Tom Moulton

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Thomas 'Tom' Jerome Moulton , TJM for short (aka 'Moto'; born November 29, 1940 in Schenectady, New York), is an American producer and remixer. Among other things, he is considered the founder and inventor of the disco remix and the maxi vinyl format (12 ″).

Biographical

Moulton first came into contact with music in 1950 when he dropped out of high school to work in a record store. From 1959 to 1961 he had a sales and promotion job with King Records and later with the RCA Records and United Artists Records labels . From 1961 he started working as a model for the agencies 'Bookings' and 'Ford'.

Development of the remix

His work as a model led Moulton to the Fire Island Hotel near New York in 1972. In an adjoining club he discovered that there were many white people dancing to black music . He, too, was an avid supporter of 'black music'. He had also noticed for a long time that "people were so full of the music towards the end of a record and were suddenly [down again], for some reason." The reason, in his opinion, was that the pieces being played too were short to produce a longer lasting response. This was also confirmed again that evening when he saw how people left the dance floor after a 3-minute song because they were not sure whether they should dance to the new or the old song. He then used a razor blade and Sellotape to produce a 45-minute tape that he had cut and edited by himself. The Fire Island Hotel didn't play its tape, but another opportunity quickly emerged: the 'Sandpiper', a competing club.

Others were later heavily involved in (further) developing the remix. Walter Gibbons published his first musical adaptation, Ten Percent by Double Exposure, in 1976 , and thus significantly advanced the development of the remix. Other milestones in the history of the remix are its arrangements of Anthony White's Block Party and Nice 'n' Naasty des Salsoul Orchestras .

successes

Due to its great success, the club's operator commissioned him to prepare a 90-minute tape for two other events. Moulton quickly gained notoriety in the scene. He worked on other songs and asked various music labels if he could use their instrumentals to incorporate them into his songs. When he was editing the song 'Dream World' by Don Downing, Scepter Records noticed him and offered to do the work in one of their studios. Due to lack of support there, he worked on Gloria Gaynor's album Never Can Say Goodbye in his apartment . He edited the songs and combined them into an 18-minute mix by adding different effects and a new middle section. This method, which he called 'Remix', was first used in 1972 for the Legendary Zing! Album of the formation The Trammps from Philadelphia used. After the success with Gloria Gaynor's album, many more disco pieces followed, which were edited by Moulton, such as Do It ('Til You're Satisfied) by BT Express .

Maxi single or 12 ″ single

In addition to the remix, Tom Moulton's work brought another innovation, the 12 '' single . It happened by accident when Moulton brought one of his remixes, an Al Downing song, to Media Sound for mastering . After the mastering, however, there was no longer a 7 "blank available and an employee of Media Sound had to fall back on a 10" blank. Tom found it strange that the existing grooves only used a fraction of the record , so he asked for the grooves to be widened. This was achieved by the employee, José Rodriguez, by increasing the dynamic of the signals. At the same time there was an improved bass and treble reproduction compared to the LP. Since Moulton was impressed by this sound quality, they used a 12 '' CD for his next remix of So Much For Love by Moment of Truth . This is how the first maxi single was created, "which was played at a speed of 45 revolutions per minute and offered up to 15 minutes of space for a new level of sound quality." In addition, the maxi single provides possibilities, especially for the Disco remixes were significant. With it it was easier for the DJs to play parts of a song slower or faster or to change the structure of a song.

Awards

In 2004 he was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame .

Most famous productions

literature

  • Bruce Gerrish: Remix. The electronic music explosion. EM Books, Vallejo 2001, ISBN 0-87288-740-5 .
  • David Toop: Lost in music. Twenty years of disco productions. In: Klaus Frederking (Ed.): Sound and Vision. Rock Session 8. Rowohlt Taschenbuch, Reinbek 1985, ISBN 3-499-17879-6 .
  • Georg Mühlenhöver: The disco phenomenon. History of club culture and popular music. Dohr, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-925366-66-0 .
  • Peter Shapiro (Ed.): Modulations. A History of Electronic Music. Caipirinha Productions, New York 1999, ISBN 1-891024-06-X .
  • Peter Shapiro: Turn the beat around. The secret history of disco. Faber and Faber, London 2005, ISBN 0-571-21194-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Tom Moulton" Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  2. ^ Peter Shapiro: Turn the beat around. The secret history of disco . Faber and Faber, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-571-21923-0 , pp. 28 .
  3. ^ David Toop: Lost in music. Twenty years of disco productions . In: Klaus Frederking (Ed.): Sound and Vision. Rock Session 8 . Rowohlt Taschenbuch, Reinbek 1985, ISBN 3-499-17687-4 , pp. 157 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e "Discoguy - This is a Tribute to Tom Moulton" Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  5. ↑ a b Georg Mühlenhöver: The Disco phenomenon. History of club culture and popular music . Dohr, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-925366-66-0 , p. 133 .
  6. ^ A b Peter Shapiro: Turn the beat around. The secret history of disco . Faber and Faber, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-571-21923-0 , pp. 29 .
  7. ^ Peter Shapiro: Turn the beat around. The secret history of disco . Faber and Faber, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-571-21923-0 , pp. 34 .
  8. ↑ Bruce Gerrish: Remix. The electronic music explosion . EM Books, Vallejo 2001, ISBN 0-87288-740-5 , pp. 10 .
  9. ^ Peter Shapiro: Turn the beat around. The secret history of disco . Faber and Faber Limited, London 2005, ISBN 978-0-571-21923-0 , pp. 31 f .
  10. ^ Georg Mühlenhöver: The Disco phenomenon. History of club culture and popular music . Dohr, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-925366-66-0 , p. 136 .
  11. ^ Peter Shapiro: Turn the beat around. The secret history of disco . Faber and Faber, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-571-21923-0 , pp. 33 f .
personal data
SURNAME Moulton, Tom
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Moulton, Thomas Jerome (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American producer and remixer
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Schenectady , New York , United States