 SPIN: ''Paranoiac, visionary, misanthrope, and machine fetishist, the late composer Raymond Scott was also an electronic music pioneer and inventor geek who had Madison Avenue paying him to soundtrack its vision of postwar American futurism. The music on MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is both archaic and tres moderne. It reveals the fears and fantasies of a nation in boom-time denial. And Scott mischievously spikes almost every one with a dystopian mickey: could give a kid nightmares for years.'' (written by Senior Editor, Will Hermes)
 THE VILLAGE VOICE: ''Ensures a life-size statue will someday be built in Japan on behalf of Raymond Scott's tireless crusade for electronic music.''
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE: ''Indicates that Raymond Scott's most creative work was as an inventor of electronic music instruments. During the '50s and '60s he developed one-of-a-kind synthesizers and sequencers. Some of his perky, quizzical little pieces now sound quaint, but others were remarkably prescient.'' THE NEW YORK OBSERVER: ''Raymond Scott was an inventor of synthesizers as far back as the 1940s. In an age that treats aesthetic obsession with Prozac, this sort of music is priceless. You can't dance to it, but today's listener will get a better understanding of this country through Scott. Witness the birth of a nation, or, at the very least, modernity.'' BALTIMORE CITY PAPER: ''Paul Schaffer, cutting-edge genius? Such a revelation would be no more shocking than the news that the late Raymond Scott, musical director for the 1950s milquetoast-pop TV show Your Hit Parade and composer of 'Powerhouse,' was one of the 20th century's unsung electronic music pioneers. MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is an astonishing two-CD tour of Scott's synthetic sound world. Musically, Scott was way beyond novelty. The rhythms and textures place him as a hitherto unknown eccentric uncle in the intelligent dance music family tree.'' MOJO: ''The music of synthesizer pioneer Raymond Scott makes most of his successors seem slavishly conventional and insipid. MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is quite possibly the most lovingly-packaged CD ever assembled, replete with archive photos, period adverts and more information than you'll find in entire books on electronic music. A work of art in its own right, this puts to shame the efforts of most major record companies.'' THE ONION: ''Raymond Scott's early sequencing and emulation sound strange even today, and the set's 144-page book confirms that the inventions were even stranger.'' THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: ''Raymond Scott grew impatient with the limitations of live musicians. He became an inventor, and devoted his life to trying to rule musicians out completely. In his vast electronic studio, developed in the Fifties, his machines produced sound sculptures and what sounds like funky sequenced rave music. The sounds are frighteningly similar to those on recent releases by the likes of the Aphex Twin and DJ Shadow. This fabulously produced double CD is a delightful journey into the world of a forgotten genius.'' THE INDEPENDENT: ''Synthesizers, drum machines, multi-track recorders, and sequencers. All the technology that makes electronic music possible owes a debt to Raymond Scott, one of the 20th century's greatest innovators. Scott's importance lies mainly in his realization of the rhythmic possibilities of electronic music, which laid the foundation for all electro-pop from disco to techno.'' THE GAURDIAN: ''Makes you yearn for an age in which electronica couldn't just be bought as ready-wrapped software, but was something to which you had to devote time, space and thousands of feet of wiring. Listening to Scott's music now, you could believe he invented just about everything that followed. The real 2000 was nothing like the rocket-science utopia that Scott imagined, but his music has somehow become very much the sound of now.'' SALON.com | SONICNET.com: ''Raymond Scott made the sounds of a future that electronic musicians are still working toward. Scott's clicks and cuts could pass now for the most vanguard techno. The divebombing sine waves and sizzling circuit breakers sound all the more startling for the fact that Scott was working on instruments of his own invention. Beautifully packaged, the set's book chronicles all of this with countless photos, interviews, schematic drawings, patent awards and detailed notes on Scott's experiments. And it's a good thing -- as shockingly modern as his work still sounds today, anything less would make it hard to believe Scott lived when he did.'' ALL-MUSIC GUIDE: ''Nothing that has been recorded since within the field of electronic music has obscured the originality and genius of these works. And the packaging -- from the compilation of tracks to the exhaustive liner notes, photographs, and interviews -- is a clinic in presentation. Absolutely essential for any electronic music fan, and completely out of this world, regardless of century. Scott's name should be just as well-known as Beethoven.'' WORLDLY REMAINS: ''Raymond Scott made a more important contribution to electronic music than Stockhausen or Eno. Scott was a pioneer that realized the potential of electronic music to become an important part of popular culture. Thanks in part to him, electronic