The Chicago-based project Protovulcan returns with a brand new track called “Waking Up Dinosaurs” off their upcoming cassette release Psychic Pinball. Formerly a duo composed of synth player Will MacLean (Variety Lights, Ice Cream Mission to Mars, Blue Moth) and drummer Deric Criss (Aleks and the Drummer, Walking Bicycles, Charlie Deets), the track finds the pair joined by Grammy-award-winning synth-pioneer Malcolm Cecil of TONTO’s Expanding Head Band.
Cecil was born in London, and originally a bass player, he was a founding member of The Jazz Couriers in the late 1950s, as well as a member of British jazz combos led by Dick Morrissey, Tony Crombie, and Ronnie Scott. In the early 1960s, he joined Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner in the original line-up of Blues Incorporated, a band which at various times included musicians like Charlie Watts and Ginger Baker. Cecil would go on to team up with Robert Margouleff to form the synthesizer-based duo TONTO’s Expanding Head Band, with Malcolm creating TONTO, “The Original New Timbral Orchestra” – a collection of Moog, ARP, Oberheim, and custom modular analog synth components built into a giant space-capsule looking synth. The pair’s debut album, 1971’s Zero Time, is considered one of the first all-synth releases, and the duo would go on to be closely associated with Stevie Wonder, working on classic albums like 1972’s Music of My Mind and Talking Book, 1973’s Innervisions, and 1974’s Fulfillingness’ First Finale.
Discussing his opportunity to work on the track “Waking Up Dinosaurs” with a pioneer like Malcolm Cecil, Will MacLean explains:
“Malcolm is one of my favorite musicians, and I am floored he made a song with us! I called him up once just to check on how things were going, expecting to leave a message, and I was psyched when he answered. All I could think was, “Wow! I’m on the phone talking to a legend!”. Besides his clavs and synth, the track is just Deric on drums, me on Moog, Wurlitzer, and vocoder.”
Further talks with Will revealed that Cecil can also be heard playing vintage instruments like the Steiner-Parker Synthacon and EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument)–an early woodwind synthesizer.
MacLean reports that Psychic Pinball was recorded in Chicago at Frogg Mountain, with his overdubs done at John McEntire‘s (Tortoise and the Sea and Cake) Soma Electronic Music Studios and Malcolm’s performed at his own TONTO Studio. “Waking Up Dinosaurs” is our first listen in on the upcoming Protovulcan release, and it’s a buzzing and funky jam with plenty of vocoder thrown in for good measure. Featuring MacLean’s trademark use of overdriven Wurlitzer to achieve his ear-splitting acid rock guitar sound, as well as the Moog’s thick low end, Malcolm Cecil’s bevy of vintage synthesizers complete the track with a head-swirling collection of psychedelic nuance. Psychic Pinball features rad artwork from Plastic Crimewave and Hands of Hydra, and, while the release date is yet to be determined, Live Eye Tv will pass on the news as soon as we have it!
