Songs Featuring Other Sounds Replicating Instruments

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Influenced by a certain other thread, but still a lot to choose from.

Starting off with Yello's "Drive/Driven", whose "drums" were actually the sounds of a snowball hitting a window.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 10 October 2004 17:09 (twenty-one years ago)

the hi-hat on theme from s-xpress is - apparently - a sample of an aerosol being squirted.

― grimly fiendish, Sunday, 10 October 2004 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

the snare drum on 'graceland' is actually the sound of a giant bag of foam peanuts hitting the ground from a mile up

― jake b. (cerybut), Sunday, 10 October 2004 21:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Symphony #2 for Dot-Matrix Printers probably doesn't count because the printer sounds aren't made to sound like other instruments, but it's a funny-once.

― William Crump (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 10 October 2004 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Disco Inferno to thread.

― Sasha (sgh), Monday, 11 October 2004 03:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Jimi Hendrix to thread.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 11 October 2004 03:52 (twenty-one years ago)

there's a single in the aussie charts currently where the beats (and in fact the entire song) are made by a beatboxer

― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Monday, 11 October 2004 03:54 (twenty-one years ago)

The dreadful "Gorillas in the Mix" from Rykodisc (credited to Bernie Krause) featured music made entirely from recorded animal sounds.

― mottdeterre (mottdeterre), Monday, 11 October 2004 03:56 (twenty-one years ago)

bobby mcferrin to thread.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 11 October 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Doesn't Onyx usually do stuff with like jet bursts as basslines and stuff? Honestly, I have no idea how he gets like 75% of those noises, besides skipping CDs.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 11 October 2004 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Garth Hudson imitating the sound of a Jew's Harp with his organ plugged through a guitar amp in "Up On Cripple Creek".

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 11 October 2004 17:23 (twenty-one years ago)

beatboxing to thread

― Dominique (dleone), Monday, 11 October 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Tom Waits' music for years has been easily earmarked by his use of chest-of-drawerses and whatnot as percussion instruments.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 11 October 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha ha Gorillas in the Mix. I used to LOVE that album. I was a weird kid.

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 11 October 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

IIRC I learned about that album on NPR.

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 11 October 2004 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

"Get Down" by the Revolting Cocks features what sounds like a repeating piston engine replicating a rhythm track. I mean that in a good way.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 11 October 2004 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Industrial noises as rhythm tracks are almost always kick-ass.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 11 October 2004 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh shit, that just reminded me that like 75% of Selmasongs are like EXACTLY what we're talking about. BOOM CLANG etc.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 11 October 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Do you mean Real Gone, Nick? Or Medulla? I've never actually heard Selmasongs.

Anyway, like 75% of electronic music to thread. Especially Herbert and Matmos.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 11 October 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

i assumed this would be a thread about the big country guitar/bagpipes thing.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Monday, 11 October 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

andrew, that would be Songs featuring instruments replicating other sounds.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 11 October 2004 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

FCC mentioning McFerrin reminded me that Todd Rundgren did an album of vocals simulating instruments.

In doo-wop, the bass singer mostly sings a "doo doo doo" bass part rather than words, right? I'm not saying that with any authority -- all I know about doo-wop I learned from Mothers of Invention records.

― William Crump (Rock Hardy), Monday, 11 October 2004 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

DOKAKA so makes Bobby McFerrin look like a wittle biatch.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Monday, 11 October 2004 20:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Isn't the "Theremin" sound in Good Vibrations actually made by a synthesizer, or some early version thereof? I heard once that they couldn't get a real Theremin to be as precise frequency-wise as they wanted (and eventually obtained), but this doesn't seem to be common knowledge.

― nickn (nickn), Monday, 11 October 2004 23:57 (twenty-one years ago)

paul tanner's electro-theremin

― (Jon L), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 00:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah, proof!

― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 02:13 (twenty-one years ago)

five months pass...

"Personal Jesus" - percussion derived from banging on travel cabinets

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 21 March 2005 23:02 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe that after all these years of conceptually sound-sourced IDM albums (sex, plastic surgery, bodies) nobody has yet made the damn all-fart record we're all clearly waiting for.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 21 March 2005 23:11 (twenty years ago)

(Herbert's Boiled Cabbage Symphony EP just isn't enough to satisfy.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 21 March 2005 23:12 (twenty years ago)

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