Speech Free

Sprawling double-album of sound collages put together by local copyright pranksters and culture jammers extraordinaire, Negativland. Branded as “usable speech-free library music,” this instrumental album pokes fun of their previous work (and the whole “background music” phenomenon) by excluding any of the (unauthorized) vocal samples that brought them notoriety. A treasure trove of interesting samples and electronic textures–much of it whimsical, some of it more "academic" and measured. All tracks FCC Clean.
RIYL: Matmos, Cluster, Lucky Dragons, Black Dice, Audio Dregs Records
TRY: 1, 3, 4, 8, 17, 20, 22, 24, 26

(*1.) (4:22) Chopped up phone ringtones and dial up noises over a plodding beat
(2.) (4:31) Mechanical squealing, garbled synth
(*3.) (4:08) Murmury almost-vocals over a smooth robotic beat with odd blips
(*4.) (2:46) Ominous, rumbling, with distorted animal noises
(5.) (3:13) Slow and spacey. A bit of a Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots vibe
(6.) (2:37) Peaceful and relaxing spa music
(7.) (3:16) Haunting with gurgling sounds
(*8.) (4:41) Quasi hyper-pop with squelchy blips and a ringing beat
(9.) (4:02) Chopped up vocal samples, kids cheering, squeaky dog toys, ewok chatter. Classic Negativland
(10.) (3:33) Skippy ambient electronica
(11.) (2:01) Stuttering piano, ambient washes
(12.) (12:19) Slow burner: longform drone that morphs into a kaleidoscopic gameshow party anthem then back to drone. Watch the volume–the drone parts are v quiet
(13.) (3:55) Glitchy and frenzied
(14.) (4:30) Blustery blips and bloops with varied percussion
(15.) (0:38) Short, warbly, sci-fi ditty
(16.) (4:49) Slow-building futuristic Stomp number
(*17.) (3:20) Ethereal and woozy
(18.) (5:40) Chugging deconstructed trap beat with robot effects
(19.) (1:33) Deep distorted vocals over a wash of synth. Blue-whale-core
(*20.) (4:11) Chopped and screwed children’s music. Lots of squeaky dog toy effects, handclaps, and even rockabilly guitar riffs (??) Weird
(21.) (2:13) Guitar stabs, elevator noises, and blended vocals over a 2010s hiphop beat
(*22.) (1:59) Video game samples and a kind of jangly Baltimore club beat
(23.) (2:22) Slow piano and flute duet with gentle fluttering effects
(*24.) (8:09) Sparse low-end beat
(25.) (3:17) More twisted dance music. Lots of radar pings and computer crash noises
(*26.) (5:18) Staccato modern classical piece with great a great symphonic feel
(27.) (6:41) Breakbeat with gentle piano and violin. Another nice abstract classical number
(28.) (1:33) Static and silence