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1980s US comedy about the unlikely friendship between a man and his
computer. When architect Miles (Lenny von Dohlen) spills wine all
over his brand new state-of-the-art computer, the last thing he
expects is for the computer to start expressing thoughts and
feelings. But Edgar (voice of Bud Cort), as the computer now calls
itself, is eager to learn all about real life. However, the
friendship between man and machine is soon challenged when a pretty
cello player (Virginia Madsen) moves in next door and Miles and
Edgar find themselves competing for her affections. The film's
title song 'Together in Electric Dreams' became a massive hit for
composer Giorgio Moroder and singer Phil Oakey.
Giorgio Moroder wasn't the first person to play electronic dance
music -- Kraftwerk had a synthesizer oriented sound in the early
'70s, and its electro-beats paved the way for a lot of the hip-hop,
synth-pop, techno, industrial noise, house, and Hi-NRG that came in
the '80s and '90s. But even though Moroder (who, like Kraftwerk's
members, is German) didn't invent electronic dance music
single-handedly, he was among the first people to recognize its
possibilities. In 1979, Moroder showed us some of those
possibilities on E=MC2, a programmed, entirely electronic recording
he produced with Harold Faltermeyer. While Moroder's work with
Donna Summer and others had favored strings and lavish
orchestration, synthesizers and electronic beats defined this LP.
Moroder was hardly the only producer who was using synthesizers in
the late '70s, but while other disco/dance-pop albums of 1979
combined them with horns, strings, and Latin percussion, they are
the very foundation of E=MC2. "In My Wildest Dreams," "I Wanna Rock
You," and "What a Night" are average disco tunes -- it's the
computerized digital production that made them so fresh-sounding
and risk-taking for their time. To fully appreciate how
forward-thinking this album was, you have to remember that in 1979
R&B and dance-pop hadn't gone completely high-tech and were
still relying on a lot of studio musicians. This is the electronic
dance music that preceded the rise of techno, house, and industrial
noise, and it came at a time when hip-hop was in its infancy and
the rave subculture had yet to be invented. Even though the songs
themselves are average, Moroder and Faltermeyer's futuristic
production makes E=MC2 a historically interesting LP that anyone
who has enjoyed electronic dance rhythms needs to check out. ~ Alex
Henderson
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