Matthew Herbert, One Pig

The electronic artist Matthew Herbert's new album is called One Pig, and it samples sounds recorded from the life of one pig from birth through consumption on the dinner plate. He has described the album as a meditation on "the drama and the melancholy of nurturing animals to slaughter them to eat." He adds, in an interview with Quietus (here), "My intention was to understand the consequences of that decision and to witness the whole process, and in doing so I wanted to amplify the quite explicit but often entirely invisible friction that's constantly surrounding us between things we do and the consequences of our actions."

I have only listened to the album once so far, but found it quite interesting and thought that parts of it were quite moving, although it may wind up more significant as a project then as a listening experience one returns to again and again. We'll see, I guess.

If you aren't willing to spring for a copy of the album just yet, you can listen to a stream of the album on The Guardian website here. An early (and positive) review of the album via Pitchfork can be found here.

La Piganino

This 1867 lithograph by an unknown artist satirizes amateur musicians and the contemporary vogue for all things Italian, according to David Tatham, who included this image from his personal collection in his wonderful The Lure of the Striped Pig: The Illustration of Popular Music in America, 1820-1870 (Barre, Mass.: Imprint Society, 1973). His book is full of amazing images, many of which would be of great utility for the nineteenth-century cultural historian. In fact, I'm planning on getting a lot of use out of them in my American Cultural History course this semester. But back to La Piganino--what an amazing image! The fine folks at Porkopolis (here) note that this mock instrument is part of a long tradition of animal instruments, including the Cat Piano (image and story here). Note the musical pig in the picture in the background. More on the pig and whistle, and for that matter, the whole Dedham Striped Pig controversy, later...

"Big Idiot Buys a Pig"

Although it's not obvious from this blog, I have a deep and abiding interest in old and strange music. My favorite recent release in this vein is Dust-to-Digital's Victrola Favorites: Artifacts from Bygone Days, drawn from the extensive collections of old 78's of Seattle residents Rob Millis and Jeffery Taylor. There are all kinds of songs and performances from all over the world on this set, including He Zemin & Huang Peiying's "Big Idiot Buys a Pig" (ca. 1930), which may be one of the greatest song titles ever. I have no idea what's going on in this 78, nor do I know how to add music tracks to this blog, but thankfully the review of Victrola Favorites at Dusted Magazine has this track available for folks to listen to via a stream. So click here and start listening, then go out and pick up this amazing release.