[T]heirs is a cosy, dusty, otherworldly realm -- a clutter of home-made toys, doll's house ephemera, somnolent cats, glinting laptops, and incalculable bric-a-brac of mysterious provenance. And that's not to mention the duo's veritable junkshop have of arcane musical instruments and "sound emitters" that range from gleaming pianos and pot-bellied ouds to children's xylophones, dusty retro guitars, farmyard noise-makers, mechanical ashtrays and squeaky rubber poultry...(Oh, yeah, remember the "famous ashtray" in the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann"?)
Here, watch the video for Psapp's "About Fun." It's fun. Maybe you'll think it's twee. I like twee... sometimes.
Posts
7 comments:
I teach classes on the topic of "homemade" instruments. Over the years, I've developed a small collection of instruments made from ordinary materials. One of these days, I'll get around to making a frame from which to hang all sorts of percussive found objects.
I'm also the guy at IKEA who is always tapping the ceramic pots and glass vases looking for ones that produce a nice sound.
Unfortunately, I can't play music all that well, and I haven't found anyone who wants to give me lessons on the coffee can bass.
Are you familiar with Hurrah Torpedo?
I was uber-sad when I realized I'd missed their US tour.
You may like this rendition of the Nutcracker Suite from the folks at Specialized Bicycle. It's performed entirely on bicycle parts.
If you like Psapp and homemade instruments, I highly reccomend Aphex Twin. He made a drum out of carpet!
Not to long ago Naxos had a podcast about a composer who used nuts and bolts etc placed on certain piano strings to change the sound of the piano. It was quite a good podcast and the music was delightful.
Let us not forget P. D. Q. Bach and Prof Schickley. Lots of fun and entertainment there--in a non-serious way.
Naw, CB. EN's music has rhythm and the like, which collapsing buildings don't, as near as I can tell.
I was going to mention their use of construction equipment to produce music, though. On the off chance Ann's interested, probably Kollaps is the best thing to look at for it.
(And then there's early NON and the rest of the noise music genre...)
Post a Comment