Audio easter eggs are not limited to и . In today's material we will talk about the unusual messages, messages and images that musicians provide in their songs - released both on records or audio cassettes, and in digital format.
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Inscriptions on records
The easiest way to leave a hidden message on a record is to place it on a flat surface closer to the center of the disc. And groups often this opportunity.
The double album “What Burns Never Returns” by math-rock veterans Don Caballero invites you to create a complete sentence from the words printed on the records. If you put the inscriptions in order, you get the phrase “CDs make you look like a rainbow, but you look like this.”
The albums with the Still collection, one of the last releases by Joy Division, released after the singer's death, also contain unusual messages. They refer to the film ""which Ian Curtis . On the first and fourth side "The Chicken Won't Stop" and "The Chicken Stops Here", respectively. Chicken tracks are scratched on the other two sides.
“Chicken” is actually a quote from “Stroszek”; in the film it appears towards the end, shortly before the main character completes his life’s journey. The metaphor is interpreted in different ways: it is both a parody of consumer society and an image of a victim of circumstances (in the film he is part of a slot machine and is forced to dance every time the viewer inserts a coin into the machine):
The first edition of the third Led Zeppelin album even refers to , an early twentieth-century British occultist who almost single-handedly shaped the image of black magic in modern popular culture. On side “A” is written the Masonic formula “So Mote Be It,” a phrase that concludes or marks the key moment of a Masonic ritual), and on the reverse is written “Do What Thou Wilt,” a basic principle of Crowley’s magical philosophy.
Spectrography
Spectrograms are another channel for encrypted messages from musicians. Some performers in the spectrograms of their image tracks.
For example, the pioneer of experimental electronics Aphex Twin is known for this. His track “Windowlicker” features a hidden image of a spiral. And the b-side from the same 1999 record contains an even more amazing surprise. With the correct spectrograph settings, you can see a portrait of the musician himself in the track.
After Twin's Easter Egg, other musicians began using spectrographic imaging to promote their work and express their creativity. Thus, in the spectrogram of the first seconds of the song “My Violent Heart” from the concept album “Year Zero” by Nine Inch Nails, you can see a - an image that appeared in promotional materials for the album's release.
Тишина
Sometimes the best way to surprise the listener is to leave empty space where you don't expect it. This is what the fathers of hardcore, The Dead Kennedys, did on their EP “In God We Trust, Inc.”
In the best traditions of punk, the band's songs are mostly short. The total duration of the record is 14 minutes. Therefore, on the cassette release the band left side two blank and The tape reads: “Home recordings are killing the music industry! We left this side blank so you can participate in the process."
Not-quite-Easter eggs
Metal band Tool, known for long, meditative and rhythmically intricate tracks, unwittingly created something of a transformative song on their penultimate album.
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Attentive (or overly enthusiastic) listeners have noticed that the title track, “10,000 Days,” is equal in length to the sum of the other two songs, “Viginti Tres” and “Wings For Marie (Pt 1).” According to enthusiasts, if you buy two copies of the album and play “10,000 Days (Wings Pt 2)” on one system and first “Viginti Tres” and then “Wings For Marie (Pt 1)” on the other, they turn into new composition.
The same effect can be achieved by mixing these songs in specialized software (or running them in several tabs on YouTube). “Viginti tres” and “Wings For Marie” add interesting textures to the title track’s complex progressions.
Skeptical listeners, however, that in order to achieve a convincing sound, you have to adjust the timing of the tracks in some places. And the group members themselves , that if a “secret composition” exists, then it turned out completely by accident.
Additional reading on the topic:
Source: habr.com