Ghosts Of Christmas Past (Music From Vintage Toys), by Dave Clarkson

Ghosts Of Christmas Past (Music From Vintage Toys)

by Dave Clarkson

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enoandbowie66 Dave Clarkson & Curious Individuals - this release is so good, I already want episode 2. Entirely Recommended & still on repeat since noon. Think Biosphere & The Orb (maybe) in a retro time travel toy box expedition supervised & modified by Dave at the close of 2023. Favorite track: Meccano Disco.

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Includes unlimited streaming of Ghosts Of Christmas Past (Music From Vintage Toys) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Wondering Star 02:01	buy track
2.	Rise Of The Wind-up Tin Robots 05:38	buy track
3.	Talking Tears 04:08	buy track
4.	Speak & Spell (AI v2.1) 04:16	buy track
5.	Here Is A Box, A Musical Box 03:18	buy track
6.	Meccano Disco 02:44	buy track
7.	Clocks And Clackers 02:20	buy track
8.	Squeak And Yell 02:32	buy track
9.	Dream Of A Child 04:12	buy track

about

Music created from the sounds of vintage toys: wind-up toys, tin robots, glockenspiels, dolls, Speak and Spell machines, musical boxes, chimes, Meccano, clocks, clackers, squeaky toys plus more.

Pure, processed and complemented.

Track notes by Dave Clarkson

Wondering Star

(toy glockenspiel)

The sense of a child’s wonder at Christmas, combined with the classical planets of antiquity. A suitable introduction track to the start of the festivities.

Rise Of The Wind-Up Tin Robots

(toy robots and wind-up mechanisms)

European toy makers created and mass-produced the first wind-up tin toys during the late 1880s. Over the next 60 to 70 years, more manufacturers created more intricate designs. The trend stopped with the introduction of the small and inexpensive alkaline battery in the 1960s, which allowed motors to run without a wind-up mechanism. The track evokes what an army of wind-up tin robots might sound like.

Talking Tears

(doll voice and water droplets)

A 2010 study published in the scientific journal Psychological Science found that the creepiness of dolls relates to the way our brains detect and pay attention to faces.

Speak and Spell (AI v2.1)

(Speak and Spell machine)

The Speak and Spell is a series of electronic hand-held linear predictive devices featuring a keyboard. It was introduced in 1978 and has also been widely used in music, one example being by Kraftwerk.

Here Is A Box, A Musical Box

(music box and bells)

A musical box is an automatic instrument in a box that produces music by using a set of pins placed on a revolving disc to pluck the tuned teeth of a steel comb. The device was developed from musical boxes of the 18th century and were originally called carillons à musique (French for ‘chimes of music’).

Meccano Disco

(Meccano sounds)

Meccano is a mechanical construction system created in 1898 by Frank Hornby in Liverpool. The system consists of reusable metal strips, plates, wheels, axles and gears, and plastic. It enables the building of working models and mechanical devices. The track on the album is a sort of ‘kids industrial music’ made from the sound of metal, clangs, whirs and other metallic sounds.

Clocks And Clackers

(Features toy clocks and clackers).

Toy clocks and clackers in a rhythm. Clackers were toys popular in the late 1960s and 1970s. They are swung up and down, banging against each other with a lot of force to make the loud ‘clacking’ sound.

Squeak And Yell

(squeaky toys and dogs barking)

A squeaky toy, squeak toy, squeaker toy, or squeeze toy, is a soft, hollow toy made from flexible materials such as rubber or vinyl, and usually equipped with a small device known as a squeaker. Experts believe that squeaky toys offer dogs a way to connect with their natural prey, hence they go barking mad when they hear it.

Dream Of A Child

Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known. The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from late eighteenth-century England. As a character and literary allusion, Humpty Dumpty has appeared or been referred to, in many works of literature and popular culture.

All proceeds from this release will go to CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably

thecalmzone.net

credits

released December 1, 2023

Music, production, concept and layout by Dave Clarkson.

cavendishhouse.bandcamp.com / daveclarkson.bandcamp.com

Album cover design by Neil Coe.

‘Wondering Star’ and ‘Dream Of A Child’ feature recordings of Mat Smith (aged 3), recorded by Lee and Jim Smith in 1979 / 1980.

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Mortality Tables London, UK

E Peritia Ratio

sound | art | words | insurance

Est. Bloomsbury, 2019

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