Monday, November 22, 2004

SECRET SIGNALS

The Conet Project is something that's been around for a while, but I'll suspend my new-music rule in case y'all missed it:

For decades now, secret organizations have been broadcasting over short-wave radio what are apparently coded messages in the form of repeating numbers, letters, Morse code, music and/or sound effects. These "numbers stations" are assumed to be the work of spy agencies of many nationalities, judging by the variety of languages that are heard. The bizarre, mysterious nature of these messages, combined with the natural hissing and interference of a short-wave broadcast, create a kind of accidental electronic, ambient music. The Conet Project has been collecting recordings of number stations for years, and have 4-CD set that has been sampled a few times. One well-known band, Wilco, was actually sued for sampling a numbers station broadcast from the Conet album - Irdial Records who released the set own the copyrights to the recording, even though they didn't "write" the material. Did I mention copyright law is way out of control? Consider it mentioned.

Listen to this, but not alone in a dark room:

The Backwards Music Station
5 Dashes
nnn
Figure Counting 10 Rough Tones
Gong Station Chimes

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