Weird Ploys For Releasing Records / Strange Concept Albums / Strange Formats

cut up the album and release it parts

https://vimeo.com/23560977

i can't get it to embed

  On 6/8/2012 at 7:25 PM, Awepittance said:

One of them included a beatup car with an exclusive merzbow cd in a car cd player which could not be ejected.

This is true, the car had an un-ejectable copy of Noiseembryo in it:

Most infamous was the Merzcar, label owner Anders had a rundown Mercedes-Benz 230 that he rarely drove, the police told him to move it or else it would be towed, so he rigged the CD player to play the label's newest release, Merzbow's Noisembryo, and made it impossible to turn off or remove, he then put the car up for sale as a limited edition of one. It went unsold and eventually broke down, Anders then removed the CD player and got rid of the car.

  On 6/8/2012 at 7:25 PM, Awepittance said:

another was a cassette inside of a dead dog carcass, i dont think either of these really exist but it would be cool if the ydid

Reminds me of the story of Swedish vocalist "Dead" mailing a demo to Mayhem (who he sang for before he committed suicide) with a dead bird inside.

/black metal trivia

  On 6/8/2012 at 7:25 PM, Awepittance said:

Zoviet France - Gris, 10" record inside of a sleeve of sand paper

^ nice - I assume the idea was each release would inherently sound different, clever way of doing so.

  On 6/11/2012 at 6:05 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

  On 6/8/2012 at 7:25 PM, Awepittance said:

One of them included a beatup car with an exclusive merzbow cd in a car cd player which could not be ejected.

 

This is true, the car had an un-ejectable copy of Noiseembryo in it:

 

Most infamous was the Merzcar, label owner Anders had a rundown Mercedes-Benz 230 that he rarely drove, the police told him to move it or else it would be towed, so he rigged the CD player to play the label's newest release, Merzbow's Noisembryo, and made it impossible to turn off or remove, he then put the car up for sale as a limited edition of one. It went unsold and eventually broke down, Anders then removed the CD player and got rid of the car.

LOL wut!? - he should have a prank show called "Merbow'd" It'd be like Punk'd only enjoyable

Liquid filled record, @3:15

This was attempted but failed to work properly in 1979 with the LP for Disney's Black Hole soundtrack.

  Quote

“Made in 1978, this Han-O-Disc Liquid Disc is filled with aniline dye colored silicone fluids and oils that freely move around. This disc was a prototype for the Disney movie The Black Hole (1979) but leakage proved too great a problem and it was never released.”

  On 6/8/2012 at 7:25 PM, Awepittance said:

as far as i know the first Haters 12" was just a blank piece of acetate that comes wit ha bag of gravel, they ask you to rub and scrape the gravel on the 12" and play it back

Haha, amazing. I kinda wanted to do something similar with my Cuntag project—buy a whole bunch of discount 12" records, sand off all of the original grooves and hand etch my own with a pin, and going over it again with sandpaper to actually give the grooves some substance.

UMD

This thread petered out before its time.

In my youth I thought multi-disc strategies (like Flaming Lips’ Zaireeka) were cool. (Definitely cleverer than their late memory-stick-encased-in-hipsterbait-gummy-sculpture trend.)

Square CDs are cool.

Buddha Machines are also cool. I always expected eventually someone would release a set of headphones with preloaded album or loops (w/o an input jack), but I’ve yet to see anything like that.

What RDJ did with AB5 (never releasing a nonexistent album & still leaving everyone convinced they’ve heard it & it’s inconceivably beautiful) was pretty cool, too.

Come on, fellas, let’s keep this ball rolling. Whee!

there's quite a few lists on discogs that'll have stuff like weird packaging stuff for releases or just weird concepts for releases in general

anti-records are always fun, like roto-tract: https://www.discogs.com/Runzelstirn-Gurgelst%C3%B8ck-Roto-Tract/release/694055

and most of the stuff michael ridge does is pretty ridiculous

https://www.discogs.com/Michael-Ridge-Grilled-Glitter-Party/release/8543945

https://www.discogs.com/Michael-Ridge-Cheese-Grater-Music/release/9220665

https://www.discogs.com/Michael-Ridge-One-Second-One-Heartbeat/release/6532185

Cool, I remember this thread.

I always wanted to release a vinyl album across 2 discs that only plays properly when you mix them together in the right order.  Kinda like what Snares did with those CD parts of My Life is A Bulldozer (bonus: did anyone ever actually complete compiling those?)

  On 8/29/2017 at 5:18 AM, doorjamb said:

What RDJ did with AB5 (never releasing a nonexistent album & still leaving everyone convinced they’ve heard it & it’s inconceivably beautiful) was pretty cool, too.

  On 8/29/2017 at 5:18 AM, doorjamb said:

Buddha Machines are also cool. I always expected eventually someone would release a set of headphones with preloaded album or loops (w/o an input jack), but I’ve yet to see anything like that.

https://boomkat.com/products/live-electronic-music-device

.... Think it's running an Arduino or something as it needs to 'boot' when first plugged in, but after a few seconds you're left with an infinite collage of lovely dark-ambient-musique-concrète-ness

Here's an extract:

  On 6/11/2012 at 5:50 PM, Worlds Most Johnsson said:

cut up the album and release it parts

https://vimeo.com/23560977

Sounds frighteningly similar to Meatbingo.

  On 8/29/2017 at 12:05 PM, mcbpete said:

 

  On 8/29/2017 at 5:18 AM, doorjamb said:

What RDJ did with AB5 (never releasing a nonexistent album & still leaving everyone convinced they’ve heard it & it’s inconceivably beautiful) was pretty cool, too.

As in this? https://www.discogs.com/AFX-Analogue-Bubblebath-5/release/160224

Nice try, fakenews!

I like the idea of that Room40 box (& similar boxes) a lot. I remember seeing somebody’s build of a box that ran ambient sound (from on-board microphone) through some kind of granular synthesis chain. I can’t find it now, but the samples the guy posted had me convinced it could be pretty mindbending to take for a stroll.

https://youtu.be/1Xfb_dhpU0o

also, how about this release

1-bit Symphony

Single sided 12" lathe cut into a laserdisc

https://www.discogs.com/Dreamcatcher-Dreamcatcher/release/6674395

Most of Goodiepal's stuff is mental

There was also Alku's Less Lethal Vol.2 compilation which came as two patches and a piece of card in an envelope. On the card there was a code you had to decipher to get the download of the comp.

  On 8/29/2017 at 11:38 AM, fletcher said:

I always wanted to release a vinyl album across 2 discs that only plays properly when you mix them together in the right order.

They also like to release multiple versions of the same album (released at the same time) with different track orders, mixes or different tracks entirely.