Chicago-based singer/composer Thomas Negovan has recorded the first new songs on an Edison wax cylinder since the 1920s as part of an ambitious art and music project cheekily titled By Popular Demand:

While a number of other musical acts have toyed with anachronistic ideas and themes, this record may be the first to truly act as a time machine to the early days of recorded music. Thomas Negovan’s debut solo album By Popular Demand features 8 original songs recorded using the most archaic of techniques: the wax cylinder. By stripping the music-making process of the gluttonously infinite possibilities of the digital age, By Popular Demand relied on the intimacy of the singer, his instruments, and the wax cylinder recorder. This meant no overdubs, no equalization, no editing, and most notable of all: NO ELECTRICITY. Using the most sophisticated recording techniques of 1911, By Popular Demand by name possesses a quality that is retro enough to be charming and ridiculous enough to be entertaining.

The album was recorded in two grueling one day sessions, requiring Negovan to use the sheer power of his voice and 12-string guitar to move a small sapphire needle across wax cylinders. By utilizing the bygone artistry of wax cylinder recording popularized at the turn of the century by Thomas Edison, Negovan’s decision to bypass modern digital method makes for a sound that is undeniably haunting and organic.

The record itself comes in three versions with limited pressings. The retail version features marbled black and translucent red vinyl housed in a sleeve overlaid with work by colloidial photographer Greg Martin. The other two are deluxe versions, pressed in both black lacquered and red translucent vinyl, with hand silkscreened sleeves adorned in artwork by Cursed Pirate Girl creator Jeremy A. Bastian.

By Popular Demand features the debut single “The Divine Eye,” to be released on wax cylinder in a limited edition of 50. The single is a first of its kind since 1924: recorded AND released on wax cylinder.

Negovan is performing in Los Angeles on January 25th at the La Luz de Jesus Gallery to celebrate the release of By Popular Demand. He explains how the recording was accomplished and you can see one of the tracks being recorded, in the video below:
 

collegehumor.com/video/841356/thats-underground

Wow. That’s written as if electricity were a bad thing.

wax cylinder in 1996:http://tmbw.net/wiki/I_Can_Hear_You

The Wizard Cylinder Record Company - since 2002.

Contact:

Peter N. Dilg
906 Merrick Road
Baldwin, New York 11510 USA

plenty of people have recorded wax cylinders since the 1920s; fewer have RELEASED on wax cylinder.

but if everyone can record on a wax cylinder without electricity what will become of the music industry??? S.W.C.P.A.

it would have been cooler seeing some elctronica w a drum machine beat, you could create a chamber from a speaker to fit exactly over the cone and prolly get a much better sound.  dudes music is boring and the result didn’t surprise me.  I wanted to see 3 centuries clash and reconcile.

worst song ever recorded on a wax cylinder, safe to say

For instance: http://tmbw.net/wiki/Wax_Cylinder_Recordings

but yeah, releasing on a wax cylinder, cool gimmick.

gimmick is the key word here

<a href=“http://www.jeddavis.com”>Jed Davis</a> released the song <a href=“Yuppie Exodus From Dumbo”>Yuppie Exodus From Dumbo</a> on wax cylinder a few years back.

when people break out guitars made out of furniture…

I think I saw this sketch on Portlandia. The music was better.

I sure hope it is people like this who do not advocate the taking down of file sharing websites, I mean we *all* have edison players at home, right?  I was considering a limited edition release of some of my recent songs too. I have 50 copies available in my imagination.

For music and other audio on cylinders that actually doesn’t suck try here:

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/index.php