Cereal Box Records

Apparently there is a booming business on eBay selling cereal box records. As in, music recorded on flexi disc-format and included in the packaging for breakfast cereal. I found a reference to these on the ultra-fun Frank’s Vinyl Museum, and did a bit of digging. I turned up a big pile of results for cereal box records on eBay. Would you believe that some of these sell for as much as $90 USD?

There must be a collector’s market for these if they’re selling for between 40 and 90 bucks a pop…but wouldn’t it be awesome if bands started doing this again NOW? Imagine an Air cereal box-only release on the back of Sugar Crisp, or perhaps Trent Reznor exclusives on a box of Count Chocula…Motorhead doing Captain Crunch? Someone would have to invent a new type of breakfast food for the Godspeed! You Black Emperor version–perhaps a box of crunchy peanut butter, chocolate chips, and chili powder.

Weirdness on 45

Weirdness on vinyl makes the world go round, no better evidenced than by this twang-ridden YouTube clip posted on VintageTVs‘ channel there. This clip was Part One…of a series that deserves many, many entries.

The vocals are, well…damn. Just listen and you’ll also hear the sound of your brain frying.

Vinyl Record Players For Your Automobile

by Joe Wallace
While looking for vinyl oddities today, I stumbled across a collection of photos of record players designed to be installed in a car or truck. Designed for the lover of 7-inch singles, it would be truly awesome to see these come back in a major way. Of course that would necessitate a big industry for the the seven inch single coming back, too…but is that really a bad thing?

Check out the delicious retro loveliness of these players! Some of the images are courtesy of Dark Roasted Blend, while others are from eBay, BoingBoing and other sources. The video, which is first, shows the in-car vinyl player in action…sweet.

Electronic Penis Choppers Digital Single: The M Diary

Electronic Penis Choppers–one of the trouble-making side projects of Paisley Babylon. EPC plays coarser, more abrasive textures than Paisley Babylon–this is a band that likes its electronica sharp and spiky.

This particular digital single, The M Diary, is probably comparable to Wire at its most experimental–think of a more hyperactive and prickly “Small Electric Piece” from Wire’s 154 album crossed with some Musick to Play In The Dark -era Coil and you’ve got the right idea.

The M Diary features more than six minutes of captivating electronics, the creation of which were influenced by organic substances that should be hinted at rather than named.

The M Diary is as far away from smooth and mellow as it gets. How did this track get made at all considering the brain fuel involved?

No matter. Electronic Penis Choppers strikes again, with a very sharp object into your central nervous system. You won’t feel any pain when it goes in, you’ll just see blue flashes and wonder why the colors taste so funny.

Don’t be fooled by the false ending near the final section of the track–EPC brings back the metallic tones for one last bow before the track winds up. Wait for those skittering sounds to return before moving on to the next track.

This track is available for download via Amazon.com. Preview, purchase and download The M Diary by Electronic Penis Choppers for .99 cents.

Electronic Penis Choppers Digital Single: Android Sex Farm

Electronic Penis Choppers sound like a demented picnic between members of The Orb and Richard D. James, with Gillian Gilbert from New Order acting as referee. Don’t ask us what that’s supposed to mean, it’s just the mental picture that comes when Android Sex Farm is on.

EPC is a troublemaking little project from the same studio that spawns Paisley Babylon material. If Paisley Babylon is electronic music for isolation tank expeditions, Electronic Penis Choppers is what you’d want to be listening to on the dance floor after a nice long go on the nitrous oxide dispenser. The Orb, Aphex Twin and fans of The Other Two are all likely to enjoy this track, written at 2AM after a night of driving through Chicago city streets with headlights turned off and the stereo on full blast.

So yes, this is energetic chill-out music. Is that a contradiction? Perfect for post-club listening, Electronic Penis Choppers are carving out their own little niche with hallucinatory, laid back grooves. When you’ve had more than enough to drink but aren’t anywhere near ready for bed, this is the stuff.

