Tuesday, November 20, 2007

the ultimate in sound effects...

major records catalog

well, we move from one side of sublime - tarkovsky's poetic use of sound; to the opposite end of the sublime spectrum...

a few weeks ago i found a little 1950 catalog from the major records company at the flea market. it features 20 pages of of 78's containing various sound effects for "radio stations, dramatic groups, movie makers, and music stores". the catalog is reads like a list of sounds and situations, and my original intention was to post it as a kind of concrete poetry. then i happened upon one of the actual records...

the disc is from a series of animal sounds, and the side i recorded contains the sounds of (in order of appearance) "screech owl, cat screeches, frog calls, grimalkin cat, hedgehog, harpie cries". the catalog states that every sound is recorded "FROM LIFE"; so when i put the record on i expected, of course, to hear some relatively straightforward animal recordings.

i'm pretty darn sure that the sounds here are not the actual animals, but in fact, A HUMAN TRYING TO IMITATE THEM. be very afraid. what i'm wondering now is what the subway train, gasoline pump, excavation shovel, wind, calliope, and teletype might sound like... welcome to the other side of sublime...

click here to listen

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3 Comments:

Blogger Matterhorn1959 said...

Those are pretty bad. I too wonder what their other sounds are like.

5:32 AM  
Blogger sroden said...

yeah, i'd say it was very CRAZY! i'll have to see if i have the stamina to find some others...:-)

10:41 AM  
Blogger Robert said...

Those are great! I have a sound effects tape that I lifted from the wastebasket of a TV station where I worked that has similar "animal" sound on it. Always best played back 1/2 speed of course.

4:55 PM  

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