15 track 'best of' retrospective for this innovative songwriter of the '60s & '70s, a must for fans of Raymond Scott, Luke Vibert & Add N To X --the acts that championed his music al vision! Includes 'Coco The Coco... more »nut', 'Jelly Dancers' and 'Army Ants In Your Pants'. 1999 release.« less
15 track 'best of' retrospective for this innovative songwriter of the '60s & '70s, a must for fans of Raymond Scott, Luke Vibert & Add N To X --the acts that championed his music al vision! Includes 'Coco The Coconut', 'Jelly Dancers' and 'Army Ants In Your Pants'. 1999 release.
"I loved this album! I'm only 15, but i know my music, and this music is something i am definitely glad to know. It's different, it's fun, it's interesting, and it's one of a kind! If you don't have it, get it! Share it with everyone! I guarantee it will give you a whole new meaning of music. With Bruce Haack's inventiveness, and Esther Nelson's expressiveness, you will want to listen to it again and again!"
Yo...this cat is the fuzz
Peter Panagakos | Philadelphia, PA | 10/24/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This disc kicks dragon man...check it out
b4 yo microwave starts talkin' 2 U when your're
asleep...namean?"
Good array, but the real reacords are better
S. M Smith | Washington, US | 07/25/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is a good sampling of bruce and miss nelson, but if you get into the weirder aspects of them like me, you'll want to hear the original records or tapes because the "deep album cuts" (hehe deep childrens' cuts) are full of all kind of weird bits both thematically and musically. You can actually still get the original tapes--I did--from miss nelson herself at www.grannypress.com, after discovering their www on...actually, this very record. I was thrilled to be able to get the tapes, although they are a little edited with some substitutions or alternate takes of songs on the LPs. The only place you can find the LPs is all scratched up in public libraries lol--that's where I first heard " The Electronic Record for Children," which got me goin' on Bruce. Bellingham Public Library. If you really want to hear the genius of Bruce Haack goin wild and minus the childrens' act, I very highly recommend you get "electric lucifer book 2." Its an beautiful, amazing peice of electronica, recorded in 1978. EL 1 was released in 1970 i think, and is good also, but has a little too much hippy-dippiness0. Bruce is beautiful on el2. Its available on CD only. I guess there's also a couple of recorded but as-yet not released records out there, like "Skullastic" and "electric lucifer 3 --identified flying object" [!!!!!] We can only hope to ever get to hear those. EL2 remained unreleased until just a few years ago itself. Bruce died fairly young at about 60, just two years before I first heard him."
"Hold on, Miss Nelson while I bring the carpet in...
boeanthropist | Cambridge, MA | 05/26/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"...for a wall-to-wall landing." To paraphrase a line in Bruce Sterling's "Crytonomicon," Bruce Haack was the beard and Esther Nelson was the suit. Their unlikely union produced a dozen or so of the wonderful, incredibly strange children's records from which the CD has been compiled (most of the full albums are still available on cassette) -- basically, some strange, obliquely educational situation is set up, narrated by egghead Haack and the ever-clement Miss Nelson, and backed by BH's primitive synth contraptions and whirring oscillators. "The Jelly Dancers" is absolutelt infectious, as are "Army Ants In Your Pants" and the long, sad tale of "Coco the Coconut" (both of them among the many songs featuring Miss Nelson's own children), and "Upside Down" is so out it alsmost doesn't belong here, one of those stratospheric Haack compositions which take you so far into neverneverland you have to actually think about it to back down to earth when it's over. Hours of fun for the whole family -- buy an extra copy and send it to that stiff, dry old Calvinist who calls himself your father-in-law."
Bruce Haack is The King Of Techno!
Torbanon Stig Hansen | Denmark | 04/04/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I've just watched the movie "Haack: The King Of Techno", and if you don't know Haack, check this out: [...]. Bruce created some weird and wonderful records for children in the 60s, but the amazing thing is that the music is downright techno. He's a true original like Raymond Scott, and anybody interested in modern (electronic) music should listen to Haacks records. Imagination was his only guide, and when he in the 70s became irritated by the conservative and commercial music industry he recorded the angry album "Haackula" (1978), which sounds like a kind of techno-punk. He died in 1988, and recently people like Mouse On Mars and Money Mark from Beastie Boys have recorded a tribute album to the man. Bruce Haack is The King Of Techno!!!"