You can preview and download the Android Sex Farm digital single from Electronic Penis Choppers via Amazon.com for .99 cents or check out the entire Electronic Penis Choppers album, Sex Music For H.P. Lovecraft on iTunes.

Paisley Babylon Digital Single: Blood Alcohol Content .211

For fans of the more experimental side of The Legendary Pink Dots, this digital single from Paisley Babylon should be right up your alley. Anyone who owns the LPD albums Faces In The Fire or Shadow Weaver should give a listen to Paisley Babylon’s Blood Alcohol Content .211. There is a kindred spirit at work in these surrealist textures.

The analog synth sounds of the Roland Juno 1 and Juno 6 are on display here along with some trippy found sound and echo manipulation. There’s also an old analog Eventide Harmonizer played as an instrument, lending this track some delicious otherworldly textures.

Inspired by true events in San Antonio, this track speculates what it’s like to experience the aftermath of a car crash at extreme speeds at 3AM on a rain-swept  Texas highway. There is a definite LPD influence here, cross-pollinated with Throbbing Gristle and a dash of Eno at his most sinister. The track is part of the PB digital album Songs From The Interstellar Hash Bar Jukebox, but was also released in 1997 on the CD-only Alpha Wave Variations album.

This MP3 digital download is sold via Amazon.com. You can preview, purchase and download the Paisley Babylon digital single Blood Alcohol Content .211 for .99 cents.

Paisley Babylon Digital Single “Dolly Bird With a Gram of Hash”

The second in our Turntabling Records digital single series. Paisley Babylon recorded this track, Dolly Bird With a Gram of Hash, on New Year’s Day 2011, using two turntables, a MicroKorg, and several analog delays. The track is a unique blend of hallucinatory loops, found sounds and turntablism.

The New Year’s Day recordings are something of a tradition for Paisley Babylon, who got started on the ritual after a 1999 session with Post-Mortem Telepathy that stretched over the entire New Year’s holiday. After that, a symbolic session on New Year’s felt, according to Paisley Babylon’s Joe Wallace, a bit mandatory for having good luck in the coming year.

Dolly Bird With a Gram of Hash was created to “capture the mindset of the girl and hopefully, the listener, after ingesting substances hinted at in the song title.” according to press kit materials for the Paisley Babylon album this track appears on. Could the Paisley record “Songs From the Interstallar Hash Bar Jukebox” be a concept record of sorts?

Hard to say, but if you like Perry & Kingsley, Brian Eno or Nurse With Wound, Dolly Bird With a Gram of Hash might be a worthy investment of a dollar.

Turntabling does plan to offer digital downloads direct from the site in the future, but while we’re developing this feature our digital singles are available for download from Amazon, iTunes and elsewhere.

Preview, buy and download Dolly Bird With a Gram of Hash by Paisley Babylon for one dollar at Amazon.

Paisley Babylon Dream Surgery Single

Dream Surgery by Paisley Babylon is a quite surreal experience. Nearly six minutes of electronic bliss recorded in Keflavik, Iceland in 1999 during a blizzard, this track was definitely influenced by the weather, the constant darkness in Iceland that time of year, and the lava fields stretching endlessly across the countryside.

Paisley Babylon specializes in electronic ambient journeys, experimental soundscapes, and more traditional sounds in the Morricone soundtrack vein. There’s also more than a hint of Stereolab and Coil influence here with a dash of Throbbing Gristle thrown in for good measure.

Dream Surgery has more structure than some of the other sounds on the album this was released on, Midnight Hallucinations, but there is definitely a trippy vibe going on here. This track is probably not right for road trips–it INDUCES highway hypnosis instead of driving it away. Never mind the surgery games, this track is all about the anesthetic.

This is the first post in a series of experiments to get projects like Paisley Babylon some wider exposure among people into sounds like these…Turntabling Records plans to offer these tracks as downloads direct from the site once our digital download interface is ready–we present this track via iTunes.

Download Dream Surgery in MP3 format via iTunes. Dream Surgery is a single track available for .99 cents. You can also explore the rest of the album, Midnight Hallucinations.