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San Francisco Moog: 1968​-​72

by Doug McKechnie

supported by
Lavinie Cloutier
Lavinie Cloutier thumbnail
Lavinie Cloutier Ok Ça c'est pour les tripeux comme moi! Écoutez ça!

Wow! wow! I found something truly historic! I love this sound. I remember that! Some progressive bands have used it! I can't believe I found this album amazing!! So happy!

Maman pirate buzz totalement sur le trésor qu'elle vient de trouver! ;-)
Brian Flindall
Brian Flindall thumbnail
Brian Flindall This is a such a wonderful discovery. If you love electronic music this is an essential purchase 🙏🏻
Barry Anderson
Barry Anderson thumbnail
Barry Anderson Waiting on the vinyl for a listen and it just came. Wow! Proto-Berlin School grooves that highlight an amazing facet of the beginnings of the electronic scene. Some of the best of 60s Moog.
Mitch Mitcherson
Mitch Mitcherson thumbnail
Mitch Mitcherson Hypnotic Moog sessions. Carefully shaped synthesis. Perfect for transmitting to aliens or just listening to. Favorite track: Baseline.
hainbachlistens
hainbachlistens thumbnail
hainbachlistens Lovely free playing on this - you feel the joy of discovery. Favorite track: Baseline.
Josh Reineke
Josh Reineke thumbnail
Josh Reineke Good stuff - glad I found it. Very happy to score a copy of the vinyl for Bandcamp day! Favorite track: Baseline.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $8 USD  or more

     

  • 12" Vinyl Repress
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    The long-awaited repress of this game-changer. 140 gram black vinyl. Printed inner sleeve with liner notes from Stephen Hill, producer of Hearts of Space.

    Includes unlimited streaming of San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Limited Edition 12" Vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    140 gram black vinyl. Printed inner sleeve with liner notes from Stephen Hill, producer of Hearts of Space.

    Includes unlimited streaming of San Francisco Moog: 1968-72 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

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Baseline 05:12
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5.
Crazy Ray 08:25

about

San Francisco Moog documents for the first time a critical missing link in the history of electronic music. In 1968, a young singer named Doug McKechnie got hold of one the very first Moog Modular Series III synthesizers ever made—serial number 004—and began experimenting with it. Soon, he was hauling its many components around the Bay Area, performing improvised concerts for audiences whose minds had been opened by psychedelia but whose ears were often unfamiliar with electronic sounds. Working outside of academia and traditional recording studios—the only places one could find Moogs at the time—he invented his own way to play the instrument on the fly. He recorded many of his performances.

After four years, McKechnie lost access to the expensive Moog. He moved on to other musical and creative endeavors. The recordings he made on quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape gathered dust in a closet for decades, and have never been released until now.

The music on San Francisco Moog captures McKechnie eschewing the somber rigor of the academic electronic music of the era for a more free-flowing, melodic sound that nonetheless explores the limits of the instrument’s plastic sonic possibilities. Using the keyboard and two 24-step sequencers that came with the deluxe Moog, he created music that wove together multiple electronic voices in the moment, an innovation typically ascribed to later pioneers like Tangerine Dream (who would end up the owners of the very same Moog—but that’s another story).

Cuts like “The First Exploration @ SF Radical Labs, 1968” and “Berkeley Art Museum” find McKechnie building and expanding musical moods that capture the in-the-moment nature of his playing. “Meditation Moog 1968” finds him taking a more minimalist approach, while still exploring the instrument’s timbral possibilities. “Baseline” and “Crazy Ray,” though improvised, sound more like fully formed musical compositions, with melody, counterpoint, and even hooks of a sort.

San Francisco Moog not only proves a transportive listening experience, it casts a new light on the accepted history of electronic music.

credits

released October 23, 2020

All pieces were created improvisationally in an atmosphere of exploration and discovery on a Moog Modular Series III synthesizer and recorded live with no overdubbing to Ampex PR-10, Nagra 3, or TEAC four-channel recorders.

Produced by Doug McKechnie, Lee Gardner, and PJ Dorsey
Mastered by A.F Jones at Laminal Audio
Art direction by Frank Hamilton and Nolen Strals
Mandala art by Richard Winn Taylor

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Doug McKechnie Oakland, California

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