
Bone music: the Soviet bootleg records pressed on x-rays (2015) - ToFab123
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/29/bone-music-soviet-bootleg-records-pressed-on-xrays
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aasasd
> _the small ads of music papers in the 1960s were frequently littered with
> desperate pleas from people who had heard a song once, sometimes years
> previously, and were haunted by the memory_

Understandable. I'd very much like to know what was that song that died
together with my hard disk almost fifteen years ago: a simple repetitive
upbeat-but-relaxed rhythm of mid-bass synth with animeish girl voice
chattering over it, and a refrain with the words “Ichi ni san go.” The melody
of which refrain is somehow almost identical to that of “Perfect” by Princess
Superstar—which didn't help me one bit in my search. And the only metadata I
know about the song is that it was ‘12.mp3’ in some compilation.

With the google-fu, I've managed to find two cartoons from my childhood just
by vague descriptions, but no such luck with this song.

I also sometimes get a melody stuck in my head for days on end until I finally
remember where it comes from. And sometimes, only a chance listening to the
album relieves the curse when I'm pretty much ready to wade through the entire
genre that in fact turns out to be mostly unrelated (damn you wild Japanese
synth-jazz experimenters).

~~~
ocfnash
If you can remember enough of it you might try writing down a Parsons Code and
searching against, say:
[https://www.musipedia.org/melodic_contour.html](https://www.musipedia.org/melodic_contour.html)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsons_code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsons_code)

~~~
aasasd
I've tried using Musipedia on several different occasions, and achieved
absolutely nothing. It lures me with the ‘microphone’ section, into which I
tried whistling after jumping browsers to resurrect Flash from the dead. I've
clumsily transcribed a couple melodies into the ‘keyboard search,’ tried the
contour thing and even knocked something out in the ‘rhythm search.’ Bupkis.
More often, it emits an error during processing my pitiable attempts, so I
don't even know if it can actually find anything with those offending inputs.

There's also Midomi, into which I similarly whistled, hummed and even made
some endeavors at singing, and likewise got no luck.

I feel like there indeed should be a music search engine that works from
whistling, but I haven't encountered one so far.

In a vaguely topical sentiment, I several times had success with
Audiotag.info—but you need a piece of the actual music there. It worked better
for me than Shazam, SoundCloud or Picard. Probably because I'm unlikely to be
looking for a hit song—now, ‘William Tell’ on a xylophone is closer to my
thing:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXajSUb29ZY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXajSUb29ZY)
(also related:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRXUzWNdLx8&t=9m40s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRXUzWNdLx8&t=9m40s)).

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kyrieeschaton
Speaking of bootleg uses of xrays - apparently they are made of ultra high
molecular weight polyethylene, which when sandwiched in many layers works as
impromptu body armor (proper laminates are used when lightweight or positive
buoyancy armor is required).

The Filipinos were using this during one of their recent disturbances when
they began duct taping discarded xray sheets from their local hospital to
their chests.

~~~
tyingq
Apparently also popular in Thailand. This guy tested one, and it did work
against .22 and some .38 pistol rounds, which is surprising. Failed with
anything more powerful: [https://www.theboxotruth.com/the-box-o-
truth-58-homemade-x-r...](https://www.theboxotruth.com/the-box-o-
truth-58-homemade-x-ray-film-bullet-proof-vests/)

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dugditches
This is an _excellent_ Radio Documentary on a Russian Pianist that mentions
these records 'Music on the Ribs'(41:00~). He was persecuted and sent away to
work camps.
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p03csqbn](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p03csqbn)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadim_Kozin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadim_Kozin)

~~~
PappaPatat
Thank you so much for the link to Vadim Kozin! Lovely voice and music.

------
dang
Related from 2015:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10724639](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10724639)

and a bit from 2017:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14287608](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14287608)

~~~
dharmab
And a 99% Invisible episode: [https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/bone-
music/](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/bone-music/)

------
yellowapple
Obligatory documentary on the subject:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMCCYnDvpJQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMCCYnDvpJQ)

