OOPs: Voices Of The Loon (National Audubon Society, 1980)

If you know what loons sound like, you've probably skipped all the text and are already downloading this. If you've never heard a loon call, either recorded or in the wild, then just start downloading now and thank me afterwards.

Loons make the creepiest fucking sounds out of any animal ever. The different technical names for loons calls are wail, tremolo, yodel, hoot, and various combinations like tremolo-wail but the word "ghostly" pretty much sums it all up. They sound like ghosts. Beautiful, horrifying ghosts. The specters of the northern wilderness that wake you up in the middle of the night and give you the sweats, who then soothe your fears and lull you back to sleep.

The first side is narrated by Robert J. Lurtsema who helps to identify the different calls. The second side is uninterrupted by humans, just 21 minutes of sounds like "Chorus From A Distant Lake," "Wails During A Thunderstorm," and "Coyotes Calling With Loons." So you can just throw that on and remember those late nights spent staring at the stars on a Maine lake.

The back of the jacket (included in the zip) has plenty of detailed notes, including some spectrographs showing what the different calls look like. So cool. But the best part of this whole thing (other than the recording, obv) is the "Important Note" that warns you not to play this record "near waters occupied by breeding pairs" because apparently loons are a bunch of pussies that can't handle some stiff competition.

LOOOOOOOON

OOPs: Getting Through: A Guide To Better Understanding Of The Hard Of Hearing (Zenith, 1971)

I got pretty psyched when I saw this record sitting in the back of the last crate on a small table at a record fair. One, because it's a bit strange. Obviously. Also, the "Unfair Hearing Test" was pretty intriguing. But also because I'm nearly deaf in my right ear.

Most of this record is geared towards a person living with someone who has hearing loss, rather than the actual person with hearing loss, so for me it's more novelty than anything else. It explains how to cater to someone who is hard of hearing, ranging from the obvious ("When talking to the hard of hearing, face him directly") to the ridiculously impractical ("When the hearing handicap joins a group, be sure he knows the subjects being discussed").

The best parts of Getting Through are all of the filtered & altered sound samples, trying to replicate what hearing loss sounds like, and what it's like for someone who has a newly acquired hearing aid.

And I'm 99% certain the whole record is to make you feel sorry for your deaf grandparents and buy them a pair of Zenith hearing aids.

You might want to grab the extra large version of the back cover which has some instructions for the record as well as the answers to the "Unfair Hearing Test."

Wear earplugs at concerts.

A. T. Gaul - Sounds Of Insects (Folkways, 1960)

Sounds Of Insects (No Vocals) [LINK REMOVED]


I found this in the back room of a local record shop and almost pissed myself when I saw it. I didn't care how much it cost. It had to be mine. Luckily, it was only about 12 bucks; the vinyl and jacket were in great condition and it came with the info booklet detailing how the recordings were made so I made out like a fuckin bandit.

Most of the sounds on here aren't field recordings, they're from experiments done in the lab (insect torture included). The record was probably a teaching aid at some point. A. T. Gaul delivers scientific commentary for the duration, saying this is this bug doing this, and look how the sound changes when you do this. There are things on here that I was surprised to learn about and it could still be used for educational purposes. But that's not why I got it.

What I did was edit out (almost) all of the vocals and created one long track of insect sounds. If you were ignorant of the source of these sounds, you could easily mistake a lot of them for experimental music. The power electronics of a giant beetle stomping around, the freak folk clamor of a wasp eating meat from a fish bone, the drone of the hornet fatigue experiment, or the spastic freakout buzz of a fly caught in flypaper, but mostly it sounds like minimal ambient noise and it's fucking great. Of course, when you get to the recording of a cicada out in the field with children laughing and planes flying overhead, it brings you back to the scientific reality of what you're listening to.

This record is so awesome. You really just need to listen to it yourself. I recommend listening to it first sans vocals (which you can download above), and then head to the Smithsonian Folkways website where you can purchase it on CD or cassette (really) so you can discover what each sound is and how it was recorded. Totally worth it, trust me.