Monday 04.12.2010 | 7:23 PM EDT

The Vocoder: New Vox for Sad Bastard Pop

The vocal-bending gizmo known as the Vocoder has made it’s voice heard in a smattering of 20th/21st century recordings. And while it’s been employed by performers as varied as Neil Young, Kraftwerk, Pink Floyd, Georgio Moroder, Electric Light Orchestra and Yes (to varying degrees of cheesy delight), contemporary usage of it’s robotic voice has primarily resided squarely in da House of commercial Funk and Hip Hop.

Last year though, I came across two unlikely contexts in which the Vocoder makes not for a gimmicky trick, but a truly expressive voice that lifts simple songs into otherworldly expressions of loneliness.

Both Robyn Hitchcock’s “Because You’re Over” and Bon Iver’s” Woods,” apply the Vocoder to strictly a capella performances. Both layer a Vocoder vox track atop a second, untreated vocal. The technique creates an imaginary friend on whom to project its protagonists’ lonely laments on exile and loss.

Pretty neat trick. listen up:
//

//

New York Magazine reviews Dave Tompkin’s history of the device How to Wreck a Nice Beach here. For you techies and sound engineers, here.