ronnie Martin, Jeff Cloud, and Todd Gilliland – at Martin’s Electric Joy Toy Company Electronic Music Workshop, with Martin producing. Synthesizer and vocal by Martin, with vocals recorded by Bob Moon. All songs written by Ronnie Martin. Please note: There were no computers, samplers, drum machines or chords used on this recording. This record was made using a mono-phonic analogue synthesizer system and vocals only. Instruments: Roland System 100 model 101, 102, 103, 104, 109 Roland Space Echo 201.
The album has a “book” theme, with the songs logically divided into “chapters,” which are also songs. These chapters are “The White Songbook,” “Hunter Green and Other Histories,” “As Children We Are Growing Younger,” and “A Frog in the Pond.” The introductions to these chapters are relatively short instrumentals, with the exception of “The White Songbook,” which is much longer and features spoken text. The White Songbook marked the beginning of Joy Electric’s practice of recording entire albums using only one synthesizer. The White Songbook was created entirely on the Roland System 100 synthesizer. The album almost completely leaves the more recognizably “pop” sound of Joy Electric’s previous works, both revealing a much more layered and complex sound, as well as a much more progressive musical style with many songs exceeding the five-minute mark.
Joy Electric is Ronnie Martin’s musical amalgamation of Christian ideology and synth rock. The White Songbook: Legacy, Vol. 1 is Martin’s first step in a series of concept albums designed to create a meaningful legacy of work intended to uplift the human spirit and ultimately stand as his greatest artistic achievement. Employing a monophonic analog synthesizer system, Martin stitches together disparate grooves and eccentric sounds into a pop-song format. Whereas a great number of dance/electronica purveyors are content to gobble up precious airtime with relentless beats and repetitive motifs, Martin fills the void with thoughtful tone poems that break into melodies with an evangelic message. Though he’s not a preacher, nor does he intend to be, Martin delivers his celebration of humanity and diatribes against oppression with conviction and sincerity. The old-school analog arrangements on this disc ooze with warmth as Martin peppers his compositions with funky rhythms and soulful call-and-response figures. «The Good Will Not Be Cloned» and «Sing Once for Me» evoke Brian Eno’s groundbreaking trilogy of recordings with David Bowie (Low, Heroes, Lodger) and early Depeche Mode, while «We Are Rock» could fit neatly onto a Madonna album regardless of her fashion-of-the-moment whims. As the moniker suggests, Joy Electric brings joy to electronica. [Tom Semioli, AMG]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-white-songbook-legacy-vol-1/738332491)
CD tracklist:
01. Chapter 1. The White Songbook – 4:15
02. a) Shepherds Of The Northern Pasture – 6:12
03. b) And Without Help We Perish – 5:12
04. c) The Boy Who Never Forgot – 3:51
05. d) Unicornucopia – 6:42
06. Chapter 2. Hunter Green And Other Histories – 1:39
07. e) A New Pirate Traditional – 3:42
08. f) We Are Rock – 3:35
09. g) The Good Will Not Be Cloned Or Why Should The Christians Get All The Bad Music – 3:33
10. Chapter 3. As Children We Are Growing Younger – 1:41
11. h) Sing Once For Me – 6:31
12. i) The Heritage Bough – 6:45
13. Chapter 4. A Frog In The Pond – 0:27
14. j) The Songbook Tells All – 6:29
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