Booktronica + Ice Cream Truck music [WWTOT]

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From the Wish We’d Thought Of That category, an article at Wired shares some insight into the mind of Michael Hearst, the ‘urban geek’ behind Songs For Ice Cream Trucks and one of the two ‘urban geeks’ behind One Ring Zero (the other being Joshua Camp).

Songs For Ice Cream Trucks is twisted, childish and slightly macabre - listening to the music makes us feel as though something isn’t quite right, not unlike the creepy parolees trapped in rolling house-arrest that used to frequent the waterparks of our youth. But if only for sheer joy of coming up with the perfect product for a ridiculously small niche of the music licensing world (an already ridiculously small niche!), we do wish we’d thought of it!

A favorite part of the new site is the cartoon bubble page that gives some backstory for a few of the toy instruments in his collection (you’ll find this under the Instruments tab at the main page). An example :

I found this electric chord organ on ebay for $19… it’s rather out of tune but maybe that’s a good thing(?) It makes almost as much noise from the motor as it does from the keys. I like it!

It appears that, yes, Matt, you are not alone in your fetish.

One Ring Zero, however, isn’t creepy or childish, but a rather literate library of exotic and quirky music with references to mannequins and Siamese twins. “Booktronica,” as coined in the Wired article. Others have referred to them as “acid-klezmer,” “ethno-hipster,” or “Fellini-esque circus flea music,” according to Hearst, and they remind us of a mix between our friends KSA and Irritating Rainbow (maybe a slightly more polished and less cheeky version thereof).

We’re off to the Lab to concoct some Booktronica for a future specimen upload.

Kudos to Coudal’s Fresh Signals for another fun find. [dh]