Great sample record full of various bits to chop and steal :) As sampled by Jay Dilla for the "MOVE" Oh no track and the Royce da 5 9 track. As sampled by myself and also Wizzard uk producer. Only seen 1 Copy so I bought it for 50p from a boot sale.

For very many years I had no idea who Mike Hankinson was. Turns out he was British but residing in South Africa. Apparently playing classical music in Apartheid-era South Africa would hardly provide anyone trouble with the government at the time (unlike the hard rock band called Suck who did a no-holds-barred hard rock/early heavy metal approach to other people's songs, like Grand Funk Railroad, Colosseum, even Donovan, which irritated Apartheid government).This album is nothing new to me, as my dad bought this around 1979 (apparently around the time ABC was bought out by MCA, and record stores were needing to get rid of their ABC inventory). Westminster Gold was originally called Westminster, but then ABC purchased Westminster in the early 1960s and then around 1965 ABC put a halt on new Westminster releases. In 1970 it was rebooted as Westminster Gold. Contrary to claims, it wasn't a reissue label, many titles were brand new, not available before, but a few reissues did happen like Remi Gassman/Oskar Sala's Five Improvisations on Electric Tape/Music for the Ballet "Electronics", which was originally release in 1961 on Westminster, reissued in 1970 on Westminster Gold with a new cover. Westminster Gold was, like Red Seal for RCA, or Masterworks for Columbia, a classical division. My father's copy came with the rainbow label, which ABC used from 1974 to its demise (I presume the original ABC/Westminster Gold pressing of this album would have to be on the brown label). The album was called The Classical Synthesizer in the UK, and it was released there in 1972, same year as the US copy, although it could have been release in 1971 in South Africa (it was recorded in May 1971), but records made in South Africa would be hard to find outside South Africa. The UK pressing had a different cover from the US pressing. ABC/Westminster Gold actually has the superior cover, of an overloaded electrical socket. Seemed like Westminster Gold enjoyed using all sorts of scrap, like light bulbs, vacuum cleaner parts, and unidentifiable stuff for their album artwork. This got me thinking of the short lived TV series called Project UFO (1978-79) which similar stuff was used to make the UFOs, which made that TV series more hilarious (given how serious the TV series was).Since the time Switched-On Bach was released until around 1972, the market was overflooded with Moog albums of all varieties, classical Moog (or as I say, Switched-On Bach knockoffs), pop Moog, a little of everything Moog, and those who actually used original compositions. Mike Hankinson was apparently a Brit living in South Africa, and obviously wanting to get into the game, except he was to do it on a VCS-3 synthesizer. All the music here is 17th and 18th century Baroque and classical. It's all pretty straight versions, he doesn't go the creative route as say, Tomita often did. Although the VCS-3 was much smaller than the Moogs that made similar albums, the music was just as effective. Honestly, I have never been much for classical music, but I can see where Mike Hankinson was coming from. I do think his take on Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" was great, especially that low note where the album warns you not to damage your speakers. I still have it because of nostalgia where my father didn't always buy mainstream stuff the way he did later on in the 1980s (before he stopped buying music after 1986).It's no doubt who I recommend this to: fans of classical Moog who wants to hear what's it's like using a synth other than Moog.