| View Larger Image | Doctor Who: At the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Vol. 1 (Dr Who Radio Collection) | Audio CDby Various Artists (Author)
| List Price: | $28.90 | |
| | Binding: | Audio CD | | Publisher: | BBC Audiobooks Ltd | | Publication Date: | September 01, 2003 | | Sales Rank: | 1,388,204st |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Doctor Who, this 3 CD release looks back through the radio archives and highlights the wide variety of Doctor Who features and interviews which have been broadcast over the years. Dozens of extracts - many of which have been unheard since their first broadcast - illustrate how the programme has been a national institution, held in fond regard by adults and children alike. Amongst those featured are Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Terry Nation, K9 and, of course, the Daleks. Also included is a one-hour documentary tracing the series' first thirty years, narrated by Nicholas Courtney. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 10 reviews)
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Entry into the Machine by Mr. A. Pomeroy (Wiltshire, England)  4 Stars
June 13, 2008
Overall this has very little music, but it's a fascinating listening experience nonetheless. You might have to skip past the theme tune, because you've heard it before, and it's on the record three times (four if you count the end theme). The rest is a mixture of unsettling ambient drones, disturbing space atmospheres, and cold, dispiriting pings and whooshes. As an ambient record it is super, although I wish the theme music had been put in a single block at the beginning or end; it's annoying to have the haunting electronic tonalities suddenly interrupted by the familiar dan-da-dan, dan-da-dan, ooo-eee-ooo etc.
My favourite track is "Cybermats attracted to Wheel". It's a zap noise that repeats a few times, but it's a lovely boing noise, and I love the way it repeats. The selection from The Wheel in Space, which makes up tracks 37 - 51, is like a miniature early Tangerine Dream record, or a more peaceful Stockhausen. It is my favourite part of the album. "Floating Through Space" and "Skaro: Petrified Foreset" are sinister, "Interior Rocket (Suspense Music)" is menacing, and "Jarvis in a Dream State" is perturbing. Listening to the music without watching the show, I am left with a mental impression of avant-garde experimental black and white horror cinema. I have a mental impression of some very clever people in a stark, abandoned school hall, carefully preparing tapes and oscilloscopes. It's reminiscent of Gil Mellé's music from The Andromeda Strain.
I say "music", but this album often blurs the boundaries between noise and music, and indeed many of the tracks were commissioned as background atmospheres rather than tunes. Several of them consist of a single albeit often complicated effect, e.g. "Galaxy Atmosphere", which is an evolving whooshing noise layered on top of itself. Other highlights of the record include "Machine and City Theme", which has an ominous, grinding feel; the peaceful, ambient "Musak", which should have been released as a single; and "White Void", which is cold, so cold, like the universe itself. Track 29, "Chromophone Band", is a relatively conventional tune with a melody and a beat. It sounds like the work of Joe Meek. It was written by Dudley Simpson, and arranged in typically inventive style by Delia Derbyshire. The "Chumbley" tracks are cute, and it's a shame that Chumbley has to die (with an electronic death gasp!).
As the title of the record states, this music was made between 1963 and 1969, years before Kraftwert. It sounds timeless, as if from another universe where time does not exist. The record as a whole is hard to rate. It's a useful historical document, and it does what it sets out to do, compiled with love and care. In that respect it is a rip-roaring success. As a thing to listen to in the car it's a disaster unless your car is travelling through a time portal, or has become lost in fog on Dartmoor. If that is the case, the album is perfect.
It's worth looking on Google for Mark Ayres' website; he compiled the record, and on his website he writes about the tracks, telling us that e.g. "Cyber Invasion" was originally eight minutes long (it is a whooshing noise, the audio equivalent of a barber's pole, and it would be horrible to listen to for eight minutes).
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DR WHO RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP VOLUME ONE by William Scot Thompson (LAS VEGAS NV. USA.)  5 Stars
May 07, 2007
THIS IS A MARVALIOUS COLLECTION OF MUSISAL TONALITIES FROM THE EARLY YEARS OF THE VENERABLE BRITISH TV TIME TRAVELING SMASH HIT DR WHO. FROM THE 1964 ORIGINAL OPENING TITLE THEME TO THE CLOSING THEME YOU WILL HEAR UNEARTHLY SOUNDS ELECTRICLY SYNSHESTIZED WITH AMAZING AND SMASHING SUCESS! BRINGING BACK A FLOOD OF MRMORIES OR IF IT IS YOUR FIRST TIME, NOCKING YOUR ELECTRIC SOCKS OFF.INSPIRED BY THE 1956 MOVIE FORBIDDEN PLANET; DR WHO GREATLY SURPASSED IT WITH SOUNDS AND MUSIC AND THECHNOLOGY THAT LEAD DIRECTLY TO ALL OF POP MUSIC FROM MOOG TO THE ELECTRO POP INVASION OF THE LATE 70s TO TODAYS BLAND DIGITAL POPULAR FARE. TAKE A CHANCE AND SEE WHAT THE FUTURE OR PAST MY SOUND LIKE!! THEN WHEN YOU HAVE RETURNED FROM YOUR MAGICAL TRAVELS TRY VOLUME TWO FOR JUST AS GOOD A TRIP, IF NOT BETTER! LEADING YOU TO THE DR.s 1980s. IF YOUR LOOKING FOR A GOOD LISTEN OR A MUSICAL EDUCATION YOU HAVE FOUND IT.
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Niche Music Cuts by Jack Kennedy Jr. (Wise, Virginia, USA)  3 Stars
January 03, 2007
Dr. Who music is historic in the sense that it was the vanguard of the clubby techo-music craze. I purchased the CD after listening to a BBC Radio Show about the Radiophonic Workshop. In a word, "nostalgic."
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The Saga Begins..... by Joel Henderson (Portland, OR United States) 5 Stars
April 21, 2004
So begins Mark Ayers' series of compilations of music/sound effects that the BBC Radiophonic workshop made for Doctor Who. Naturally we begin with the original edit of Ron Grainer's famous theme song leading into a collection of sound effects from the unbroadcast pilot of An Unearthly Child. Most interesting is the first version of the Tardis takeoff sequence, it sounds familiar but remains in its own way different.Much of the disc content comes from the season 5 serial The Wheel in Space. While credited as "special sounds" these are in effect electronic music tracks and really add to the mood. Particularly noticible are the pieces for the cybermen and cybermats.Some reviewers on this site have complained about the lack of music composed by Tristram Cary. Happily a recently released 2 cd set has remedied that. It's called Devils' Planets and if you can find it, grab it.
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Worth Buying by J. J. Dangermond (Portland, OR USA) 4 Stars
February 28, 2002
This is an incredible CD for anyone who is a Doctor Who music and sound buff. The problem: there isn't enough! I was surprised that the James Bond sound track of THE INVASION wasn't included, and that certain small sound bites from THE DOMINATORS were. It is fun to hear bits from long dead Who stories that we will never see. I also wished that some other stories were included, such as THE CHASE. All in all, though, worth the money.
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| Doctor Who: At the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Vol. 2
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Volume 2 of the music, effects and atmospherics from the heyday of the cult TV series from 1970-80. An insight into the BBC recordings workshop pioneering techniques that influenced electronic music. Mute. 2005.
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