Listen Compute Rock Home

Bruce Haack | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 26, 1999)
• Original Release Date: November 2, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Emperor Norton
• ASIN: B00002068V
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #271,878 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Way Out -- Intro

2. Motorcycle Ride

3. Jelly Dancers

4. Abracadabra

5. Mudra

6. American Eagle

7. OK Robot

8. Coco The Coconut

9. Hand Jive

10. Army Ants In Your Pants

11. Clocks

12. Popcorn

13. Squarefinger

14. Upside Down

15. Funky Little Song

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Ostensibly, Bruce Haack made records for children, but as a friend said, "I would only play his stuff for a kid I really hated." Mystic, inventor, composer, dance instructor, Canadian, Haack was roughly akin to a psychedelic Buffalo Bob and occupied a universe purely of his own invention. His albums--recorded with his partner Miss Nelson and released in the '60s and '70s on his own Dimension 5 label--aren't your standard PBS fare. In fact, they're about as avant-garde as music for the Sesame Street set gets. Haack's use of primitive synthesizers wouldn't have sounded out of place on an early Neu album and his application of musique concrète techniques have a charming functionality that such abstraction often lacks. His mad-scientist concoctions come off a bit stiff at times, but this is certainly some of the wildest "edutainment" ever waxed. There's a brooding, almost creepy quality to many of the compositions, and their subject matter is utterly absurd, even by children's standards. But the world that Haack conjures is nothing if not liberating, and Listen Compute Rock Home is likely to set a child's imagination reeling. Haack understood that children comprise the most open-minded audience of all, and his work probably fell on more sympathetic ears than that of his eccentric peers who mined other genres. Captain Beefheart should've had it so good. --Matt Hanks

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good array, but the real reacords are better, July 24, 2004

By 

S. M Smith "mansonfamilydog" (Washington, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Listen Compute Rock Home (Audio CD)

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.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of a kind, September 6, 2000

By 

Elana Kieffer (Providence, RI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Listen Compute Rock Home (Audio CD)

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!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent music and movement CD for children of all ages, November 5, 1999

By 

Ted Pandel ([e-mail]) (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Listen Compute Rock Home (Audio CD)

This CD is a magical tour of music and movement concepts that invites creative response from the listener.Particular favorites are "Motorcycle Ride", "American Eagle" and "Army Ants in Your Pants". I would expect this record to be very useful for teachers, especially at the Elementary School level.