Noise in the Groove: The Origin of Sound Recording
History
This podcast ponders the moment we began to play back recorded sounds. It’s a factual history of the phonograph and gramophone, but told through dreams and nightmares of the voices of the dead, the nature of time, the rapture, AI, androids, elephants, canned foods, mechanical menaces, alchemy, and so on. Now hear this.
Location:
Spain
Description:
This podcast ponders the moment we began to play back recorded sounds. It’s a factual history of the phonograph and gramophone, but told through dreams and nightmares of the voices of the dead, the nature of time, the rapture, AI, androids, elephants, canned foods, mechanical menaces, alchemy, and so on. Now hear this.
Language:
English
Website:
http://noiseinthegroove.com/
Email:
ramsey.janini@gmail.com
Episodes
Episode 16 – Alessandro Moreschi and the Blessed Knife
6/3/2016
This episode begins (just about) and ends (indeed) with recordings of Alessandro Moreschi – AKA the Angel of Rome – AKA the Last Castrato. His recordings are the only surviving sounds of a tradition of castrated male singers that lasted over 350 years, and mutilated countless thousands of innocent children in the process. We chart the rise and fall of
+ Read More
Duration:00:22:01
Episode 15 – Lost in Transylvania
5/14/2016
This episode concludes our recent discussion on death and the phonograph. We talk about: the last message of Cardinal Manning, Alfred Tennyson’s phonograph recordings and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The episode ends with a lesser known story by Jules Verne, a forerunner of Dracula in a way, that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.
Duration:00:20:33
Episode 14 – The Resurrection of Robert Browning
4/25/2016
This episode continues our exploration of spiritualism, death and the phonograph with a discussion of the life, death and resurrection of the great English poet Robert Browning.
Duration:00:21:16
Episode 13 – Blavatsky and the Etheric Planes
4/11/2016
We broaden our discussion of technology and Victorian spiritualism to include: WT Stead and the sinking of the Titanic, more on the 19th century connections between magic and science, as well as HP Blavatsky, the Theosophical Society, Annie Besant and Jiddu Krishnamurti.
Duration:00:20:39
Episode 12 – A Voice from the Dead
3/24/2016
In this episode we begin an exploration of death and the phonograph that will continue for a few more episodes. We begin this particular journey into the beyond by taking a deeper look into the connections between technology and Victorian spiritualism. This episode features an excerpt of a recording of Arthur Conan Doyle describing how
+ Read More
Duration:00:24:13
Episode 11 – Ich bin ein Emile Berliner
2/14/2016
This episode starts by sharing a few popular stories inspired by the hopes and fears of a phonographic future, before moving on to introducing Emile Berliner (who you get to hear sing) and his gramophone. After that, I ponder what was lost in the disc record’s victory over the cylinder. Also: talking sponges, Egyptian colossi and
+ Read More
Duration:00:23:27
Tales in the Groove 3 – Copywrongs: Starring Lawrence Lessig, John Oswald and Mickey Mouse
2/1/2016
This is the story of how Mickey Mouse has been covertly destroying our cultural heritage. Well, his management at least. We continue questioning copyright by checking out the wonderful work of Canadian composer John Oswald. Who’s Dab?
Duration:00:16:51
TITG 3 – Copywrongs: Starring Lawrence Lessig, John Oswald and Mickey Mouse
2/1/2016
This is the story of how Mickey Mouse has been covertly destroying our cultural heritage. Well, his management at least. We continue questioningcopyright by checking out the wonderfulwork of Canadian composer John Oswald.Who's Dab?
Duration:00:23:31
Episode 10 – Gladstone and the Undead Stenographer
1/26/2016
The show is on the road again! This episode is mostly about Edison’s somewhat doomed attempt to market the phonograph in the UK as a business dictation machine in the 1890s. The discussion includes: a recording of William Gladstone’s voice, the ‘I’m not quite dead yet’ death of stenography, and brief looks at the histories
+ Read More
Duration:00:23:13
Episode 9 – Severed Ears in Quebec
12/21/2015
This episode is mostly about Alexander Graham Bell, the Volta Laboratory and Bureau, and severed ears. Enjoy!
Duration:00:17:29
Tales in the Groove 2 – Dot Dot Dot Dash – Victory – Vendetta
12/11/2015
A story of how the first four notes of Beethoven’s 5th symphony became an audible symbol of resistance against Hitler’s Nazi Germany, by way of Guy Fawkes, Alan Moore, V, Morse code, the BBC and Churchill. Bob Marley gets a mention as well, obviously.
Duration:00:11:04
Episode 8 – 1888
12/6/2015
In this episode we begin our discussion of the new and improved phonographs that began to emerge in the late 1880s. We start with a poem, and towards the end we listen to the world’s oldest surviving recording of music (from a certain point of view), followed by the world’s oldest surviving recording of music
+ Read More
Duration:00:25:08
Episode 7 – Talking Head
11/20/2015
This episode wraps up our discussion of the tinfoil phonograph and the talking machines that came before it. We talk about: a talking head named Euphonia, ghosts in shells, the first android, the first phonographic doll (which you get to hear), and a few fears for a phonographic future.
Duration:00:19:45
Episode 6 – Dawn of the Talking Machines
11/6/2015
We cast our metaphorical nets into the deep sea of talking machine history and find: Baron Munchausen, Her, Hal, IBM, Dr. Sbaitso, Sigmund Freud, Der Sandmann, a defecating duck, a chess playing robot (allegedly), and, to end the episode, an 18th century talking machine.
Duration:00:21:25
Tales in the Groove 1 – An Adagio for Stalin
10/30/2015
Welcome to Tales in the Groove, a NITG spinoff exploring my favourite stories, legends and myths from the history of sound recording and recorded music. We start the series with a story about the death of Joseph Stalin, the life of the amazing Maria Yudina, and a midnight Mozart recording session. The episode ends with the adagio
+ Read More
Duration:00:17:33
Episode 5 – It’s Recording : Say Something
10/23/2015
This episode starts with a story that sends us back to the 10th of March of 1879. From there, we try to get a sense of what it was like to encounter and listen to recorded sound for the very first time. After that, we add a bit of physiology and music to the mix,
+ Read More
Duration:00:25:55
Episode 4 – I Hear the Phonograph a Comin’
10/8/2015
It’s rollin’ round the bend. We begin where we left off in episode 2, and from there: Moore’s law, AI, alchemy, the Emerald Tablet, Edison, the earliest recording of a train, self-help books, Darwin, scientists, proper operators, Yankee swindles, and beyond.
Duration:00:25:49
Episode 3 – The Reading List
9/26/2015
In this episode I discuss the ideas and research of the historians and philosophers who have informed and influenced the way I think about recorded sound. I talk about: fabulous phonographs, soundscapes, perfect prisons, self-subjugation, technological determinism and the wonderful worlds of Friedrich Kittler and Jonathan Sterne.
Duration:00:20:20
Episode 2 – How Do You Open This Thing?
9/26/2015
Here we go. We set off on our unexpected journey into the audible past, beginning with the question, ‘Why are we in England?’ But then: Edison and Tesla, deafness, tinfoil, circus elephants, mechanical menaces, canned foods, corpses, and a new and wonderful phonograph.
Duration:00:23:51
Episode 1 – Mind the Gap
9/26/2015
Hello, and welcome to the show. This episode introduces the main themes of the podcast. I explain what sound recording means to me and why I think it’s worth thinking about. You’ll also get to listen to the first recognisable and audible recording of the human voice.
Duration:00:19:05