DocChannel
25 Jun 2009
DOCTalk
"Haack: The King of Techno"
Meet the man responsible for changing the way that music is made and thought about. If you consider yourself to be even remotely knowledgeable on the subject of electronic music and youve never heard the name Bruce Haack, you should probably have your Kraftwerk albums confiscated and be slapped firmly on the wrist. If you are familiar with Haack and his lifes work, then you know that music would be a lot different today without his contributions.
Though its only his first film, director Philip Anagnos film about Haack, Haack: The King of Techno, certainly has a little something to offer everyone, whether they be seasoned fans of Bruce, novice listeners or even just mildly interested in music history. In addition to having some of the most psychedelic and altogether phantasmagoric images ever seen in the documentary medium, the film is a treasure trove of surreal archival footage. A prime example is Haacks appearance on an episode of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, during which we see Rogers and his mustachioed mailman Mr. McFeely hanging out at Haack and his cohort Esther Nelsons dance studio and grooving to the sounds of his musical computer.
The unusual nature of the visuals and vintage footage is offset (though not remotely tempered) by interviews with a number of Bruces colleagues (companion and collaborator Esther Nelson and Praxiteles Pandel, a long-time friend and fellow Julliard student) and contemporary admirers and keepers of the flame such as The Eels Mark Oliver Everett and Mouse on Mars.
Anagnos film does a great deal to show the purity of Haacks vision. Though he was by nature a reclusive sort, as we learn in the film, Haack loved people, especially children. He recorded a number of albums intended for children, records with bizarre titles like Captain Entropy, and The Way Out Cassette for Children. He also invented instruments like the dermatron, which could only be played by touching the skin of another human being.
Haack dreamed of sounds and music he could only realize by creating the instruments to make it. His imagination and musical ability knew no limit. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, Haack was teaching piano lessons by age fourteen and was a self-taught improviser.
Bruce Haack is truly one of the most inspiring and fascinating figures to emerge in any genre of music, and his approach to machine-made music refutes the notion that electronic music is soulless by its nature. Though he has only in the last ten years or so been given the credit he deserves, his works are still out there, opening the ears and minds of a whole generation of new listeners.
You can see the world television premiere of Philip Anagnos Haack: The King of Techno and take the journey into musical mind like no other beginning this month as The Documentary Channel proudly presents, for lively minds only, Haacks story. Your mind will be blown and your ears may never be the same again.
Chris Dortch II - The Documentary Channel