music is now EVERYWHERE around us. In the end, his gift to us was to expand the sonic palette to include a still unimaginable universe of sound.'' RECORD COLLECTOR: ''The bewildering variety of hypnotic blips, bleeps and swathes of white noise, pumped through Raymond Scott's own inventions, conjure up a futuristic and often startling world. Today, they represent a compelling historical document for enthusiasts of electronica.'' AMAZON.com: ''Raymond Scott was impossibly ahead of his time. Nothing captures his diverse sound creations as well as MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. Gorgeous packaging, previously unreleased photos, and liner notes by Robert Moog and others make this a must for fans of electronic music.'' RECORD MART & BUYER: ''The music is totally compelling. The amazing thing about Scott's electronic music is the freshness. It is not random displays of electronic tones and noisy oscillators. As a gifted composer, bandleader, and arranger, Scott took great pains to create the electronic music he made. If you like Kraftwerk, Scott's early electronic music is for you. It is driven by melody, rhythm, and harmony. There is also electronic textures that have echoes in the explorations of Aphex Twin, The Residents, Throbbing Gristle, and Dome.'' BBC RADIO ONE: ''There was a hidden side to Raymond Scott: the mad inventor. Forget Bugs Bunny or Glen Miller, Scott's real passion lay in electronics. He spent every spare hour developing revolutionary new music making machines. He created sounds that musicians today deem to be way ahead of his time. There's no denying the creative genius that Scott left us. The bulk of Scott's pioneering electronic work has remained unreleased until now.'' EPULSE: ''It's a book! It's a couple CDs! It blows my mind! Something truly remarkable has been achieved here, as it writes an important new chapter into the public understanding and appreciation of Raymond Scott's life and career. The research that went into this project is lovingly mirrored in the absolutely astounding 144-page full-color hardbound book that houses the two discs, and contains rare photos and documents, numerous interviews and essays, and not one element is superfluous.'' PULSE!: ''MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is fantastic. An amazing document, with an enviable attention to detail. The thoroughly researched 144-page book confirms what the music indicates: Raymond Scott was ahead of his time.'' (written by Senior Editor, Peter Menton) AQUARIOUS: ''For the most part, the experiments meshing pop and academic 'New Music' have been pretty lame -- but not those of Raymond Scott. MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is a wonderful collection of electronic esoterica. It should also be noted that, if you didn't know any better, on first listen, there's a good chance you would mistake this for a Tape Beatles or Negativland record!'' CREATIVE LOAFING: ''Raymond Scott was a protean gizmo-tinkerer who was inventing rhythm machines and bassline generators when Kraftwerk were mere gleams in a test tube's eye. MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is a wondrously packaged collection.'' PERFECT SOUND FOREVER: ''Sparkly bright, infectiously frisky, sci-fi-futurismo pops, clicks, wows, flutters, rhythm exercises which some Detroit or Berlin tech-nerd needs to sample today.'' OTHER MUSIC: ''An impeccably documented and impossibly thorough set. Raymond Scott defined what the public heard of early electronic music. As it's resurrected here, it still sounds completely fresh and, in some cases, mindblowingly prescient.'' ANIMATION BLAST: ''A must-have item, produced by Gert-Jan Blom and Jeff Winner: it's the coolest audio head-trip I've ever taken. The book gives you everything you need to know about this zany creative genius in these experimental years. This is another side of Raymond Scott's incredible musical talent, one that anyone into pop culture can truly appreciate.'' LUXURIA MUSIC: ''MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is absolutely brilliant. The music found within the boffo packaging is capable of stunning listeners with its' prophetic power. Strange, uncontaminated cabers of subsonic bass bounce end over end on top of rattletrap rhythms. The sound of the future beamed in from fifty years past. MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is a great, if not indispensable, purchase.'' INFINITY PRESS: ''There are cool releases, then there's that one that just blows you away: suddenly you realize what's been missing in your spiritual diet all these years. Both strange and fascinating, this collection works like a George Jetson/Mark Mothersbaugh populuxe symphony. This techno-primitive collection is experimental, minimalistic, funny; futuristic and slightly disturbing; a whiter, brighter space age world as Scott's electronics build Frankenstein dance songs and ghostly sound effects behind them. One of the best releases of the year.'' | |  U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT: ''There's a new Raymond Scott 2-CD set titled, MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. The polymorphic composer, who led the band on the '50s show Your Hit Parade, invented instruments like the Clavivox, an early synthesizer. As corporate drones chorus in 'The Paperwork Explosion': 'Machines should work. People should think.'.''
