Crazy Creepy Sci-Fi Acoustic Levitation Device... Its Real

It sounds as creepy sci-fi as it looks, too. Thanks to musicthing for finding this awesome little video:



Dr. Deak says:

This is an acoustic levitation chamber I designed and built in 1987 as a micro-gravity experiment for NASA related subject matter.
The 12 inch cubed plexiglas Helmholtz Resonant Cavity has 3 speakers attached to the cube by aluminium acoustic waveguides.
By applying a continuous resonant(600Hertz) sound wave, and by adjusting the amplitude and phase relationship amongst the 3 speakers; I was able to control levitation and movement in all 3 (x,y,z) axis of the ambient space.
This research was used to show the effects of micro-gravity conditions that exist in the space shuttle environment in orbit, but done here on Earth in a lab.

Snare Drum Gods

Ivan Pacheco



Niko Jasniewicz

Video: OK Go - Here It Goes Again

What an ingenious low budget video.

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

Ghost Ridin: Gettin Hyphy in the Streets

Funny that the thing to take Hyphy from the underground to the mainstream looks like it will be Ghost Riding The Whip, also known as jumping around like a fool in, on and in front of your driverless moving car.

To ghost ride, frequently used in the context of "ghost riding the whip" (a "whip" being a vehicle) or simply ghostin is one of the latest trends to be popularized by the "Hyphy Movement", which originated in the Bay Area of California. This act involves the driver and/or passengers of any given vehicle exiting while it is still rolling and dancing beside it or on the hood or roof. It is one of the highest forms of "going dumb" and a representation of the style of hyphy. The term "ghost ride the whip" was given nationwide exposure in E-40's song Tell Me When to Go. However, E-40 was not the first to use this term, as it was coined much earlier by other Bay Area rappers such as Mac Dre. (Wikipedia)

Boing boing has it covered:

Ghost ride da whip

Here is a great post with tons of videos links to kids Ghost Ridin all over the place:

"Ghost riding" becomes "dangerous teen car craze"

They don't call it "Gettin Stoopid" for nothing.

UPDATE - Here's the latest soundtrack for your stupid driving needs: The first single off Mistah FAB's new album, Yellow Bus Rydah, due out in September. It's called Ghost Ride It, and I assure you that you really don't want to miss out on Mistah FAB in fine form, rapping over Ray Parker Jr.'s classic Ghostbusters theme. Hear it courtesy of our friends over at Hellatight.com.

- Jacob Z.

Music from the Stars, Literally

Now downloadable: music of the stars

Ancient Greeks thought planets and stars were embedded in vast crystal spheres that hummed as they spun around the heavens, giving off what the ancients called the music of the spheres.

It was a beautiful idea, and wrong.

But not totally wrong. There are no crystal spheres; but as astronomers found out in the 1970s, the sun and other stars do actually sing, said astronomer Donald Kurtz of The University of Central Lancashire in Preston, U.K.

The eerie tones are now downloadable

(via digg)

Stevie Wonder on Sesame St in 1973

Its great to hear a live version of my favorite Stevie Wonder song of all time:

Stevie Wonder - Superstition Sesame St



Check out the talk-box action on this one:

Stevie Wonder - Sesame song (live)

Joyful Sounds From Congo

Sometimes the only music happy enough is African music, and before I'm accused of speaking of the continent like I think it has a monoculture, today I'm referring in particular of the music of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

After dismissing my entire music collection as unfit for listening, I turned to the internet. I was pleased to discover that there is finally a new post at No Condition Is Permanent (this blog is highly recommended - take a moment to look through his archive). Count Reeshard was nice enough to share the music of Pamela M'ounka. It's a foot-tapping kind of music that evokes warm weather, good times, and a kind of smile in the face misfortune. His songs speak of love and its victims, and offer sly commentary on his country's economic and sociological conditions. Check out this description:

Pamelo's songs follow the traditional soukous pattern of creeping forward in a slow burn of almost ballad-like quality, and then gradually building up heat until they burst into flame with infectious guitar-driven rhythms that are impossible to ignore. While almost all artists of the era respected this musical structure, many singers seemed to be anxious to put the slow stuff behind them and get on with the guitar attack. Franco's songs, for example, often sound raw and under-produced as they build to the climactic rush of the "main" part. In contrast, Pamelo's great strength is that he complemented his irresistible melodies with controlled, almost delicate, vocals and superior production throughout. He convincingly conveys a wide range of emotion in each song-- his lush, unhurried introductory phrases are as carefully crafted as the feverish, extended ecstasies of the main body of the song.

There's an informative article about the music of Congo in The Economist, of all places. To help put it all in context I'll need to find recordings from some other important (and better remembered) artists of M'Ounka's day, such as Sam Mangwana, Tabu Ley Rochereau, and Franco Luambo.

For the moment, anyone interested can grab more of M'Ounka's songs here.

Mellotron Madness

Caught this awsome video over at Music Thing:


I'm just really impressed with the low latency they managed to squeeze out of such a rube goldberg device.

From Mellotron article at wikipedia:

The Mellotron (along with its direct ancestor the Chamberlin) was, in effect, the world's first sample-playback keyboard. The heart of the instrument is a bank of magnetic tape strips (these tapes were parallel linear, not looped as has sometimes been reported or presumed), each tape with approximately eight seconds of playing time; playback heads underneath (but not directly underneath) each key enables performers to play the pre-recorded sound assigned to that key when pressed.

Ballads For The Age Of Science

I can't remember how I found this fine mp3 collection of the 6 LP set Ballads For The Age Of Science, but it's quite a silly treasure trove. These records were produced in the late 1950s/early 1960s and cover space, energy and motion, experiments, weather, and nature in the most ATOMIC AGE! manner possible.

For the nerd rock fans out there, finally a chance to hear the original version of the rousing They Might Be Giants cover of Why Does The Sun Shine, still the only reason I know that:

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

Remix The Ring

CBC Radio is holding a remix contest for Wagner's famous opera cycle Der Ring des Niebelungen, supposedly the first in a series of "compose yourself" contest features.

You are invited to Remix The Ring! Well, actually just part of it-the famous Ride of the Valkyries. Download the file of Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries and remix it in any way you see fit. Mash it, chop it, layer it, turn it upside down. Your remix can have a dance feel, or be completely avant-garde. Let your imagination be your guide.

Just the Ride of the Valkyries? That's lame, like announcing a remix contest for Beethoven's 9th Symphony but then restricting the contest to the Ode To Joy section. Plus, it's not as if remixes of Ride of the Valkyries are especially rare. I can remember hearing a rave verison of it slipped into somebody's dj set on more than one occasion.

So I'll pass on this one but if anyone else decides to join in, I'd be curious to hear the results.