Robotic Erotic Electric Meets Tex[t]-Mex Meets Mextasy! The Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine! #mextasy

As readers of this blog know, my interests in the world of film and literature are not limited to domains Textmextian--side interests in Man Ray, Surrealism, Pop Culture, Deconstruction, Comics, and Robots being but a shortlist of my addled brain's obsessions. So it always with great joy that I meet with imagebombs from friends and colleagues who are in sync with my nefarious semiotic fetishes--special thanks to my Digital Humanities @ SDSU partner-in-crime Noah Arceneaux for zapping me these odd fusions of Robotic Erotic Electric and Tex[t]-Mex!!!.

Case in point, the Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine album by Richard Hatman!

Here's electronica historian Bjorn Werkmann on the album!

Even in hindsight, it is crystal clear what the fuzz in terms of this album is all about. A title as vivid and bold as Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine better worships a histrionic concupiscence, relies on antipodes as well as antidotes and genuflects before the gigantomachy that is called Moog versus the world. It is not necessary to hail the crap out of Richard Hayman’s album, this is neither the time nor the place. Besides, Exotica fans will distill much more value and fun out of Voodoo! (1959) and possibly Havana In Hi-Fi (1957), two of Hayman’s glorious string-infested albums. And yet there is something wonderful about Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine, and no, it is not necessarily the Moog organ in the epicenter. It is true that once the listener grows tired of the Moog craze of yesteryear, there is absolutely no need for him or her to check out this opalescent gem. But there is majesty found in them sparklers: the much more conventional and convenient Hammond organ revs up the apocryphal antra with its ebullient warmth, a few harmonica tidbits make the bystander ponder the source – i.e. whether it is really a harmonica or a cleverly tweaked Moog preset – and last but not least, the real-world percussion sp(l)ices the bleepy and farting keyboard prongs. Even though the effects, swooshes and stereo effects become a tad gaudy, it is the melodies which know to enthrall. Even in this malfunctioning state, the classics breathe and exude verve. If you favor Moog albums, Richard Hayman’s Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine is a no-brainer and strong album overall, an artifact of an exciting time. It is, alas, no Exotica album as played by a quartet, but Space-Age fans shall triple-check its glaring red complexion. Available on vinyl and digitally.

Before diving into the images below, give it a listen:

UPDATE:

I should have known it and done my research, but my colleague up the street at USC, music/cultural studies maven, Josh Kun, was onto this in back in 2008--hit the image below to be instantly teleported to Kun's cunning site!