 VANITY FAIR: Pop music icon Elvis Costello included Raymond Scott's MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. among his all-time favorite "albums essential for a happy life."
TIME OUT: ''Raymond Scott's resume makes today's dot-com geniuses look like tea boys: He helped train Bob Moog and invented half the electronic music devices in existence. He made electronic music before we even had TVs. Much of it will sound very déjà vu to modern ears: like Aphex Twin and Plone, 45 years early. Producers Gert-Jan Blom and Jeff Winner have compiled one great listen. You will fondle the hardbound volume lovingly and flip through its tiny perfect pages. It's a time capsule; a testament to Scott's frightening work ethic and impossibly limber mind that puts the kibosh on notions of linear progress in technology and the arts.'' THE BOSTON PHOENIX: ''An immaculately researched and packaged two-CD and book set, and a startling piece of retro-futurism. It's the sound of a single inventor trying to discover the future.'' THE WIRE: ''The shimmering optimism of Raymond Scott's electronic music reveals an exuberant continence in the creative applications of technology. By using it to bring gloss and sparkle to prevailing notions of progress, he helped drag electronic music out of the laboratory and into the home. Our suburbs and supermarkets would never be the same.'' SELECT: ''Hail Raymond Scott, unsung hero of techno. On MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. you hear primitive house music, evil easy listening, and whacked-out ambient -- somewhere between avant-garde composition and pop. Beam us up Mr. Scott.'' WHAT'S ON: ''Before Kraftwerk, before Brian Eno -- before basically any modern experimental electronic musician you can think of -- there was Raymond Scott. Both of it's time and ahead of it, it's also worth a peek for the hardcover book.'' BIZARRE: ''WOW, WOW, WOW, and wow. MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is a mind-blowing piece of sonic research, archeaology and product design.'' TOP: ''The sounds Raymond Scott squeezed from his electronic arsenal are wild to say the least. The result of Scott's futuristic space noise is surreal, hilarious and slightly menacing.'' UNCUT: ''Obsessively secretive and, thus, largely unrecognized in his own day, Raymond Scott was nevertheless one of the greatest innovators in musical technology in the 20th century. Featured within this superb package are many of the man's private improvisations, some of which sound so contemporary it's hard to believe they were made up to 50 years ago.'' THE BIG ISSUE: ''Raymond Scott is the founding father of repetitive bleep music. His busy career is outlined in a totally cool full-color 144-page book which comes with the set. Everyone form an orderly queue behind James Lavelle and Orbital.'' FUTURE MUSIC: ''Don't be ashamed to admit you've never heard of him, as this new double-CD and 144-page hardback book aims to bring Raymond Scott's music and research to a wider audience. It's crammed full of pictures and sketches of his pioneering work in synth technology.'' KEYBOARD: ''Few in the music industry can boast more extensive credentials than Raymond Scott. He developed the first music sequencing machine, multi-track tape recorders, and the Clavivox, a forunner to the Moog synthesizer. MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is a fabulous package.'' ICE: ''Fascinating: delving deep into the work of sonic adventurer Raymond Scott. The lavish 144-page book which accompanies the package, points to Scott's homemade creations as evidence of his prescience and playfulness.'' MIXMAG: ''Did this man invent Acid House in 1955? Imagine a long time ago -- back before House Music, before Studio 54, before the Beatles, before Elvis Presley's first single. It's 1955. Meet Raymond Scott: The Great Granddaddy of electro-dance, who created acid squeals, drum machines, and cyberfreaks. Listening today to the recordings that Scott made during the 50s and 60s is astonishing. The 4/4 rhythms, the simple electronic pulses and, most of all, the hypnotic loops are all intact. They somehow lock the listener's brain into the same place it goes when hearing Puncture's 'Acid Trax,' Josh Wink's 'Higher State of Consciousness' or just about anything Warp Records ever put out. Scott would have been amazed to see clubs full of people dancing to the music he imagined.'' THE INFORMATION: ''This lovely two-CD oddity comes with a 144-page book describing Raymond Scott's pioneering electronic sounds. Made during the Space Race era, there's also collaborative works with Jim 'Muppet' Henson. A great idea for a gift.'' LIP SERVICE: ''Raymond Scott's was a mind far ahead of it's time. Trading conventional instruments for those of his own design, he introduced listeners to the brave new world of electronic sounds played with a pop sensibilty. MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. captures his genius in an educational, exciting, and entertaining package.'' NEXT MUSIC: ''Raymond Scott pressed the boundaries of musical definition. Scott examined fine variations in tone and frequency, processing every imaginable possibility under the microscope that was his ears and brain. MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. is for anyone interested in the heritage of electronic music. This is one hell of a good package.'' WNYC, SPINNING ON AIR: ''There are still aspects of Raymond Scott's work to discover. Concurrent with his other musical projects, Scott was exploring the possibilities of electronic music, and now some of his electronic experiments are available on a lavish release called MANHATTAN RESRARCH INC.'' HENSON.com: ''In the mid-1960's, Jim Henson collaborated with Raymond Scott, a pioneer in electronic music, on several short films. Now you can learn more about this little known period of Jim Henson's life through MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC., a 2-CD set of Scott's music. The collection contains an essay written by Karen Falk, Archivist for The Jim Henson Company.'' BARNES & NOBLE: ''Raymond Scott was an electronic music pioneer who not only composed fascinating inorganic music, but also invented patented instruments. Listening to Scott's music today can be somewhat disorienting -- its chirpy blips sound simultaneously primitive and futuristic, outlandishly bizarre but cozily familiar. It's a well-deserved homage to a man whose aural noodling broke new ground and challenged our notion of what music should be.'' DUSTY GROOVE: ''Far from being the sort of turgid dark knob-twiddling that computer music later became in the academy, Raymond Scott's early experiments are filled with a sense of whimsy and joy, and applied in a fantastic way to his evolving musical inventions. The scope of the work is amazing. Plus, the whole thing's packaged in this super-cool hardcover book, with a whopping 144 pages.'' ANNALS OF IMPROBABLE RESEARCH (AIR): ''Like Raymond Scott himself, these 2-CDs with accompanying book is difficult to categorize, and interesting in the extreme. First of all, what is it? Is it a small book with a couple of illustrative CDs? Or is it a CD double-album with seriously overgrown liner notes? You have to read the liner notes to properly appreciate those wonderful sounds, and read the rest of book to understand the liner notes. Raymond Scott was a secretive genius who worked like a mediaeval craftsman, keeping his trade secrets and selling only the results: the soundtrack of that 'Future' we were sure was just around the corner in the 50s and 60s. He rarely published his designs, but his name belongs up there in LEDs with Robert Moog, Leon Theremin, and Gyorgi Beep.'' GOOGLEPLEX.com: ''This collection of Raymond Scott's previously unreleased 1950s & '60s electronic music must be seen, heard, and read.'' WFMU: ''A monumental retrospective of the primitive electronic sounds of the late composer/inventor. Further out than any Nurse With Wound, Yahowa, or Jordy record.'' PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER: ''Raymond Scott was a guarded electronic music innovator and inventor, a manipulator of the emotional moment, and a fascinating creature. The new compilation shows the maverick behind the green velvet curtain. It reveals a Scott thoroughly obsessed with sound, the Scott who created and sold patented electronic musical inventions. He seemed the Kraftwerkian ideal of man-machine, desirous of creating life in a vacuum.'' REAL DETROIT WEEKLY: ''Raymond Scott, along with others, are Electronica's founding fathers. Scott's world was a different one. He marched to the beat of his own drum, er, beat sequencer.'' MEGACORP: ''So much that seems contemporary is already stated here. More post modern than post modern. This collection hits on so many levels: musical, experimental, sociological, historical, that it is impossible to exaggerate it's importance. And it makes great listening. The book is superb and the research impressive. This is a thing of beauty, of history and of strangeness. Incomparable: a glimpse into one eccentric life. Priceless. And cheap.'' MISC. MEDIA: ''Raymond Scott was one of the earliest creators of electronic music. This two-CD set is what the world was supposed to sound like by now. And, thanks to certain dance-music genres, much of it does.'' |
