You Had To Be Nuts To Make Electronic Music Before Computers

The bizarre world of electronic music was a whole lot stranger before computers came along.

You had to be a real nutter if you wanted to make music before computers became the primary tool for music creation. Making a single track meant spending long hours in the studio cutting up tapes of screaming cats and using metallic pins to patch synthesizers.  It’s worth appreciating just how insane the actual process of creation used to be.

This 1980 documentary is completely unscripted in order to emphasize the crazy elements of pre-computer electronic music. It follows New Zealand composer Chris Cree Brown as he uses ping-pong balls to play piano wire, takes an afternoon stroll with a pan flute and gets so freaked out by his own bubble synth sounds that he has to unbutton his shirt. In other words, its a sick 15 minute insight into how things were done before Ableton grids, computer screens and mice took over. Watch the film above.

Stream the legendary Sub Rosa anthology of experimental music here.