Noise in the Groove: The Origin of Sound Recording

In this episode we begin our discussion of the new and improved phonographs that began to emerge in the late 1880s. We start with a poem, and towards the end we listen to the world’s oldest surviving recording of music (from a certain point of view), followed by the world’s oldest surviving recording of music+ Read More

This episode wraps up our discussion of the tinfoil phonograph and the talking machines that came before it. We talk about: a talking head named Euphonia, ghosts in shells, the first android, the first phonographic doll (which you get to hear), and a few fears for a phonographic future.

We cast our metaphorical nets into the deep sea of talking machine history and find: Baron Munchausen, Her, Hal, IBM, Dr. Sbaitso, Sigmund Freud, Der Sandmann, a defecating duck, a chess playing robot (allegedly), and, to end the episode, an 18th century talking machine.

Welcome to Tales in the Groove, a NITG spinoff exploring my favourite stories, legends and myths from the history of sound recording and recorded music. We start the series with a story about the death of Joseph Stalin, the life of the amazing Maria Yudina, and a midnight Mozart recording session. The episode ends with the adagio+ Read More

This episode starts with a story that sends us back to the 10th of March of 1879. From there, we try to get a sense of what it was like to encounter and listen to recorded sound for the very first time. After that, we add a bit of physiology and music to the mix,+ Read More

It’s rollin’ round the bend. We begin where we left off in episode 2, and from there: Moore’s law, AI, alchemy, the Emerald Tablet, Edison, the earliest recording of a train, self-help books, Darwin, scientists, proper operators, Yankee swindles, and beyond.

In this episode I discuss the ideas and research of the historians and philosophers who have informed and influenced the way I think about recorded sound. I talk about: fabulous phonographs, soundscapes, perfect prisons, self-subjugation, technological determinism and the wonderful worlds of Friedrich Kittler and Jonathan Sterne.

Here we go. We set off on our unexpected journey into the audible past, beginning with the question, ‘Why are we in England?’ But then: Edison and Tesla, deafness, tinfoil, circus elephants, mechanical menaces, canned foods, corpses, and a new and wonderful phonograph.

Hello, and welcome to the show. This episode introduces the main themes of the podcast. I explain what sound recording means to me and why I think it’s worth thinking about. You’ll also get to listen to the first recognisable and audible recording of the human voice.