Vulcan Miscellany
M03 - Moving Day - 2-minute
£35.00 GBP
Arthur Collins
Words by Andrew B. Sterling. Music by Harry Von Tilzer
Transferred from Edison Gold Moulded Record 9246, 1906
Moving Day Poster
$145.00 US
for coin-operated phonograph
We are pleased to present, in co-operation with 
Steve Farmer in Oregan, Arthur Collins’ recording of Moving Day and the matching poster for appropriate coin operated phonographs. We thank Mike Tucker, in Australia, for promoting the project, providing the source material for the cylinder, and introducing us to Steve.
This is one of the range of cylinders and matching advertising posters used for coin-operated phonographs in the days of parlors and penny, or nickel, arcades (see picture below). Harry von Tilzer wrote the music, with Andrew B. Sterling crafting the words. Recorded in 1906, it was one of the then popular genre of music known as ‘Coon Songs’.
There are a number of different styles of coin-op phonographs, both floor standing and table top. Some of these had a frame in which a poster could be mounted, advertising the current popular title. Steve Farmer, of Oregan, makes replicas of these posters, and will build the frame as well if this is missing or damaged. These posters are correct for the Edison Eclipse (pictured below left), Edison Windsor, Columbia Rosenfield (picture below right), Cailphone and like machines.
Steve’s posters are produced using 100% Archival Pigment inks on 
100% Cotton Fine Art Paper. They have a life-year rating of 200+ years. They will not fade. Even though the art paper they are printed on is very heavy, Steve adds an additional backing with contact cement and then trims them to size. The poster blank size is 19"X 26" with the printed area being slightly less. Some sign boards vary just enough to be annoying so rather than trimming them himself, Steve uses the stock size and allows the customer to adjust as necessary.
As usual, please order cylinders from our Order page. The posters are available directly from:
Steve Farmer
VINTAGE TALKING MACHINES
Grants Pass, OR
541.474.3068
Since 1976
M02 - Give Me An England - 4-minute
£20.00
Hypnotique for Dead Air Recordings - July 2011
The original concept for Give Me An England was penned by the artist 
when she was an 18-year-old school girl living in the claustrophobic landscape of rural Nottinghamshire and attending state school in a cathedral. The song develops the trademark Hypnotique style of looking backwards (in technologies and world view) whilst commenting on society today. It is particularly relevant as we live through a breaking and shattering Britain, while viewing with rose-tinted nostalgia the times before.
"It's about a recollection of a past that never existed, and being in love with the idea of the past and nostalgia. It's something that underpins most of my music but I've never written about before" - Hypnotique
Hypnotique was formed in 2001, originally as a theremin cabaret duo, before becoming a solo vehicle for the English chanteuse, multi-instrumentalist and thereminist's darker narrative and sonic ideas. The 2005 début album The Hanging Garden combines Berlin cabaret and industrial sonics with songs and stories about a transforming Britain in post-industrial decline.
Dead Air Recordings is a platform for releasing music in so-called "extinct" audio formats. It's less a record label, more an art project - an experiment in the aesthetics of music in an age of digital downloads taking over from physical product. Give Me An England is Dead Air's second project. The first project was 8 Track Remind, a compilation for 8-track tape featuring John Callaghan (Warp Records) and PFFR (MTV's Wonder Showzen). Dead Air has also collaborated on a U-matic 3/4" video tape release with Los Angeles outsider artist David Liebe Hart. Planned future projects include releases on VHS, steel wire, minidisc and 78 rpm vinyl, as well as the ongoing Dead Air Live series of events, which has featured Fuzzy Lights, Hong Kong In The 60s and Jansky Noise.
Lee Ashcroft, Dead Air Recordings
The Theremin
Leon Theremin, born Lev Termen in Leningrad in 1896, invented his electronic instrument in 1920.
The theremin is almost unique among musical instruments in that it is played without physical contact. The musician stands in front of the instrument and moves his or her hands in the proximity of two metal antennas. The distance of the hand from one antenna determines frequency (pitch), and the distance from the other controls amplitude (volume).
M01 - The Title of this Song is Longer than the Song - 2-minute
£35.00
Matthew Lippart - April 2011
The song, The Title of This Song is Longer Than The Song, came off the album, Let There Be Rock (a tribute to ACDC). This album was the first death metal release to be recorded in Myanmar (Burma). Burma was, at the time, the second most oppressed country in the world, behind North Korea, and the government controlled everything, with spies to match. It took almost six months to get the music and lyrics past the censors. The recording took place in Rangoon, where an armed soldier had his gun out the entire time - made for an interesting recording environment.
All the music was written by me - I also played the bass tracks and did the vocals. I had a couple of Myanmar guys lay down the drums and guitar parts, but they did not want their names released in case the government got upset about the whole thing.
And get upset they did - during the recording process, when we were adding some extra vocals and guitar bits, the army came in, pointed a gun to my head, and demanded we stop immediately - they took all the recorded materials. Luckily I had made a copy of the master before they arrived, which is what ended up on the cylinder. Out of the 8 songs planned, only four were finished - it was released as a four song EP.
There were accusations of witchcraft and demonic possession (I don't think my vocals were THAT bad), and that was the end of Myanmar's experiment with Western death metal. The studio was destroyed in a flood a few months later, and I was not granted any more recording permits.
Only 50 copies of that initial release were made, and over the past year I 
thought it would be nice to find a way to do justice to the bizarre origin of the record. When I heard that cylinders were still being made, it seemed like a perfect fit - what better way to celebrate the release of the first death metal album in Myanmar's history than with another first? The first (as far as I have been able to determine, anyway) death metal song released as a cylindrical phonograph - that makes it doubly obscure.
The song was my attempt to meld Nirvana and Iron Maiden together. Ironically enough, it was the soldier's idea to have an acoustic guitar part towards the end, and I think it came out pretty well.
Matthew
