Stephen Mejias

Richard Hayman's Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine was released in 1969 and features many persuasive favorites, including "The Look of Love" and "The Girl from Ipanema," all electronically rendered using the groundbreaking Moog synthesizer.

Inside the gloriously thick gatefold, we find Hayman's essay, "The Moog Synthesizer: An Arranger's Delight." He writes:

No other instrument known today is capable of producing so many diversified sounds that can be so completely wild and yet so completely controlled….

The only limitations are the limitations of the individual's mind and manner of thinking.

Words to live by. Decorating this essay, we see a black and white photo of a long-stemmed rose whose stem is not thorny, but smooth and curved and terminated by an AC plug. It's electric love. Persuasive love. Latin love.

On the front cover, we see a robot, presumably Mexican, doing a little dance. On the back, we see this same robot, slumped over, resting with back against the wall, unplugged, and seemingly done. Perhaps he had partied too hard. Too many persuasive tequila shots. I've been there.

The wonderful artwork was created by Stephen Maka and Henry Epstein. The sound here is equally special. Programming credit goes to famed Walter Sear. Mixing was done by Russ Hamm. Lee Hulco of Sterling Sound is responsible for the mastering. These are big names. These names meant nothing to me before I got into vinyl.

I'm becoming some sort of vinyl geek.

Oh well. I listened to the album two times through, and then I went to bed. I woke on Sunday feeling very fine, feeling very good.