Synergy

Larry Fast should be remembered as a pioneer of the synthesiser. Along with Tomita and Wendy Carlos, he used his Synergy platform to produce a number of albums that were grand in scale and orchestrally majestic.

His first album is Electronic Realisations For Rock Orchestra.

This is a great album. As well as original compositions, there’s a re-imagining of Slaughter On Tenth Avenue. After its release, the album was revised to add a stunning version of Mason Williams’ Classical Gas, which also appears on the second album, Sequencer.

There’s lots of analogue synthesiser, of course, plus Mellotron and, rather sneakily, no guitars (this is a nod to early Queen LPs).

Of all the Synergy albums, we love Cords, on clear white vinyl, from 1978:

and Games, from 1979. Many of the tracks are pretty heavy, with crazy tricks played with the beat and the key signatures:

It is not impossible to find these on physical media. There are also some compilation albums, and a ‘new’ (well, 2002) re-recording of some tracks on digital equipment.

All are enjoyable.