Ian Boddy - Modulations II (2021)

The first synthesiser Ian Boddy ever played was a VCS3 at Spectro Arts Workshop in Newcastle-upon-Tyne sometime in 1978. This weird and wonderful electronic contraption has gone down in synth history as one of the truly original vintage designs. Much loved by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop as well as early progressive and electronic bands it has a look and sound all of its own. Whilst it is a modular synthesiser it went for a pin matrix board where patches were created by inserting pins rather than the more standard patch cable route. However it is notoriously difficult to keep in tune and more often than not gets consigned to sound FX duty.

As a follow up to his first “Modulations” album which saw Boddy compile an album from his live modular synth explorations this time he decided to create an album just using his venerable VCS3. This meant a lot of multi-tracking as well as using some modern Eurorack gear to give a helping hand with various Control Voltage sources such as sequencers, LFOs & envelopes. However all the sounds were painstakingly created using just the VCS3 and with the use of vintage FX such as spring reverb, tape echo & analogue phasing the overall sound has a truly vintage feel.

The four core tracks of the album are being released on a 12” vinyl limited edition (100 copies) by the Greek label Kinetik Records. The digital edition will not only include these tracks which just use the VCS3 but also two bonus tracks from a couple of livestream events Boddy played utilising several of his modular systems. The first, “Livestream 191220” was a broadcast from his DiN studio and is based around the Roland System 100M. The second piece was from his performance at the Phoenix Synthesiser Festival 2021 and uses his Serge & Eurorack systems.