Soufflé Pop was coined during a radio interview on The Time Machine, a daily broadcast on the island of Maui, between host Michael McCartney and singer-songwriter Michael Oliver. In discussing the musical influences and songwriting craft behind the 2011 album "Yin & Yanxiety" by Michael Oliver & The Sacred Band, Oliver mentioned the word soufflé when describing putting a song together. This resulted in McCartney suggesting to create yet another musical niche genre called "Soufflé Pop".


Soufflé Pop would bring a number of influences to the musical table including; Baroque Pop (The Left Banke, The Zombies, The Moody Blues, Sagittarius, The Bee Gees [late sixties/early seventies]), MOR Pop (Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Lee Hazelwood, Harry Nilsson, The Carpenters), Power Pop (Raspberries, Badfinger, The Knack, Mike Viola & Candy Butchers), Singer-Songwriter (Laura Nyro, Carole King, Elton John & Bernie Taupin, Aimee Mann, Rachael Yamagata, Billy Joel, Rupert Holmes), Bubblegum (Archies, Josie & The Pussycats, Bay City Rollers, Tommy Roe, The Lemon Pipers), Rockabilly (Robert Gordon, Stray Cats, Marshall Crenshaw), Sunshine Pop (The Cowsills, The Association, Small Circle of Friends, Curt Boettcher, Millennium), Classic Sixties & Seventies Pop, "The Three B's" that Richard Carpenter cited as major influences (The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and Burt Bacharach) and overall melodic rock and pop that can be a near whisper of raw emotion to a full blown orchestral arrangement or simply the loudest joyful jangle guitar and power chords that deliver the musical goods (The Who, The Kinks). Beatles inspired bands who continued the eclectic sounds of the Fab Four into their own stamp after the Beatles went their separate ways (Electric Light Orchestra, Klaatu, Cheap Trick, Pilot, Supertramp).




Friday, March 23, 2012

Soufflé Pop Serves a Pop Soufflé from Utopia (1980)



Kasim Sultan sang lead on Utopia's 1980 single "Set Me Free" off of the "Adventures In Utopia" album. This song sounded so fantastic on the radio dial that year and it's still surprising that it didn't make it to number one on the charts but still easily one of the best singles of 1980.








Click here to listen or download the radio aircheck of an interview with Paul Myers on The Time Machine discussing his book "A Wizard A True Star: Todd Rundgren In The Studio"




Official Website for Utopia's Kasim Sulton




Official Website for Utopia's Todd Rundgren



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