Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Messages (2005)











Messages
 is a collection of instrumental songs featuring answering machine messages taken from tapes in thrift stores and junk stores. Before the moniker of Workday/Schoolnight, I released this under my own name, Bart Trotman. 

The idea here was to give a lush ambient setting to these answering machine messages I had collected.   Warning: Some of the messages are downright creepy.  Listening in on the line with these people raises questions such as: Who are these people?  Are they still alive? Are they nuts?        

here are some words about Messages from Carla Kucinski's article in Go Triad March 9, 2006:

" We learn of a desperate woman stuck in a relationship with an alocholic, and her friend on the other line who couldn't care less.  We get a scary glimpse of another caller with a sadistic laugh who leaves  a series of disturbing messages about someone pulling out a gun and grabbing a knife.  In that same message, there's a strange reference to a man and a scrapbooko: "She's looking through her scrapbook with all these people she's killed.  She used to be a nurse and she's killed all these people. Bye."  It gives me chills. 
  And then there's Mrs. Beverly, who perhaps causes the most concern.  While listening to "Mrs. Beverly, just when ARE you coming home?" you get the feeling that something terribly bad has happened to her, and that's why she can't get to the phone.   Or why her answering machine ended up in a thrift store.  For days, friends, acquaintances and loved ones leave her messages, wishing her a merry Christmas.  But the messages evolve into worry and concern: "I'm surprised you're not home yet... I pretty much expected to see you today ... I haven't seen your face in awhile ... I love you ... By the way, that will never change.  I will always love you.  "  
As the callers grow more desperate, the intensity of the music increases and creates anxiety within the listener; it gives me a bad feeling in my stomach.  The messages get to Trotman, too."



Tracks:
1. talk at cha
2. The Typewriter Rain
3. Ms. Beverly, just when ARE you coming home?
4. messages
5. CrazyKnife
6. Where My Dogs At?
7. The Conversation

(ignore the hot chicks, find the empty box - enter the 3 letters, wait, then click download)



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is a fascinating album quite unlike any I have ever seen. One small quibble: track 2, "the typewriter rain," did not appear when I downloaded the album.