TUNING: Goods And Services

TO HELL WITH PAYPAL, JUST BUY ME ONE OF THESE

You have no idea how much I covet and desire this
Emile Berliner Gramophone Replica Kit
from Hobby Link Japan

This kit allows you to build your very own gramophone, which will let you record and play back disks made from the lids from cup-noodle bowls, old CD-ROMs, plastic file folders, glossy paper , basicly any shiny or semi shiny material with a certain amount of rigidty. The only things they don't provide in the kit are 2 size "C" batteries, cellophane tape, a Phillips' head screwdriver, and scissors.

They also sell Cup Phonograph Kit in Edison Style
which they don't sell as many of, because of the unweildy prototype nature of the Edison Cylinder scheme,
and the fact that Edison was a monopolizing bastard who succeeded in squashing Berliner's developement
of the Gramaphone disc system (which actually preceeded Edison's machine by a number of years) .

It's about 40 bucks after shipping and I'm not kidding about buying me one. If you enjoy this site, have found out something useful from it, or are just plain altruistic, order one and send it to the adress listed in the left hand sidebar. Tribute must be paid.
MORE ON EMIL BERLINER AND THE EARLY DEVELOPEMENT OF THE GRAMOPHONE
Emil Berliner and The Birth Of the Recording industry (From The Library of Congress)
Invent Now Hall Of Fame
Emil Berliner
Emil Berliner From About Dot com
Sound Visualization And Analysis In The Pre Electronic Era

05/31/2005 in Collector Culture, Goods And Services | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

CAN THE CHARLES IVES DREAMHOUSE BE FAR BEHIND?

The Bob Moog Doll is only 3,200 yen!
Buy two from the Presspop Gallery Store!

05/04/2005 in Goods And Services | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

"I MADE AN AMBIENT RECORD" "WHAT?"

If Brian Eno And Robert Fripp make A new record, does it make a noise? Er,...yes,,,, but nobody knows about it. They did. You can know about it if you go to Uncle Brian's enoshop the only place you can get the thing. Thrill to the latest music inspired by bicycle accidents.* One of the jamokes from my New Jersey adolescence, after playing him a copy of "Discreet Music" , remarked
"I don't like music that you forget is on" How wrong he was.

* allegedly, the genesis of ambient music came about when Eno was recuperating from a bike accident and couldn't get up to adjust the volume of a record somebody had put on for him.

03/30/2005 in Goods And Services | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

THE NIETZSCHIAN TRIUMPH OF COMPANION RECORDS

The New Creation in their underground lair, circa 1969

Companion Records "Small Press" Audio and Oddities

You know the expression, "The Devil gets all the good tunes" ?

Maybe it's because people who praise Jesus using the tools of popular music and the idioms of their generation aren't always shall we say, tuneful, or logical.

If Jesus actually cocked an ear towards what the New Creation was laying down in 1970 he might have passed it on to his arch nemesis by way of retribution.

This Vancouver,B.C. band consisted of a mother-son duo and their nextdoor neighbor who existed not so squarely in the divide between "Jesus People" and the hip diaspora.

With lyrics that drop science about "large assembly lines of King Kongs" and "cancer of the left lung" , fervor trumps sense in an ocean of reverb and skelatal guitar scratching.

Maybe, in the scenario I've imagined, Jesus just became kinda frightened. "they like me a little too much for my liking" he thought. It was probably that damned reverb. And all the sound effects and other production effects that, in turn, were run through-you guessed it-reverb.

Imagine The Shaggs , with .05% more talent added, recording their parts in seperate but equal empty grain silos that are spaced no less than five kilometers apart.

Unlike the Shaggs, there doesn't seem to be that air of pinched desperation and exploitation about the enterprise.
Companion Records has CD Reissues of the New Creations' only record "Troubled" as well as the head spinningly great "Beyond The Blue" record (CD)by the Christian Astronauts, a family of Christian Ventriloquists so shitty that thier poor technique is audible. Edgar Bergen they aint.

Companion Records catalog Also features Charlie Tweddle 's album "Fantastic Greatest Hits" . The songs are anything but,
If you love the hayseed psychosis of The Holy Modal Rounders, The Fugs, or Michael Hurley, then this is right up your alley.
Most of the music on the label is impossible to catagorise. You can make rough generalizations about it, but thankfully the site provides MP3 samples that, for whatever reasons, makes the hair on the back (and front) of my neck stand on end .
And that's my version of spirituality.

03/16/2005 in Goods And Services | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)