Webhamster Henry's Top 10 Imaginary Recordings of 2002

1. Macskák / Katze (Privat Aufnahme - 1985)
   In 1985, near the end of the cold war, the casts of the Viennese and Hungarian translations of CATS met at the train stop Nickelsdorf - Hegyeshalom and sang various songs together simultaneously. This privately reissued remembrance is best at the beginning, with the two casts shouting at each other in English, things like "I love Andrew Lloyd Webber!"
2. Spun dry! (Clacker 2001)
   Soundtrack from an instruction video for the Galleria washing machine is mixed with the rhythmic pulsing of that machine, sound bites from the Laundromat on 16th and 6th avenues.
3. Done to a Turn! (Theatre In Progress 2002)
   Tryout production of a musical about cannibalism in the '60s suburbs. I guess it's trying to get in on the coattails of HAIRSPRAY. Best laffs: "Conspicuous Consumption" and "Having the Neighbors for Dinner"
4. Rasta Round the World (Dreadworld 2002)
   The pervasiveness of reggae is documented in this phenomenal survey of Musicians from Aleut tribes, Yeti-hunters in Nepal, mudmen in Papua New Guinea, octogenarian gauchos in Patagonia, as well as trained elephants(!) in Thailand, all pulsing to the reggae beat, colored by their own native cultures!
5. Forbidden Dance (Ethnomusicology dept of UC Davis, private pressing, 2002)
   A collection of forbidden dance music across history, with copious notes on how to do them and why they were banned.
6. Two Pints of Winona (Thr'penney, Kyhber & Hampton, 2002)
   Contemporary pop and punk songs in Cockney Rhyming Slang - Someone might get really insulted by these if they could figure out what they were saying.
7. Prosperity For You and Me (Dr. Hess, 2001)
   The good doctor is meant to be heard on headphones - one channel is telling you that you are competent, loving, capable, etc, which the other is whispering sales promotion material for his multi-level marketing empire.
8. The All Music Sampler (DVDemon, 2002)
   Using the enhanced storage capacity of a DVD, this disk has MIDI versions of everything that has ever been transcribed to MIDI.
9. I Am Sitting Near A Terminal (P. I. Didkovsky, 2002)
   The 21st century equivalent to Alvin Lucier's "I Am Sitting In A Room": A simple phrase is encoded to MP3, then to Ogg Vorbis, then back to MP3 hundreds of times until it's just an indecipherable digital mush.
10. Songs of the open road (ExMI 2002)
    Finally on disk! Grooves were etched on highways all around the country in the 80s until the grant money ran out. As you drive over them, the melodies are realized in the vibrations of the tires and other loose parts of the car. With occasional dropouts due to road kill, potholes, etc, the songs etched in the landscape change over time. Some are even in stereo with the left and right sides of the car on different "tracks." It's startling to be driving along in Death Valley and suddenly hearing a surround-sound version of "Horse with No Name"!