Direct mp3 download or play: VH20170907_021336-1
Here’s some noise I made really fast, for no special reason other than just to have fun with free VST plugins. I didn’t even bother to come up with a title other than the file name from VSTHost. Maybe I did this just because I watched Twin Peaks, episode number eight. Or not. I’m not sure. Oh well, I don’t know! Just dumb, I guess. By the way, what are those gauges?
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThat’s cool, Weatherman!
Those gauges on those things reminded me of the big scary furnace that used to be in the middle of the dining room of the 1906 farmhouse I grew up in. This whole run of Twin Peaks has conjured up lots of weird childhood memories and inspired lots of weirder dreams.
Thank you for that, Rich. Just to confirm we are talking about the same thing. I am referring to the bulbous shaped black object that showed up in episode 3 and now several of these objects showed up in episode 8. They look like they could be 10 feet or more tall, round, maybe 3 or 4 feet around at the “base” and tapering to maybe a foot or so at the top. They remind me of a gas grill because of those darn gauges. Your scary furnace reference is right on. Imagine also the hand held receiver of an old fashioned telephone. They kind of look like a giant version of one of those standing on end. Did you notice what looks like insulators and a couple of wires on the top of a couple of the objects? Maybe they are giant light sockets. In episode 8 there appears to be one of these objects out on a street, where a manhole cover might otherwise be located, and another in the vintage theater, and yet another in a living room of sorts. I notice in the living room scene there is a phone ringing sound and someone approaches the black object and appears to flip a switch located near the gauges and the ring tone stops. At this point, I think I’d like one of those objects in my living room! Sorry for being long winded about that, but I know Twin Peaks is definitely working its magic on me! Kind of sad, creepy, vintage steampunk and childhood nostalgia all at once.
By the way, I recommend watching these two episodes of The Outer Limits from the original 1963 series. They are “The Guests”, episode 26 and “Don’t Open Till Doomsday,” episode 17. According to what I’ve read online, these two are considered “companion episodes” and actress Nellie Burt is in each. My favorite line from “The Guests” is “He looks perfectly pitiful. I think it’s just awful. Awful, awful, awful!” and in “Doomsday,” “Heaven itself couldn’t find you there.” Here are links:
https://ia800406.us.archive.org/8/items/TheOuterLimits1963S01E32/The%20Outer%20Limits%201963%20S01E26.mp4
https://ia800406.us.archive.org/8/items/TheOuterLimits1963S01E32/The%20Outer%20Limits%201963%20S01E17.mp4
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0123454/
The Woodsmen are particularly eerie for me. There was this man living in the woods near the house I was born in. He could occasionally be seen crossing the road or out walking. He was a mentally ill man who lived on his family land but didn’t live in a house, rather in a dugout shelter he’d made.
He would warm himself over a kerosene fire, so his face and hands were covered with soot. He was just uniformly gray all over, like he was in a black and white movie.
He was harmless but didn’t talk to anyone and you’d just glimpse him vanishing into the underbrush.
Gotta light?
Did I see a frog with wings? I sure was wrong about those bulbous black “furnaces.” I guess they come in a variety of sizes. The one in the living room scene is actually closer 6 feet tall and maybe 5 feet or more at the base. It looks like it could be bolted to the floor. Some website said it looks like an old fashioned diving bell. I know one thing, I’d like to cook my “Eraserhead” dinner in one of those objects. It would definitely be chicken! Not necessarily “little damn things.”
Where was that farmhouse from your childhood?
If I may deviate from the Twin Peaks trajectory for a moment – just not my thing, sorry – what this (very fine) post makes me think of is this :
From various comments and asides over the years, it seems that you might possibly be in possession (and the author) of quite a bit of “space music”, for lack of a better term, from your past. I don’t know about anybody else, but I, for one, would be most interested in hearing some of that. Any chance of you ever delving into the vaults for some examples of that, if such items are in fact available?
Many years ago I purchased from “Music From The Hearts of Space” mail order “Starscapes” by Geoffrey Chandler on Vinyl (Unity Records UR706) and it arrived warped. I could play it but it wasn’t doing the stylus any good. I tried leaving the LP under books and anything heavy for months with no luck. It is my quest to find a perfect copy of this music as it is one of my favorites. I would accept WAV, FLAC, or a perfect LP record. There is a YouTube post of the album, but it is an extremely poor cassette copy with distortion and poor frequency response.
As far as what “floats my boat” music by Higher Intelligence Agency, Biosphere, Spacetime Continuum (Jonah Sharp), Waveform Records compilations, Artists on Silent records, John Foxx, Soundtrack from the film “More” by Pink Floyd the albums “Phaedra” and “Rubycon” by Tangerine Dream to name a few. I think I recall in the early days when HBO wasn’t 24 hours, during the day the sound was often Phaedra and Rubycon mixed together over and over while a schedule of the evening’s shows scrolled on the screen. Also years ago, Negativland actually played a show with Jonah Sharp and I made fun of his Roland TR-808 Drum box out of sheer ignorance. I am not proud of that moment!
