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The South Bronx was originally an agricultural area, founded by the Dutch colony in the 17th century with the name of a Swedish farmer “Bronck”. Around 1900, many Italians, Irish, Jews and Germans lived in the Bronx and formed a middle class, but they increasingly left the borough after the World War, creating a working class and poor neighborhood, which unfortunately resulted in a lot of gang crime, car theft, drugs and robberies in the south. In 1977, the Bronx was in flames, causing around 40 percent of the buildings to burn down by 1980. Because homeowners could no longer sell their properties, they set them on fire in order to receive some compensation from the insurance companies. From 1990 onwards, crime fell massively and the Bronx is now known as the dormitory city for Manhattan, as there are only around 300,000 jobs for every 1.3 million inhabitants. The real estate industry quickly renamed the area SoBro and has been marketing it to established professionals and artists for some time now. Has gentrification now begun?

Their debut album “Settle” not only makes the third eye vibrate, it also gets the body moving. With hits such as Latch (feat. Sam Smith), White Noise and You & Me, they brought garage, house and UK bass to the big pop stage - with a fresh, danceable sound. Over the past 10 years, they have proven their versatility time and time again: Their second album Caracal(2015) brought international features with artists such as The Weeknd, Lorde and Miguel. 2020 then saw the release of Energy, an album that draws on influences from African music, hip-hop and soul - once again full of collaborative power and rhythmic finesse.

Filmmakers have learned from this to package content via the ear. At the center of this task is the sound designer/musician who forms a statement and thereby creates content in the film, from his point of view how the world sounds. So we start listening to the world as he sees it! Synthesizers have created new dimensions in this regard that cannot be done with conventional orchestra. A lot of attention is paid in this BBC doc to musician Vangelis, who finally talks about the "Blade Runner" soundtrack as well.

Update: Unfortunately, this doc is no longer on YouTube. Here is another movie about the first synths in history:

But the idea of composing music was of course already born back then! At the beginning of the 1960s, Peter Zinovieff came up with the idea of creating musically meaningful sequences - the sequencer was born. The man with a pocket calculator in his hand was thus only a conclusion from the fact that digital computers are more suitable for the task of playback than analog devices, which quickly reach their storage limits. In 1967, Zinovieff demonstrated an automatic composition with a self-designed computer in combination with an EMS synthesizer, which astounded the audience with a confusing succession of sounds. The history of the computer is therefore closely linked to music, because musical sequences that end automatically in a mini-program can only be handled efficiently by a computer. This documentary impressively shows the period from the early 60s to the early 70s. Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd etc. ultimately only benefited from the creative power of the creators of that time!

Rather, you expect a neo-new-waver dressed in Joy Division style. But that's not the case at all! How do you get hold of this pop star of a new order, who studied music in Los Angeles, lives in Austin, Texas, and teaches philosophy in Hawaii? Preferably not at all, because the album “We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves” is so unrestrainedly mashed together from pop garbage that it sounds idiosyncratic again and is a clear recommendation. It roars, it echoes and somehow something comes out of it that makes you want to press the repeat button...