I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: Out of this World: Atmospheric Sounds and Effects from The BBC Radiophonic Workshop (1976).

Neil Gaiman mentions a recording like this in the story.  he says that at a party, the music is like a mix of Kraftwerk and music from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

This album came out in 1976.  it was evidently issues on CD in 1991 as Essential Science Fiction Sound Effects Vol. 2.

The album was divided into four sections (two on each side), each representing a different theme: “Outer Space”, “Magic and Fantasy”, “Suspense and the Supernatural” and “The Elements”.

It’s pretty amazing the sounds these people were creating back in the 1970s with the technology that was available.  Some of it sounds a little cheesy and yet most of it is either right-on spooky or has become such a staple of our subconscious that it calls up memories of things like this being very spooky.

I really like that the record credits the men and women who created these sounds.

• Dick Mills
• Peter Howell
• Brian Hodgson
• Paddy Kingsland
• Richard Yeoman-Clark
• Roger Limb
• John Baker
• Malcolm Clarke
• Delia Derbyshire
• Glynis Jones
• David Cain

This isn’t something that you would really sit down and listen to (well, I might) but it is fun to pick and choose and to imagine what the creators pictures as they made these sounds.  And I can totally imagine the party music that was  across between this and Kraftwerk,  Cool, man.

Outer Space
A1 –Dick Mills Sea Of Mercury 1:07
A2 –Peter Howell Galactic Travel 0:49
A3 –Brian Hodgson Tardis Take-Off 0:55
A4 –Brian Hodgson Tardis Land 0:22
A5 –Dick Mills Space Rocket Take-Off 0:27
A6 –Dick Mills Space Rocket Land 0:27
A7 –Paddy Kingsland Flying Saucer Land 0:17
A8 –Paddy Kingsland Flying Saucer Take-Off 0:17
A9 –Richard Yeoman-Clark Flying Saucer Interior Constant Run 0:37
A10 –Brian Hodgson Space Ship Control Room Atmosphere 1:00
A11 –Brian Hodgson Space Ship Interior Atmosphere 1:03
A12 –Dick Mills Electric Door Open 0:02
A13 –Dick Mills Electric Door Shut 0:03
A14 –Brian Hodgson Laser Gun, Five Bursts 0:12
A15 –Brian Hodgson “Computer” 0:43
A16 –Brian Hodgson Gravity Generator 0:34
A17 –Roger Limb Time Warp Start, Run, Stop 0:24
A18 –John Baker Venusian Space Lab. 0:50
A19 –Malcolm Clarke Andromeda War Machine 1:10
A20 –Dick Mills Space-battle 0:42

Magic And Fantasy
A21 –Malcolm Clarke Dance Of Fire-Flies 0:43
A22 –Delia Derbyshire Dreaming 1:11
A23 –Glynis Jones Crystal City 1:00
A24 –Dick Mills Enchanted Forest 0:49
A25 –Malcolm Clarke Goblins Lair 0:45
A26 –Glynis Jones Magic Carpet Take-Off 0:14
A27 –Glynis Jones Magic Carpet Flight 0:22
A28 –Glynis Jones Magic Carpet Land 0:12
A29 –Brian Hodgson Magic Flower Grows And Buds 0:12
A30 –Roger Limb Magic Beanstalk Grows 0:09
A31 –Dick Mills Star Fairies 0:38
A32 –Malcolm Clarke Midsummer Elves 0:29
A33 –Malcolm Clarke Fairy Appears 0:05
A34 –Malcolm Clarke Fairy Disappears 0:05
A35 –David Cain Wizard Flies Off 0:09
A36 –Malcolm Clarke Casting A Spell 0:11
A37 –Malcolm Clarke Magic Mushroom 0:03
A38 –Glynis Jones Magic Bird Song 0:30

Suspense And The Supernatural
B1 –Delia Derbyshire Phantoms Of Darkness 1:05
B2 –Dick Mills Uncanny Expectation 0:48
B3 –David Cain Spectres In The Wind 1:02
B4 –Malcolm Clarke Evil Rises Up 1:05
B4 –Malcolm Clarke – “Threatening shadow”
B4 –Dick Mills – “Moments of terror”
B4 –Malcolm Clarke – “Passing shade”
B4 –Glynis Jones – “Psychic fears”
B4 –Glynis Jones – “Two terror twangs”
B4 –Glynis Jones – “Three terror bangs”
B4 –David Cain – “Terror zing”
B4 –Malcolm Clarke – “Terror glissando”
B4 –Malcolm Clarke – “‘Thing’ approaches”
B4 –Brian Hodgson – “Roaring monster”
B4 –Peter Howell – “Firespitting monster”
B4 –Dick Mills – “Nightmare forest”
B4 –Dick Mills – “Fiendish shrieks”