Leona did you actually mean “music” I made. If so, here you go…
http://www.negativland.com/dumb/blog/archives/4528
http://www.negativland.com/dumb/blog/archives/1546
http://www.negativland.com/dumb/blog/archives/4772
http://www.negativland.com/dumb/blog/archives/3932
http://www.negativland.com/dumb/blog/archives/177
http://www.negativland.com/dumb/blog/archives/5926
http://www.negativland.com/dumb/blog/archives/5488
And there’s more, but you need to go into the blog more and just see what’s there. I thought I had a search function, but I guess not. I’ll check with the webmaster and see If it’s possible to have “search.”
Yes, it was stuff of your own I was referring to. I’ll have to comb through these links. Obviously, I have the more recent stuff. A few years before Don passed away, I was in contact with him and one of the people who was helping the OTE/Archive.org undertaking, and ordered quite a number of shows. (Should have waited! lol) But actually I’m glad in retrospect I did it, since I got to exchange a few e-mails with Don.
Anyway – along with the shows, the person who was lashing my order together also made me a dump of all the files you had posted on here. (This was before you were including download links.) I still have those files, but I need to dig them up and organize them. So some of this stuff on these links might be in there too.
As far as other music, I’m also fan of a few of the things you mentioned. But, most importantly, I very quickly just found a copy of the Starscapes LP you’re after. It’s still active at this link :
https://www.mediafire.com/?74eav6cwrcairql
It’s a rip of the cassette, so it’s still a little hissy (in fact, it could be the same rip as what’s on YouTube), but at least the fidelity is a tad better than it would be from downloading it off of there. To me, for this kind of music, as bad as the original cassette probably was, I still think it would be preferable to the LP. Ticks and pops on vinyl drive me crazy, especially for stuff like this.
Anyway – hope you can get it OK and can tolerate it! With all your equipment, I imagine you can probably spiff it up a little if need be.
Leona, was that me who you were dealing with back in the day? I seem to have made a dump of the “dumb” folder for someone at some point…
Might have been? (Since I’m not sure who you are – lol.) But if some three-way e-mails being batted back and forth over a few months and a flashdrive finally being sent around 3-4 years ago – with 30-40 shows and including said dump of folder – sounds familiar, then that would be it.
Thank you, Leona for the link, but alas it appears to be the same cassette copy that is on YouTube. I’m certainly going to keep it as it may be be source of the YouTube video and I do appreciate your effort! I realize for me, vinyl is superior regardless of ticks and pops. The very deep well defined bass and “airy” highs that only an LP deliver is what makes “Starscapes” soar.
Check out my new Facebook page,here:
https://www.facebook.com/buddy.runyan.986
Should I stay on Facebook or cancel?
I understand totally your feeling on the fidelity. We just differ on what we’re willing to put up with, I suppose. As I said, especially on things of an ambient nature, I simply cannot tolerate the surface noise (and more) from vinyl. Not only that, for a small release like that, I’d be willing to bet that the original LP (even unwarped) is probably not the greatest pressing in the world to start with (Sorry, I’ll stop the non-stop bitchfest now lol.)
Actually though, I’m glad now that you sort of misunderstood my original question, because I was able to listen to this all the way through today and I really do like it a lot. So thanks for the tip!
I can’t help you on the Facebook question I’m afraid. You wouldn’t get me on there if you paid me. I’ll just leave it at that for now, and spare you (and anybody else reading) a longer, much more profane rant on the topic. But good luck on whichever choice you make!
That’s okay and I totally understand. I have no intention of giving up on this blog. There are many more family recordings and oddities to keep me here for most part. The Geoffrey Chandler recording you sent is actually pretty okay. Putting VST equalization on the audio restores quite a lot of the low frequencies. You very likely have better hearing than I, so you may be more sensitive to record surface noise.
I don’t know about my hearing. Someday just for the hell of it I should probably have it checked. Another thing, for me, with that kind of release that tends to obviate some of the deficiencies is that I listen to them at a pretty low volume. So that alone can cancel out a fair bit of the hiss and distortion.
And more family recordings! Yes! Always room for more of those! 🙂
I think the 4th and final Bufferin aspirin ad may be next and I can assure you it’s the best (most disturbing) of the lot.
I love the drones; so textural. I just got into the Electronic Music class at The Evergreen State College, and have been getting to play some of the Modular Beasts I’ve only previously experienced as VSTs. Thought you might like to hear it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-EaIVcQJxE