funkinfreakyfoundsounds

July 22, 2005 1:34 PM

AuralChaos-Filter: Just started a gig as a radio DJ at a local college radio station. I've always been a fan of slipping in random "found sounds" and other bits of audio chaos into mixtapes I've made for friends, and would like to continue the trend with my show. Think "How To Speak Hip", "Picking Up Girls Made Easy", Ken Nordine, or ANYTHING that's ever played on WFMU. I've found WFMU's On The Download and UBUWeb's 365 Days Project great resources, but I've pillaged them for all they are worth - Any other suggestions for obscuro audio out there?
posted by rabble to Media & Arts (21 answers total)

Archive.org
posted by box at 1:37 PM on July 22, 2005

How about Numbers Stations? That link has a ton of mp3s.
posted by agropyron at 1:41 PM on July 22, 2005

Quiet American's field recordings (be careful not to miss the easy-to-miss map navigation at the top of the page).
posted by sad_otter at 2:19 PM on July 22, 2005

I second number stations. Also, see if you can find any teach-yourself language tapes or vinyl. "The Books" use them frequently, and they abound with surreal combination of oneiric sentences and too-deliberate enunciation.
posted by ori at 2:45 PM on July 22, 2005

I'll second the Conet Project. Numbers station tracks are all lots of fun to play on the air. Also, Malcolm Mcluhan has at least one LP floating around, and it's all sorts of crazy.
posted by hototogisu at 2:47 PM on July 22, 2005

Nurse With Wound.
posted by plexiwatt at 2:58 PM on July 22, 2005

Touch Records released an album of ringtones by contemporary sound artists.

Also on a Touch tip, collect the entire recorded output of Chris Watson. His wildlife recordings are incredible.

Stephen P McGreevy has recorded the earth's natural VLF radio phenomena extensively.

Browse through Aquarius Records' found sound/oddities section for field recording weirdness, bizarre conceptual art records and crank calls.

Track down Al Jazzbo Collins' 1967 album A Lovely Bunch Of, which is like Ken Nordine but funnier and more self consciously hip.

If all else fails, Chris Morris [go the 'radio' links on the left for audio downloads]
posted by nylon at 3:17 PM on July 22, 2005

go to your school library and check out audiobooks/books on tape (cd). there are lots of sites with movie clips in audio format too.
posted by pinto at 3:24 PM on July 22, 2005

If you're not adverse to purchasing something, Rhino put out an awesome Stan Freberg box set a while ago, along with one CD full of his advertising work -- those might be fun to slot in occasionally. (it's called Tip of the Freberg, BTW)

Unfortunately, the Mp3Blog Aggregator has been down lately, but sometimes they have links to weird/strange stuff.

Dictionaraoke has some cool stuff -- basically covers of songs by the speaking dictionaries (on the off chance you've never heard of it).

Also, Comfort Sound has some cool stuff, and there's always searching for Mic-In tracks on P2P type stuff. (other things to search for could include "StereoStim" -- sounds used for masturbation by (not 100% sure on the particulars) hooking a dildo or something similar up to a speaker cone and putting these sounds(typically test-tones and the like) and getting off on the vibrations; Onion Radio News segments, maybe, C.U.T. (a christian LP that was sampled by Negativland for "Michael Jackson" on Escape from Noise)

And (hate mentioning it again since I just did on the blue not to long ago, but Record Robot tends to post obscure and strange recordings. (and Copy, Right? is another mp3 blog, this one focusing on weird/wonderful covers.)

That's just off the top of my head -- hope these help!
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 3:24 PM on July 22, 2005

ALSO! Just remembered -- there's a CD out called "Lucas And Friends Discover a World of Sounds" -- it's compiled by one of the guys in Optiganally Yours.

Also, I think some mp3s were going around of one of the Apology Line cassettes, although I think those were taken down. But I think they might be available on CD?
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 3:28 PM on July 22, 2005

A couple of things I forgot to mention:
Sleep Machines [there are mp3 samples on each individual page] and if you can find any of John Oswald's stuff online, get it - his banned Plunderphonics album is awesome.
posted by nylon at 3:35 PM on July 22, 2005

Heh, and via Copy, Right just now, Every song the Golden Girls Sang.

Also, detritus.net at least used to have lots of mp3 archives (including all of the Plunderphonics album and Rubiyat EP by Oswald, but stuff like 1987 What The Fuck Is Going On by the KLF), but I'm not sure if they're currently up at the moment. (Seeland's also released all the Plunderphonics stuff about 10 years ago on the 69-96 2 CD Set, though all the tracks have been segued. They've got some other cool stuff which you might dig, too.)
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 3:47 PM on July 22, 2005

Look to audio soundbites of old movies - Heaps of stores now carry bulk $1 or $2 DVDs of show and movies from the 50's and earlier. Some might even be old enough to be out of copyright.

Though I think a richer source of material would be blockbuster or somewhere like that, and renting stuff like 50's sci-fi B-movies that are notible enough to be in those places. (Since most of the $1 DVDs are probably a bit too obscure.
posted by -harlequin- at 3:55 PM on July 22, 2005

Aha, the good Reverend beat me to it: yeah, Plunderphonics is on Detritus [scroll down]. Read the individual track notes here.
posted by nylon at 4:02 PM on July 22, 2005

A while back I downloaded a bizarre infomercial about evil and how to defeat it by some guy named Ramesh Richard. It used to be available on his site. It's called "Evil Unmasked" and it's brilliant. Email me if you want to get a copy - it's a 26 MB mp3.
posted by O9scar at 5:10 PM on July 22, 2005

Never mind - it is still available on his site.
posted by O9scar at 5:13 PM on July 22, 2005

the prelinger archives at archive.org is a gold mine ... they're movies but there's a lot of great sound bites to be gotten from them
posted by pyramid termite at 7:02 PM on July 22, 2005

might be too obvious but anything by Lord Buckley, also No Deposit, No Return (Jorma Kalkounin of the Fugs)
posted by lois1950 at 10:36 PM on July 22, 2005

Frank's Vinyl Museum: the internet home of weird records. Check out Muhammed Ali Fights Tooth Decay with Frank Sinatra.

Miserable Melodies has tons of crap. Compare Yoko Ono at her worst (Toilet Piece) to Linda McCartney's historic attempts at backup singing (Hey Jude, track from only her mike....) and you will have an entire special about why the Beatles broke up.

And of course, why limit yourself to the 21st and 20th centuries? Lots of cylinder records for download at Tinfoil.
posted by zaelic at 5:20 AM on July 23, 2005

Since somebody mentioned wildlife recordings, I give you Amphibiance, the sounds of Ohio's frogs and toads.
posted by Aknaton at 9:56 AM on July 23, 2005

Response by poster: Wow, wow, wow! Great stuff, thanks for the leads, ya'll - MeFi never fails me.....
posted by rabble at 1:05 PM on July 23, 2005