The Elements
B4 –Delia Derbyshire – “Heat haze”
B4 –Roger Limb – “Desert sands”
B4 –Delia Derbyshire – “Frozen waste”
B4 –Delia Derbyshire – “Icy peak”
B4 –David Cain – “Snow swirls”
B4 –Roger Limb – “Passing clouds”
B4 –Glynis Jones – “Starry skies”
B4 –John Baker – “Electric storm”
B4 –John Baker – “Watery depths”
B4 –John Baker – “Rising bubbles”
B4 –Glynis Jones – “Spring tide”

[READ: February 1,2020] How to Talk to Girls at Parties

This graphic novel is an adaptation of a short story that Gaiman had published in 2006.

The illustrators are twin brothers Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá and they are magnificent–they perfectly complement this story both in style and color choice.

Two boys, a studly blond fellow and a smaller, dark-haired fellow are heading off to a party.  The blond guy, Vic is very excited about it because there will be girls there! The other boy Enn, is more realistic and says that Vic will go off with a girl and he’ll be in the kitchen listening to somebody’s mum going on about politics or poetry or something.

But Vic will not be deterred.

He doesn’t actually know the address.  He wrote it down but forget the paper  at home. However, they’ll just hear the party when they get close.

Enn demurs more but Vic says you just have to talk to girls, they’re just girls, they’re not from another planet.

Then they hear the thumping sound of a party and Vic rings the bell.  The girl who answers is stunning.  she literally looks like she is glowing.  The illustrators have given her a vaguely otherworldly look without making her look creepy or alien or anything.

Vic asks if Alison is there and the woman whose name is Stella says no.  But she invites them in, anyway.  She seems just as charmed by them (or at least Vic).

Stella was amazing to behold and Enn watched her dance.  The music was like Kraftwerk mixed with the BBC Radiophonic workshop.  The room was full of girls dancing and Stella stood out: “she shone.”

Enn looks for a drink and then finds a girl sitting by herself  She is also otherworldly (something about their eyes) but she seems very nervous.  Vic sees him sitting next to her and mimes that he should talk.  Enn gets up the courage and says something.  She says her names Wain’s Wain and that she’s a second.  She says she must report back to Wain and that she cannot breed.  She continues like this with him having no idea what she is talking about.  [This sounds like a clever way for a girl at a party to get rid of a creep, actually, just talk nonsense until they get confused and walk away).  Finally he asks if she wants to dance and she says it is not permitted.

Enn gives up and sits next to another girl  She has dark hair.  She seems rather cross.  She says she loves being a tourist.  The last place they went, Sun, was wonderful.  But now they came to World.  She did not want to be here, “embodied in a decaying lump of meat, hanging on a frame of calcium.”  She seems very upset and starts crying so he puts his arm around her.

As he does Vic comes running in and drags him away.  He says they’re at a different party then they meant to be.  He says its like a foreign exchange thing here.  Vic says to just talk to someone which Enn says he was doing before Vic interrupted.

Enn goes to get a drink and while he is in the kitchen a red-haired woman, who also looks otherworldly, approaches.  She says her name is Triolet.  She says her name is verse form, like me.

He asks, “You’re a poem?”  She replies, “If you want.  I am a poem or i am a pattern or a race of people whose world was swallowed by the sea.”

He asks, “How can she be all three at once?”

She replied that he is Enn, and a male and a biped–he is three things at once.

She says that their people knew things would soon be over so they put it all into a poem to tel the universe who they were.  She moves in close and says there are places where her kind are welcomed and other places where they are considered a weed or even a disease.

She kissed him and began to whisper in his ear. He began to see what the poem was telling him as the other girls look on.

Vic bursts into the room.  He looks angry.

What could be happening?

I loved this story a lot.  I don’t really remember it from when I first read it, but this version, with these amazing illustrations, was really cool.  I love the endless possibilities of what’s happening.