October is John Lennon Month

CutUpSound presents
John Lennon Month.

Thx to DJ Extraordinare Daniel Flessas and audio wizard Tom Hollywood for their extreme assistance.  And Geoff Houghton, who did the longer mixes.

Tune-in the 6-hour exstream by clicking on one of the links to the right.

The playlist is over there too.

NASA JPL: Marsquake

First audio of a non-Earth geological event.

Link to YouTube.

Lord Buckley: Governor Slugwell

The original version of this had a gap at 1m 14s: The Gap
I restored the audio: No Gap
And it's missing the part at the beginning where the lady asks him if he wants the fan on.  I regretted trimming that, but it helps distinguish this version from the original.
He doesn't want the fan on

Governor Slugwell (no gap)

Worst New Flavor of the Year

Brexit: Scottish judges rule the prorogation of Parliament is unlawful:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-49661855

Update Sep 24: The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has unanimously declared the suspension of Parliament is illegal and of no effect.  Parliament has not been prorogued!  Amateur rogues, only.

Howard Roberts: Five Gallons Of Astral Flash Could Keep You Awake For Thirteen Weeks

The music albums produced by Bill Szymczyk for ABC Records had a certain quirkiness to them.  Howard Roberts' "Antelope Freeway" included an audio collage depicting late 60s/early 70's AM radio, heard in the cab of a semi on the road to Saint Joe.

link

Was "the Droopy voice" artificially produced?

Never thought of this before--I mean, why not assume it was naturally-produced, and Bill Thompson was just folding over his larynx in some way to get that distinctive thirsty-scratchy kind of rasp.  (Originally known as Fibber McGee and Molly's Wallace Wimple, and also appearing as Disney's forest ranger J Audobon Woodlore.)

But it's a difficult-- even impossible-- voice to approximate, much less copy.  It starts way up in the sinuses-- you can tell from how it resonates, "n"s come through pretty clearly-- but the sinuses also sound like they're stopped up.  In other words, we shouldn't be hearing much at all, like he's talking through a sponge.  It should not be a clearly-articulated stream of words.  But it is.  In fact, it has a charming, mellow sound.  How did he do it?  

Impressions (like John Stewart's) stand out because of how much they don't sound like Droopy; they just can't combine the depth of resonance with that adenoidal effect. The sheer difficulty is reflected in the repeated failure of MGM Studios to find someone else to voice The Droop.  None of the non-Thompson Droopies are even close. Anyone can do a little Milquetoasty whine like that.  Besides, Droopy didn't whine.  He was actually pretty stoic.

Bill Thompson was a great voice man.  People still say "That ain't the way I heered it!" without even knowing it was originally his line.  And for years I thought it was Percy Helton as Mr Smee in Peter Pan.  







(Being able to do a Percy Helton impression is quite an accomplishment in itself.)

But it seems reasonable that Thompson, as a radio-struck kid in the 1920's, dreamed of making a living with his voice, and probably sent away for one of those Ventrilo "throw your voice" things in the comic books.





A Ventrilo-like device:

Or, he might have used a swazzle or "Punch Whistle":

Named for Punch the puppet.  A reed suspended in a sleeve, placed in the mouth to produce whistles or whistling speech.  

My theory is, he had a Ventrilo on the back of his tongue where it'd obscure his sinuses, and found some way to talk around it, sounding more or less like a normal person.

We'll probably never know.  But don't try it at home.  

CURTIS8516: Mall Music Muzak - Mall Of 1974

Today's weird Internet find: 38 minutes of actual 1970's shopping mall muzak, rescued from videos, records and Spiro Agnew's cassette collection.

link to the Internet Archive

This might be the best: The Fountain of Life overflows with reverb,  Fascinatingly decrepit and flatulent.  Kind of like the 70's.