Webhamster Henry's Top 10 Imaginary Sound Events of 2010
- The Otherness: A Good Start (LP, Not Done Records: 2010)
The Otherness is a Midwestern group which does really well with the first bar of their songs, but then they get disorganized and don't quite make it through the second bar.
A good start collects 163 of these song fragments, tantalizing and frustrating. A YouTube video by hugh2ber matches these fragments with highly cut up track and field video segments.
- Archeosonic Research Labs: Ear Trumpets (ASR-010: 2010)
Extending their research into what things used to sound like, Archeosonic Research Labs have produces a hi resolution dataset of head related transform functions when the head is using an ear trumpet. Optional additions include psychoacoustically correct age-related frequency distortion and suppression, a tinnitus filter, and a very faint, murmuring heartbeat. Their work on earwax damping is also profound. I'm investing in a box of Q-tips.
- Sanded: Sanded (Granular: 2010)
Granular synthesis taken to a new level: gravel and sand are poured into resonant steel buckets. Then, the original sound is polished down and reduced to shimmering, smoothed out drones in paratactically determined frequency bands.
- Such A Thing: Concert Pitch (FLAC single: 2009)
A great sound collecting project! These guys scoured the world for environmental sounds at A-440 and mixed them together. No autotuning allowed!
- The Barn presents: The Kernow Sounds of Today! (Private pressing: 1975)
This compilation of songs from local Penzance bands features the stunning unsung singers THE HENS, a local bunch of female psych rockers, all playing bass. Influenced by Cornelius Cardew and other process-oriented musicians, they snuck in and basically took over this recording, ranting in their nearly forgotten ancestral language. All right, I can't avoid it any longer: they are Cornish Rock Game Hens.
- Lamellae: Mycoprotein (Cassette: ??)
Someone's science fair report on mushrooms that I found at the local thrift store ("Salvador Armée") . Worth it just to hear this kid pronounce: adnate, annexed, decurrent, emarginate, free, seceding, sinuate and subdecurrent.
- Vibrating Air: Helium (Vibrating Air: 2010)
The throbbing of airship motors introduces this EP, which continues by miking the airframe and whacking the airship skin with Nerf bats.
The huge size of the resonant space is mitigated by the increased speed of sound internally, sounding both high and deep simultaneously.
- Origamorchestra: Mountain Fold (Rabbit Ear: 2010)
This international band plays all folded instruments, mostly from butcher paper stiffened with methyl cellulose. These are necessarily mostly percussion and wind instruments. Yes, origami purists, some instruments involve cutting and non-square paper. Their costumes are also folded. The CD case is, of course, Oschene's Spiral Data Tato. Next release: "Waterbomb Base." Watch for it!
- Pee Tarty: Platform (YouTube: 2010)
These cross-dressing excuses for satire take Tea Party talking points and turn them into auto-tuned spoonerisms. While I rather prefer a reasoned response to name calling, fart noises and other irrelevant deprecatory disphemisms, there is a point where the stupidity is equal to the subject.
- Rackett Hocket Racket: Volume 1 (AllSuch files: 2010)
Four medieval music students are playing new graphical scores on their racketts, and in this 5.1 stereo release, the oboe-y sound pops at you from many directions simultaneously.