The Electronic Music Pioneer You Might Never Suspect

A friend of mine recently shared a video clip of the Raymond Scott Quintette performing "War Dance For Wooden Indians" from the film "Happy Landings", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbR6YZs8hqs (the drummer is AMAZING). There are also clips featuring Scott discussing his "Manhattan Research Project" and I was reminded that I actually have all of this on LP. When not conducting his famous ensemble Scott ensconced himself in his studio to create sound mosaics, zany ditties and experiments. Some of this work was done as background music/sound effects in advertisements for Vicks Cough Drops, Auto-Lite Spark Plugs, Nescafe, ETAL. He even created the first electronic keyboard called "Raymond Scott Clavivox" that predated the Mellotron by several years. I love this stuff. Scott's compositions for traditional instruments are quirky enough, when left to his own devices in a vacuum the results are even more madcap. And at times awe inspiring by the sheer advanced conceptualization. Track 5 on Vol. 1, "The Bass-Line Generator" and Track 9 on Vol. 2, "The Rhythm Modulator" are incredible. Scott imagined and created devices that did things way before the development of modules known as "sequencers", and I'm going out on a limb here to say that his inventions gave birth to the notion of what is possible by generating patterns through the manipulation of high frequency waveform oscillators controlled by low frequency oscillators. "The Bass-Line Generator" sounds at times so much like what Kraftwerk accomplished I'd not be surprised that Ralph und Florian owned or knew of these recordings. Thank you for all the fun and inspiration, Raymond Scott!