I found this a while ago (which may be appropriate for today), while going through some crates of vinyl. It’s from a BBC lp from the early 70’s, at first I thought it was one of those endless military brass band lp’s but it seems to be something a bit more complex. It is a sort of sound picture of various naval activities.
Most of the tracks are existing bits of popular music with recordings of Royal Navy personnel going through their day to day operations such as firing missiles and launching aircraft all with the tunes over the top. By today’s standards it's a little unsubtle but a nice idea, if under produced. One track is quite odd if has a choir of monks singing plain chant while we hear a missile being guided onto a drone aircraft as part of practice exercise.
Anyway the best track not unsurprisingly is by the Radiophonic workshops which mixes the account of the funeral of the Poet Rupert Brook. It’s of its time (and seems to be narrated by Brian Sewell’s cousin) but the sound effects and music work well together. If you listen right to the end there is a final twist which adds to the complex nature of remembering the dead of all wars.
1 comment:
I was tempted to post this today
Post a Comment