Webhamster Henry's Top 10 Imaginary Recordings of 2004
- Countdown to Math (Educatorz 1965)
New Math at its most inscrutable.
One side: someone counting from 0 to 1000 , every second. The other side, a lot of instructions about
games like Buzz where you have to jump on every number with a 7 in it or divisible by 7,
but instead with variations like "x plus 1 is a square"
- Layoff 2002! (Anonymously leaked )
Impersonal voicemail sent to 1400 or so of the anonymous submitter's co-workers.
- Left In the Dark (Polarads 2004)
Right-wing Rock Band "Heaven 527" almost gets you to flip the wrong lever with
their hooky anti-Kerry vitriol filled EP featuring
"Swift Boat to Hell", "Makin' Flippy-floppy", "Saddam = 9-11"
and other disinformation.
- Blacktop (Reams of Eames, 1952/2004)
The long-lost original soundtrack to the classic Charles and Ray Eames abstract film "Blacktop"
features the sound of soapy water on asphalt. Soothing, and, strangely affecting
when replacing the cool-jazz soundtrack it's so famous for.
- V(i)@gg(r)@ Slam (SPAMUSIC, 2004)
A tag team of eight poets reading a day's worth of e-mail Spam, including those amazing
strings of words having nothing to do with anything. Ah, had W. S. Burroughs only lived!
- Rhythm All Around (Musicator, 1971)
Nice little educational 10" finding rhythm in almost everything: ping pong games, various bouncing objects,
old mechanical calculators, phone dials, ski lift cables... perfect as a bed for further enhancement!
- Analogue World Record (Source Of Uncertainty, 2004)
This was fun! Through an internet mail list, about 240 analog synth fans
showed up at an impromptu party in a just-shut down supermarket, where they plugged
roughly 28,000 modules together, trying for a world record that nobody knew existed.
The recording was made by running down the aisles with a shopping cart full of Nagras.
- Heliox research tape (Cover research, 1973/2004)
A longtime underground fave, passed from grad student to grad student, featured sober
research on the effects of breathing heliox - Oxygen mixed with Helium instead of Nitrogen -
on humans and other animals. Researchers that sound like they've escaped from Ross Bagdasarian's
unconscious describe each animal's behavior as it freaks out. Somehow, an early
generation copy has surfaced here!
- "He told me to do it." (private tape 2003)
Disgruntled elementary school teacher Lynda U. surreptitiously tapes her whiny, complaining
charges as they try to weasel out on the schoolyard/lunchroom fracases they provoke,
playing it back for their parents. Sheesh!
- Victory 2004 (EZ Campaigns, 2004)
On this CD (with workbook), a completely generic political campaign, with speeches,
endorsements, "real people", "news", "attack ads" and, on the CD-ROM portion, a fully customizable
website so you can seem to run for public office. Revised every two years, you can subscribe!