Strange Voices

September 17, 2009 11:02 PM

Recommend some music like Bon Iver's Woods, Imogen Heap's Hide and Seek, Beardyman, and some of Jamie Lidell - which feature nothing (or very little) but the human voice modified by electronics. Augmented acapellas, if you will.
posted by phrontist to Media & Arts (15 answers total)

Björk's Medúlla consists almost entirely of human vocals.

If you want more beatboxing, Rahzel and Kenny Muhammad are amazing.
posted by pmdboi at 11:35 PM on September 17, 2009

Laurie Anderson - O Superman
posted by wemayfreeze at 12:42 AM on September 18, 2009 [4 favorites]

Emmy Rossum is definitely it.
posted by drea at 3:13 AM on September 18, 2009

In terms of augmented accapellas I think you might like Wounded Knee. I've seen him play live and he is absolutely spellbinding...
posted by Chairboy at 3:28 AM on September 18, 2009

The Art of Noise - Opus IV
posted by mmoncur at 4:30 AM on September 18, 2009

Todd Rundgren released an album in 1985 called A Capella which is all voice (and a few handclaps). Some of it is straightforward a capella stuff, some of it is manipulated beyond recognition by samplers and filters.

YouTube: Something To Fall Back On (actual music video!), Lost Horizon, Miracle in the Bazaar, Blue Orpheus, Lockjaw, for starters -- it looks like that one user might have the whole album up there.

Hey, here's an old "Entertainment Tonight" story on the album!
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 4:32 AM on September 18, 2009

Witchcraft — "We Rest" (from the compilation, Slumberland). - Seems to need IE to play properly.

This one's pretty out there: Improvisation for Two Augmented Voice Performers - Nios Karma & Nicolas d'Ales
posted by Hardcore Poser at 7:06 AM on September 18, 2009

It's a longshot given your criteria, but this Enya song, Ebudae, is primarily solo voice. It does have a simple beat and some kind of neat droning background sound. Her voice is not manipulated in an egregiously autotunish or computer sounding way, but you can tell it's pretty processed and smoothed.

Thought I remembered this one having processed background vocals, but guess not. Still very cool African-sounding acapella, and the background girls' repeated phrase starts to sound more like an instrument after a while. Zap Mama's Mupepe. Though you hit a button called "download" to get to the song, you then have the option to just listen if you want and not download.
posted by Askr at 7:29 AM on September 18, 2009

Phish did a cover of Free Bird completely a capella. I think it's amazing, the wife is scared of it. You can decide for yourself.
posted by theichibun at 8:04 AM on September 18, 2009

Dokaka is worth hearing. he worked with Bjork on her Medulla album I think. Some amazing stuff with just a normal set of vocal chords
posted by 0bvious at 8:16 AM on September 18, 2009

Mal Webb may be the sort of thing you're looking for.
posted by zamboni at 9:01 AM on September 18, 2009

Girlfriend just picked up a cd by Sonos that seems to qualify. All vocals. sometimes processed (or maybe just overdubbed, it's hard to tell). Reminds me of Imgoen Heap (and features a Heap cover).
posted by alikins at 9:33 AM on September 18, 2009

Panda Bear's Person Pitch has a heavy emphasis on vocals (with some really nice processing), though there are instrumental tracks they tend to be fairly minimal.

It's also my favorite album.
posted by god particle at 9:38 AM on September 18, 2009

Julianna Barwick released a new record recently named Florine. The entire album is vocal-only, the main difference between herself and the songs you listed is that most of her lyrics are indecipherable. Most of the album was written on the fly.
posted by whtthehecker at 3:05 PM on September 18, 2009

Amy X Neuburg - some of her music has a lot of added samples, but much is almost entirely vocal.
posted by moonmilk at 4:34 PM on September 18, 2009