The Electric Grandfather is an experimental electronic/electropop project founded by musician Ralph Pidibi. I first discovered them on SoundCloud, and to me, their music is a mixture of The Residents, digital sound collage music, noise rock, and electropop. I would describe their sound as experimental pop with nostalgic wackiness and camp styles.
I’m going to describe the project’s tracks I liked for my SoundCloud page, since the band didn’t release any actual albums.
“Clouds in My Eyes”-This is a noise rock piece featuring out-of-tune electric guitar backed by Chipmunk-style and baritone vocals. This is also augmented by some electronic effects.
“Yesterday is Scheduled Again for Tomorrow”-This features distorted voices, a marching band-style drumbeat, and electronic effects. The distorted voices for much of the track reminds me of the voice heard in the infamous Max Headroom broadcast signal hijack of 1987 (it happened only in Chicago).
“That Kid is Back on the Escalator!”-An array of pulsing electronic effects start the track, developing an EDM-style rhythm as white noise washes and random noises appear. Chipmunk voices begin to sing and talk, along with other random voices, eventually ending with reverb effects.
“The Future Sounds Like a Static Filled Balloon”-Electronic guitar sounds appear along with drums and a series of distorted voices. One part actually loops a bit. It ends with some reversed sounds.
“Ode to the Money Lenders”-This has a strange psychedelic fuzz jam with a distorted African-American-style voice. The guitar used has a Led Zeppelin tone to it.
“Slow Motion Freak-Out”-This has distorted slow-motion voices backed by what I think is a manipulated sample of the Residents’ track “The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany”, from their 1971 demo tape The Warner Bros. Album.
“This is the Pit”-This has a looped rock music sample along with distorted Chipmunk voices, a slowed-down voice, and a distorted guitar solo.
“Everywhere You Look”-An experimental hip-hop piece with a looped drum machine rhythm and electronically-altered voice samples, along with some lead vocals.
“White. Hot. Burning.”-Driven by atmospheric guitar melodies and distorted voices.
“The Time has Come”-This has a folky acoustic guitar melody with warbly string effects and distressed lead vocals that almost sounds like that of Roger Waters. It also has other electronic noises in the mix.
“Don’t Forget Bob’s Pipe”-A hip-hop drum machine rhythm plays, along with electronic sounds and distorted singing. A buzzy synth also plays some distorted chords. It gets trippy in the outro.
“Walka Walka Walka”-This has a simple electropop melody backed by piano, distorted vocals and white noise. Normal-sounding group vocals also appear, but in a bit of a falsetto voice.
“Spacely Sprockets is Now Selling Cogswell’s Cogs”-Named after characters from The Jetsons cartoon from the ’60s, this has a desolate dance melody with distorted, rather gruff singing, and odd noises. Try to imagine Jandek experimenting with synthesizers and computers instead of his occasional bleak acoustic guitar and mysterious backing group.
“Huey, Lewey, Dewy and the News”-Named after Duck Tales characters (the characters’ names are misspelled for the title, maybe to avoid copyright infringement claims from Disney) and the pop giants Huey Lewis and the News, this piece has a funky dance beat with distorted, rather atmospheric vocals, distorted guitar, and electronic sounds. Compared to the other pieces mentioned, this is rather catchy and danceable.
“Gracefully Unties Knots”-This has a folky acoustic guitar melody backed by electronic effects and distorted Huckleberry Hound-style vocals.
“Baby! What’d You Do to Your Hair? You Like It? It’s Orange Sunshine.”-A hip-hop drumbeat with distorted synth noises dominates the track, along with spoken voice samples, mainly one of that of a man talking about drug use. You can also hear distorted group vocals.
“The Polaroid Picture”-An ambient pop-sounding number with acoustic guitar, synthesizer, distorted voices, and weird sound effects. It ends with strange clacking noises.
“Nature’s Inna Rage”-An electro rock piece dominated by drum machine, distorted guitar, and synth. The distorted lead vocals have a Zack dela Rocha-like tone, but more deeper. You also hear a chipmunk-like voice at one point.
“Dripping, Oozing, Replicating.”-The song starts in a mutated Beatles-like form, with acoustic guitar, distorted vocals, and synthesizer. It leads into a freak-out with voices and random synth effects, with the acoustic guitar becoming a little bit faint. The song increases in tempo and develops a pop-style drumbeat with electric guitar. This sounds like Todd Tamanend Clark completely losing his mind. It gets all tropical, but in a mutated way, at the end.
“Magnetic Resonance”-This is a progressive rock electric guitar melody backed by distorted voices to accompany it.
“It’s in the Static”-A jazzy hip-hop drumbeat appears with saxophone, slow-motion voice, and a series of spacey electronic effects.
“Exchange Your Mind for a Bomb”-A mildly psychedelic piece with backwards string samples, an EDM drumbeat and a deep spoken word recital that sounds like it is spoken in a Matrix-like tone. It also has distorted digital noises to accompany it. The vocals have some reverb by the end. What makes this piece even more psychedelic is that the voice talks about a nuclear bomb that is the size of a grapefruit!
You can check out stuff from the Electric Grandfather at: https://soundcloud.com/theelectricgrandfather
The Crazy Mind of Tré Roland 