An occasional wee series where I pontificate to some extent on what I regard as the most interesting, justifiably famous and simply plain easy to like sounds that have infiltrated pop music over the past 20 years or so. Mostly, just because I prefer that kind of thing most, these will be electronic or otherwise synthetic sounds. Rather than trying to describe them too much, I'll let you find out more about these for yourself with Youtube links to each sound.
So lets kick off with...the lovely sound of the DX7 harp.
A preset on the original DX7 FM synthsizer, launched by Yamaha in 1983, this incredibly fragile, lightly percussive sound graces many a quieter 80s and 90s track and appears in some unlikely places, such as the opening bars of Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. Almost Japanese in quality, it doesn't really sound like a typical plucked Welsh harp, but has a more "oriental" quality. Given a bit of chorus or a tiny bit of vibrato (as was done by Level 42 in Sleepwalkers) the sound is like a light breath of fresh air.
I first heard Irish folkmeister Christy Moore's "Reel in the Flickering Light" in the late 90s and am as taken with it now as I was then. Not the usual kind of folk Mr Moore is renowned for, this work of childish whimsy is simply beautiful. I keep wanting to to repeat the adjective "delicate".
Like a lot of FM sounds, they were both over-used in the 80s especially and went out of fashion. And yet, the sounds on this instrument are almost laughably ubiquitous due to the fact that due to clever licencing, just about every computer sound card contains an identikit set of sounds from the synthesizer module.
Another new age-y place you can find this sound is Lanz & Speer's "Behind the Waterfall". Worth seeking on Spotify.
There is a plethora of wonderful sounds on the DX7, and I'll be returnig to it very shortly.
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