About the Samples

We thought it might be interesting to tell you where the samples come from. Where they are different in the live and recorded versions, we have said so. You can download most of our material in MP3 format.

Solo Stuff

"Ultrabass of the Giant Star" features the sample "Ultrabass sounds of the giant star Xi Hya" from the European Southern Observatory who measure minute changes in the doppler shift of light from stars in order to measure their vibrational modes, then turn it into audio signal for fun (http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/pr-10-02.html#aud-01-02) and pulsar sounds from Jodrell Bank at http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~pulsar/Education/Sounds/sounds.html (specifically, PSR B0329+54, PSR B0883-45 (vela pulsar), PSR B0531+21 (crab pulsar), PSR J0437-4715 and PSR B1937+21).

"Electric Arc" features a faulty power coupling throwing a HUGE ...er...electric arc into a clear blue sky, explanation and video clip available from here.

"Religion For Retarded" features extensive samples of a vinyl record put out, I think, by the Catholic Church in the USA sometime in the sixties. It was rescued from a charity shop and put on the net by this site but the MP3s have since been taken down from here. If you want to check it out in all its unbelievable glory try here.

Slightly Older Stuff

"Balka part 1" contains magnetosphere noises ("space weather") from http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/sounds/sounds.html - "loud whistler" and "Kenai whistler".

"Balka part 2" has samples from "Sounds of the Magnetosphere" at http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/plasma-wave/istp/polar/magnetosound.html , specifically "Whistler", "Saucer", "Chorus" , "AKR" and "Magnetosphere/Cusp". Sounds gathered by the University of Iowa Polar Plasma Wave Instrument, like it says in the song.....
"Balka" the title is a suggested word in a language made up by Hewlett Packard and reported in New Scientist. The language is supposed to be a spoken language more easily recognisable to computers, substituting hard consonants for soft (E.g. "Crinter" instead of "printer"). "Balka" is one of several words reported in NS as having no assigned meaning, and therefore up for grabs. I have appropriated it to mean whatever the song is about, which is not to be honest 100% clear but is probably about failure to communicate in some way. So there you are. Balka means communication failure.

"Kamiokande" features helioseismology noises (that's sounds from deep inside the Sun picked up by laser beams) from http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/newsroom/tv%20page/g01-011_space.html and http://bison.ph.bham.ac.uk/new/solarsounds.html. The female astronomer being interviewed ("The sun rings like a musical instrument..like a bell struck with sand grains") is Dr Yvonne Elsworth, head of Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network (BiSON), the male astronomer is Dr Guenter Houdek from the helioseismology group at Cambridge University. Both were interviewed on Radio 4's "The Material world", 24.4.03.http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/thematerialworld_20030424.shtml. Sound of the big bang from from the University of Washington http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/BigBangSound. Gravity wave/audio simulations of black holes and neutron stars colliding (they go "weep") from Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory and the University of Hannover.

"Underwater Ghost Train" contains samples of ice under the south pole, and two Mystery Noises That Noone Knows What They Are ("upsweep" and "train") from http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/acoustics/sounds.html, which is a US govt science site using ex cold war hydrophones for scientific purposes. It also has sonar sounds and a launching torpedo from http://www.jandaenterprises.com/sounds.htm.

"Julia Neptune" has a blue whale sample ("nepblue") and a Mysterious Noise ("julia") from www.pmel.noaa etc, also sampled voice and film reel noise from the BBFC blurb at the beginning of video tapes, and noises from the David Tudor "Rainforest" installation in the Berlin Museum of Musical Instruments, sampled by me with a minidisc player.

"Space Dust" contains a sample from the Babylon 5 TV series ("get the hell out of our galaxy…both of ya!") and the "Sniffin' Lunar Dust" sample is from the Lo-Fidelity Allstars track "Blisters on my Brain" from the "How to Operate With a Blown Mind" lp, Skint records. The other vocal samples ("A Horrible Catastrophe", Bad News for Earth", "The Earth Will Be.... Toast" etc) are from a BBC Horizon programme called "Supermassive Black Holes". It also has a bit of "Also Sprach Zarathustra".

"Hymn to Nothing" recorded version contains samples from "Edwin Heath, the world's Foremost Hypnotist aid to stop smoking/help with weight reduction", Arnold records, date unknown. Live version contains a sample ("Was I Asleep?") from "Fight Club".

"Got Radar" contains samples from "Fight Club" in its live version. We will probably not be able to release the songs in any commercial way with the Fight Club samples in, unless David Fincher reads this and has pity in his heart.
It also contains a sample of a Lufthansa stewardess saying "please turn off electronic devices", and a plucked fiddle loop from an acoustic track by Emma called "The Price Has Gone Up"

There are also bits and pieces and combinations of various copyright-free drum loops and samples from many different sources, including: Cyclick, Roland, Cakewalk, X-Mix, Homegrown.

As SNS were such a small outfit I haven't cleared any of these yet, except that the Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network have been in touch and asked for a copy of "kamiokande". They haven't sent a cease and desist order yet. Everyone else show mercy.

xxtim