What are the Oddest Sounds You Have Heard Used in Music

[Hovmod]

As Vai admits in an interview, it's actually him "helping" his cat in heat with a thermometer and the cat letting out a big scream.

Hm. I wonder if that tasteless idea was served up in one of those astral projections as well?

[VicDiesel]

This is not bad, as far as odd sounds go:


A Grand, Grand Overture, For 3 Vacuum Cleaners, 1 Floor Polisher, 4 Rifles and Orchestra.

Victor.

[ericj23]

there is a few lee perry songs where he uses "imaginative" instruments

For example on one track he uses a door creaking as rhythmic device, on another he belches rythmically but the song "return of the super ape" (or OK corral) is a particular classic - he basically kicks what sounds like a bucket around a sparse studio as a sort of lead percussion track

[mellotronaut]

What Are Some Of The Oddest Most Unconventional Sounds You Have Heard Used In Music?

Yoko Ono.

+1
...and guitars

[cyanogen]

I vaguely remember some P.D.Q. Bach piece called "Duet for Bicycle Pump and Slide Whistle." Another one of his pieces involves a pipe organ, cymbals and ping pong balls. I saw the latter performed live years ago.

Then you have Harry Partch. He built his own instruments (including one from he used old missile warheads as percussion). If I remember correctly, he invented a 47-tone scale.

http://www.harrypartch.com/

Speaking of parrots, there's a metal band with a parrot on vocals called Hatebeak, and one with a dog on vocals called Canisius (Canus? I'm not sure.)

[vespers75]

Speaking of parrots, there's a metal band with a parrot on vocals called Hatebeak, and one with a dog on vocals called Canisius (Canus? I'm not sure.)

Caninus

http://www.pitbullgrindcore.com/

Hatebeak
http://www.myspace.com/beak666

[Reverse Engineer]

Bovinus!!!

[thelizard]

Venetian Snares & his girlfriend at the time, Hecate, made an album under the name of "Nymphomatriarch". All the samples on the album are samples of them f**king. For instance, a snare it is an ass-slap, and bass/atmosphere was made by inserting microphones in... places.

Man Man recorded a dog in a shower, firecrackers in NYC, and tap dancing/stomping with screwdrivers taped to their feet for their new album, which is shaping up to be amazing.

[Meffy]

I vaguely remember some P.D.Q. Bach piece called "Duet for Bicycle Pump and Slide Whistle." Another one of his pieces involves a pipe organ, cymbals and ping pong balls. I saw the latter performed live years ago.

Let us not neglect his Concerto for Horn and Hardart. Lovely instrument, the Hardart. (And the title is amusing to those of us old enough to have eaten at an automat in New York City.) Each note on the Hardart produces its tone via a different method: plucked string, hammered bar, bowed string, etc.

Other unusual instruments P.D.Q. Bach wrote for: two pieces of dried, uncooked manicotti; the windbreaker and slide windbreaker; trumpet mouthpiece without a trumpet and double reeds without an oboe or bassoon; balloons ("rubbed the wrong way", then later popped); lasso d'amore; left-handed sewer flute; compressed air horn; and an entire consort of "banned instruments" (might include one or more of the above, I forget).

[vespers75]

Venetian Snares & his girlfriend at the time, Hecate, made an album under the name of "Nymphomatriarch". All the samples on the album are samples of them f**king. For instance, a snare it is an ass-slap, and bass/atmosphere was made by inserting microphones in... places.

Awesome album! I've had it for some time. (Hecate fan here)

[KKeene]

The ominous electric razor in 'Plague of Lighthouse Keepers' by Van Der Graaf Generator.

[Hovmod]

The ping pong volley at the beginning of a Can song was just AWESOME in headphones; your nose was the net...

[debra1rlo]

the first three minutes of gary numan's cars was composed using these sounds:

1. a man taped a steak pie to the rear window of a fiat 127, hit it with a melon covered in football socks, and recorded the sound of the melon hitting the ground (which was, for that particular take) made of clams

2. gary recorded the sound of himself licking an austrian fisherman who was walking his pet pony

3. malcolm mclaren

OK, I have questions, RE...

1. Was the ground made of clams or the melon (or the fiat or the steak pie or the man for that matter)?

2. I'm a little unclear here... does the pony belong to Gary or the Austrian fisherman?

3. I love that show, but how could the actor who portrays Malcolm have been there when he was born in 1985?

[Reverse Engineer]

1. Was the ground made of clams or the melon (or the fiat or the steak pie or the man for that matter)?

The ground. The man was made from meat.

2. I'm a little unclear here... does the pony belong to Gary or the Austrian fisherman?

It was the fisherman's pony, the one that belonged to gary was on holiday in tenerife with his (the pony's) pal...drinkin' sangria, playin' mad drum'n'bass on their laptops, but they couldn't hear the bass, cos they didn't bring any external speakers, so in real terms, they were playin' mad drum, and all the breakdowns sounded crap, cos they were like, near silent and shit.

3. I love that show, but how could the actor who portrays Malcolm have been there when he was born in 1985?

It wasn't that Malcolm, you silly billy, it was Malcolm from the film, the one about the cat, who made up all those stories about being trapped in a gibbons sac.

[debra1rlo]

1. Was the ground made of clams or the melon (or the fiat or the steak pie or the man for that matter)?

The ground. The man was made from meat.

2. I'm a little unclear here... does the pony belong to Gary or the Austrian fisherman?

It was the fisherman's pony, the one that belonged to gary was on holiday in tenerife with his (the pony's) pal...drinkin' sangria, playin' mad drum'n'bass on their laptops, but they couldn't hear the bass, cos they didn't bring any external speakers, so in real terms, they were playin' mad drum, and all the breakdowns sounded crap, cos they were like, near silent and shit.

3. I love that show, but how could the actor who portrays Malcolm have been there when he was born in 1985?

It wasn't that Malcolm, you silly billy, it was Malcolm from the film, the one about the cat, who made up all those stories about being trapped in a gibbons sac.

Thanks for answering. I've been listening to a lot of Gary lately and been curious as to his production techniques. Now to get me some ground made o'clams!