Many forms of music were forbidden in the Soviet Union, especially in the first years of the Cold War. Western jazz and rock-and-roll were deemed the music of the enemy; Russian-émigré pop, the music of traitors. The Soviets banned “any music with a sort of swing to it,” says Stephen Coates, a British musician who founded the X-Ray Audio Project to chronicle one effort to evade state control.
In 1946 two enterprising music lovers in Leningrad, Ruslan Bugaslovski and Boris Taigin, figured out a way to copy records. The original music was smuggled into the country, often by sailors. Because materials in the U.S.S.R. were scarce, the two men scavenged parts from tools, such as drills, and old gramophones to build a recording machine. For the records themselves, they turned to an unlikely source: discarded x-rays, which were made of plastic soft enough to be cut by the recording machine.
The pair’s creations were striking: An x-ray image of broken ribs emitted the lilt of Russian tango. A Broadway show tune quavered from a dislocated pelvis. A human skull was the morbid backdrop for American jazz. “You have these pictures of the insides of Soviet citizens, impressed with the music they secretly loved,” says Coates, who stumbled across one of these “bone records” a few years ago in St. Petersburg.
Bootleggers in other cities picked up the duo’s methods, creating an underground record culture that lasted nearly two decades. But the authorities caught on too: Bugaslovski was imprisoned three times. “That’s how much music can matter,” says Coates.
I remember a lot of foreign music being banned here too. Not just the music, but everything that came with it, like the fashion. Guys with long hair were stopped by the police and given "normal" haircuts against their will.
They’ll tell you that they love you, like a spider loves a fly Promise you you’re safe, but never look you in the eye
Post by VoodooMedicineMan on Jun 21, 2017 8:58:42 GMT -5
My friend just sent me a link to this. It's a guy who specializes in mimicking sounds (best known from Police Academy), doing vocals, percussion, and random feedback effects on Whole Lotta Love, with just an acoustic guitar accompanying him. It's incredible how close to album version he sounds.
doriansaero: Hi, I can't find even 24/96 of Toys in the Attic and you mention that it is available in DSD. Do you happen to know where I can get it in DSD or even 24/96? Thanks!
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