Bruce Haack

Up to 4 years ago I had never heard of the musician Bruce Haack. I 1st came across his work when I picked up a copy of the Rough Trade CD Electronic: 01. There was one Bruce Haack tune on the album, Mean Old Devil. With its odd and quirky electronics and vocoder style vocals I decided it was time to find and hear more. Bruce Haack was born on May 4 1931 in Alberta Canada. In 1954 Haack met what would be a lifelong friend Ted Pandel. Haack and Pandel appeared on the I've Got a Secret Show demonstrating The Dermatron which was a touch and heat sensitive electronic instrument. Bruce Haack was a musically inventive children’s songwriter of the 1960s and ’70s, and teamed up with the childrens dance Teacher Esther Nelson whom he collaborated with on childrens music. Haack made synths and modulators out of any gadgets and surplus bits and pieces he could find. As the 60s progressed Haack released his 1st rock influenced album Electric Lucifer. Up to then Haacks recorded output was mainly chidrens educational records The Dance Sing and Listen series
In 2005 the documentry film Haack The King of Techno was released. In places the documentary is a tad poor, with not a lot of info about Haack's recording techniques and the technology he used and developed. Also would have been nice to have more on the work produced by Haack and Esther Nelson. That said there is still enough interesting bits in there to make it worth a watch. Bruce Haack passed away in Sept 1998.