40 years ago today (1/10/83), Neil Young released his twelfth studio album Trans– one that marked his most radical musical departure up from that point. Six of the nine tracks feature Young singing through a Sennheiser vocoder, and its electronic elements were influenced by Krautwork. Although hardly a keyboard album and quite a contradiction to the homey folk of Harvest; Young wanted to not only give Geffen Records a taste of whatever artistry enhanced him at the time, but the artist was also using digital devices to communicate with his disabled son Ben. The result is a “computer age” lost classic- that many have grown to find its leftfield appeal. Check out the pulsating “Sample and Hold” off Trans
