Rakata bay bay, rakata bay BEE.

One of my favorite albums ever is Morgan Fisher’s Miniatures. In 1980, he asked people for one minute long audio pieces, and compiled them.

The cast includes Pete Seeger, Andy Partridge, Ralph Steadman, Half Japanese, the Residents, and Neil Innes and his kid singing “Cum On Feel the Noyze”. Steadman sings a John Donne poem outside in the rain while playing some kind of dilapidated pump organ. It’s one of the few records I can without hyperbole call unique.

My favorite track is from jazzman and bon vivant George Melly, who performs a Kurt Schwitters dada poem. He claims that reciting this poem to some muggers once saved his life. It’s not hard to hear why:

George Melly – Sounds That Saved My Life (mp3, 1.2M, 58 seconds).

It was a pain to get this. The CD version of the record has the tracks grouped five or six per CD track, and I had to use Amadeus II to perform some rough ‘n’ ready sound surgery and then reencode it. Good thing it’s just Yelled Vocal Quality.