Douglas Mcgowan, Film Maker/Writer, scroll down to his Thursday, December 8, 2005, posting.
If you have been wondering what all the fuss about "private press new age" is, go here to find out. Your mind shall be subtly blown...
The Fader Magazine #52, page 52 by Chris Richards, Executive Editor,
The FADER, 71 West 23rd Street, Floor 13, New York, NY 10010
Magical Mystery
The Sorcery of JD Emmanuel
Sure, I own a t-shirt with emblazoned with Gilbert Arenas' face, but my new favorite wizard is a spiritual electronic music guru from Houston, Texas. His name is JD Emmanuel, and his superlative self-(re)-leased 1982 album Wizards still bristles with ancient intensity and futuristic wonder. Influenced by Emmanuel's "extensive background in spiritual and metaphysical stuydies" and a love for Reich, Riley and Glass, these blissful analog synth jams should instantlyappeal to fans of Eno, Cluster and the music from "Legend of Zelda." An there's plenty electric relaxation available from Emmanuel's website. Go for the "Wizards" download (samples only), stay for the free meditation advice.
View the actual review page.
David Keenan/Volcanic Tongue - Europe, August, 2007
Much-anticipated reissue of this obscure 1982 private-press minimalist synth/trance masterpiece, more talked about than actually heard and a secret influence on much recent underground activity, from Wolf Eyes through The Skaters. Indeed John Olson was the first person I ever heard talking it up, describing it as sounding like “Corwood jamming Alpha Centauri” and that still feels like as good an approximation of the weirdly personal Kosmiche universe that Emmanuel floats through on this amazing side as you’re likely to get.
There are keyboard lines so pure that they sound like they are etched into the air via beams of dazzling light, the kind of celestial melodies and hosanna hymns most commonly associated with the heavy devotional cloak of mid-period Popol Vuh, occult drones that sound endlessly deep and a very personal cosmology that balances cracked ‘real people’ mysto-universe musings with everything that the term New Age might’ve been, had it been primarily practiced by future-bending loners in private Sirius-channelling lodges situated at the cardinal points of the earth.
Something so completely lonesome about this that every time you spin it in the early hours it feels as if the very world has stopped spinning. All in all a major re-issue and the one that’ll start you off chasing down alla those weird late 70s/early 80s synth/new age privates. Comes in a wrap around silkcreened sleeve version of the original packaging. Highly recommended.
From Boomkat Monthly Roundup, August, 2007
Chances are you won't have heard of J D Emmanuel before. This record in particular was a private pressing released back in 1982 and owned by a select few punters who quite clearly did their research. In recent years the record's reputation has spread, with rumours circulating that it was a transcendent blend of Terry Riley, The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Popul Vuh and early Kraftwerk - but finding it was about as easy as looking for a connection between Wolf Eyes and The Spice Girls.
Then, without fanfare, the album re-appeared as a limited edition on the Belgian 'Dreamtime Taped Sounds' and we knew as soon as we got our grubby mitts on a copy that this was something that simply had to be heard to be believed, that would stun just about everyone we know with its almost meditative electronic explorations. I'm sure many of you remember Delia Derbyshire's amazing 'Electrosonic' LP (that lasted about two weeks...) and this album gives us the same kind of chills, it's just THAT sound, it's impossible to put your finger on but even more impossible to re-create. With the amount of retro-electronic music coming out at the moment you'd think someone would have nailed it, but no, it's still these records that emerged at the time, that came from people genuinely excited by the technology and the possibilities this technology could inform that really hit you where you need to be hit.
Using three Sequential Circuit Pro-1 synthesizers, a Crumar Organ and some delays (recording direct to tape) Emmanuel manages to conjure up deep, distorted faraway lands, astral plains and shimmering multi-coloured skies - the soft synthesizer tones dictating the journey perfectly. Whether with bubbling, almost sequenced-sounding synth bass, or with organ-like improvised phrases, Emmanuel never takes a wrong turn and this is an album that will rarely leave your turntable (trust me, it's been welded to mine since I got it).
The sensitivity and simplicity of the music is almost impossible to convey, suffice to say we think it's one of the best (and most unexpected) things we've heard this year so far, and followers of early electronic music, Kraftwerk and the Radiophonic Workshop need to get a hold of one right away. Stunning stuff, and incredibly limited - we only have a few so be quick if you want to secure yourself a copy. ESSENTIAL PURCHASE.
Blastitude - SEPT 19 2007 (TWENTIETH DAY OF QUEST), scroll down page to find review
Lotsa synth action going around in today’s weird underground and that’s understandable. It's a sound for the ages, so alien, cold, and futuristic, but also somehow very human, offering immediate translation of obscure brainwaves and the deepest mental landscapes into sound/music/art. Still a lot to accomplish there, but before you get all excited and record a rad new CDR release every time you turn the damn thing on, make sure you’ve checked out the source, like any of the awesome first seven Heldon albums or Terry Riley's monumental Persian Surgery Dervishes.
There are probably a hundred more examples after those, and probably the deepest of them all is Wizards by J.D. Emmanuel, a beautiful and relaxing album of driving and pulsing synth and organ music, released in 1982 as a private press LP from Houston, Texas . . . Belgium label Dreamtime Taped Sounds has put out a new “25th anniversary” vinyl reissue. I kinda wish they would've left the eerie B&W cover photo of Emmanuel "dry" like it is on the originals, but it's actually a little creepier this way, and the vinyl itself sounds superb, the sonic treatment that these 37 minutes of "at-one-ment" deserve...
Population Doug Blogspot, October, 2007
There's a reason why this album has been the object of nerdly desires for years, and the subject of a 2007 reissue. Wizards' 37 minutes contain some of the most delicate, captivating minimal electronic ideas ever put to tape. It is a song cycle containing five parts, each one based upon a cyclical synth pattern along with some form of melody. "Part II: Prayer" builds upon "Part I"'s simple repetition of notes with a more free-form use of sharp synth melody. These two tracks are similar in theme to much of Cluster's Zuckerzeit or parts of Low's second half. That is, it wanders along with other classic kosmiche nebula not missing a beat.
The album's three remaining tracks are longer and even more cosmic in spirit. Actually, the more I listen to these longer pieces the less Terry Riley I hear. These parts are more raw than anything the American minimalists recorded, and actually remind me of Conrad Schnitzler's Rot and Blau albums and Klaus Schulz's best work. Emmanuel does an excellent job of humanizing the synth without sacrificing the idea that it is an electronically programmed device. At its best, Wizards can either assist in relaxation as an ambient soundtrack or be the vehicle to whatever conscious voyage you wish to take.
It goes without saying that 2007 is a great revival year for Mr. Emmanuel. Still alive and well and living in Texas, Daniel has recently updated his site and has been posting some rare pressings of his work on eBay. The demand for a vinyl reissue of Wizards twenty five years after its release is direct proof of his growing influence on modern spiritual music. He says that a cd reissue is in the works, so those of you without turntables who want a copy won't have to wait much longer. But for now, you must seek out the last remaining copies of the vinyl or play the samples he provides on his website. Either way, Wizards and all of Emmanuel's work is worth your time.
Conspiracy Records.com, August, 2007
Reissue from this 1982 soothing synth album. This is a listeners experience of meditative trance that will beam you right through the first portal of dreaming. This is lucid magic.
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