In June 1994, Drone Records released probably the least droney item in their catalog to date with the nutty single for children "A Child's Garden of Noise".
Always one of my favorites of the things I co-produced and engineered while with Big City Orchestra (now celebrating their 30th anniversary),
the first pressing, on clear vinyl, sold out in about a month and so a second edition on candy yellow with lovely red center was put out.
Since the originals ran at 33&1/3rd we knew the fidelity would suffer a bit, and so years later I finally got around to transferring the original tapes to CD. Thus the mix of Side One of the record presented here is not the exact same as on the record.
I had always wanted to hear the huge amount of bacon cooking/record surface noise that I'd wallowed in while making side one in a 'clearer' format.
Friend Brook Hinton had been meaning to use the title for years, and graciously let us release ours. What can ya do- it's a phrase I'm sure many have kicked around. I should mention the awesome vocal work of six-year-old Annie X on much of side two. Which I'm not gonna play, but check it out anyway.
Also included today is a bonus unreleased track from the same sessions using an American history record we all loved. Oh, yeah, and there's also the wonderful first edition covers- all different on both sides, all of the fronts drawn by children and the backs done in our studio using vinyl and rub on letters tediously applied in the dead of night by das.
Hoping your young'uns enjoy it---this is one of my few posts suitable for children- so run with it!
A contemporary review is here.
the MP3s: A Child's Garden of Noise
The Santa Fe Trail
This is really a nice article, and I would really appreciate the idea it helps children to get into such productive activities.
Thank you
Posted by: Lieschens Garden | June 23, 2009 at 04:25 AM
I really found your article nice and easily understandable. It was really a nice thing to learn about. Hope this work would carry on . It can prove to be really helpful for young kids.
Posted by: Lieschens Garden | June 23, 2009 at 04:25 AM
MINDWRECKER's REVISIONS TO THIS POST: the personnel featured:
This record was constructed by me with Rob Wortman and das.
Also, "Annie X" should be credited: Annie Vickart.
Posted by: Mindwrecker | July 28, 2009 at 09:17 AM
THIS IS VERY INTERESTING. I have other big city orchestra, which is very experimenta, ambient and interesting. What is funny about this recording, i can tell you exactly where one of the samples came from: "TOO MUCH NOISE" by ANN McGOVERN from the record set of SCHOLASTIC BOOKS. i can find a used record store which has it.
Posted by: michael hansen | September 16, 2009 at 03:35 PM