A TERRIBLE CACOPHONY
by Sean
Please note: MP3s are only kept online for a short time, and if this entry is from more than a couple of weeks ago, the music probably won't be available to download any more.


 

Anatoli Bugorski

The Rollercoaster Project - "What Happened".

As a researcher at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino, Anatoli Bugorski used to work with the largest Soviet particle accelerator, the synchrotron U-70. On July 13, 1978, Bugorski was checking a malfunctioning piece of equipment when an accident occurred due to failed safety mechanisms. Bugorski was leaning over the piece of equipment when he stuck his head in the part through which the proton beam was running. Reportedly, he saw a flash "brighter than a thousand suns", but did not feel any pain. The beam measured about 2000 gray when it entered Bugorski's skull, and about 3000 gray when it exited after colliding with the inside of his head. [citation]

Anatoli Bugorski leaned over and found himself suddenly bombarded by a PURE PROTON BEAM, an accelerated molecular PUNCH-to-the-FACE, and everything went so HORRIBLY and VIOLENTLY wrong that ALL THE WORLD APPEARED IN CAPITAL LETTERS.

I have never fallen into a proton accelerator and neither has The Rollercoaster Project. But the thing Bugorski felt, this in some way we felt. And many of you have too. Perhaps it was a sentence, or a word, or a phrase, or perhaps yes a wave of heavy atoms. Something she said to you over the crackle of a phone, or something he whispered from the street-corner, or the look in her eyes when she squeezed your shoulder. There are many things it could have been. But it knocks everything utterly down, takes you apart from your barest part. It falls over you like a tsunami. It is vast and terrible and seems in the moment utterly apocalyptic. "WHAT HAPPENED / TO US?!!?!?!?!", The Rollercoaster Project screams from the thick of it, from inside that terrible & splendid cacophony of synths. "WHAT HAPPENED?"

But the lesson is this: Anatoli Bugorsky emerged, lived on, married and had a son. He laughed again, and ate soup, and sang songs, and made love. He petted cats and did crosswords on long train journeys. He did not die on July 13, 1978.

[buy the Dreamboat Records 2008 sampler]

---

Hey, did you hear about Said the Gramophone's WONDERFUL VIDEO CONTEST? The deadline's not for another month, which is tons of time to enter. It's an opportunity to win exciting prizes, but also a good reason to get around to making something beautiful, personal, creative and lots of fun. I just finished adding details of TWO NEW PRIZES - including stuff from Wolf Parade, CSS, Eugene Mirman, Shins and Iron & Wine, - courtesy of Sub Pop. All the details are on the Video Contest page.

Thanks so much for everyone's submissions so far. A couple of reminders about the rules: please don't submit videos for bands you're in, and, um, don't you think it would be more fun to make a new video for this contest than just to recycle something from several months ago?

---

I recently added Red Threat to our blogroll. It's an mp3blog writing generously, excitedly about new sounds in dance music, and their ears are very good indeed.

Posted by Sean at January 3, 2008 12:49 AM
Comments

It's 6 P.M. EST and I needed this song, on the brink of the Iowa Caucus results.

Posted by Tar at January 3, 2008 6:08 PM

gracias for the blogroll! very nice of you, i'll have to return the favor. thanks! great site!
-nicko (redthreat)

Posted by nicko at January 3, 2008 6:12 PM

This song is so great! I want more more more.

I submitted a video but it's not 100% recent, which I feel badly about, but it's very close to my heart and I figured it'd be better to send it to you than sit on it. You don't explicitly say anywhere that older videos are disqualified. Is that the case?

Posted by Emily at January 10, 2008 3:34 PM

Post a comment







(Please be patient, it can be slow.)
about said the gramophone
This is a daily sampler of really good songs. All tracks are posted out of love. Please go out and buy the records.

To hear a song in your browser, click the and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'

All songs are removed within a few weeks of posting.

Said the Gramophone launched in March 2003, and added songs in November of that year. It was one of the world's first mp3blogs.

If you would like to say hello, find out our mailing addresses or invite us to shows, please get in touch:
Montreal, Canada: Sean
Toronto, Canada: Emma
Montreal, Canada: Jeff
Montreal, Canada: Mitz

Please don't send us emails with tons of huge attachments; if emailing a bunch of mp3s etc, send us a link to download them. We are not interested in streaming widgets like soundcloud: Said the Gramophone posts are always accompanied by MP3s.

If you are the copyright holder of any song posted here, please contact us if you would like the song taken down early. Please do not direct link to any of these tracks. Please love and wonder.

"And I shall watch the ferry-boats / and they'll get high on a bluer ocean / against tomorrow's sky / and I will never grow so old again."
about the authors
Sean Michaels is the founder of Said the Gramophone. He is a writer, critic and author of the theremin novel Us Conductors. Follow him on Twitter or reach him by email here. Click here to browse his posts.

Emma Healey writes poems and essays in Toronto. She joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. This is her website and email her here.

Jeff Miller is a Montreal-based writer and zinemaker. He is the author of Ghost Pine: All Stories True and a bunch of other stories. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Say hello on Twitter or email.

Mitz Takahashi is originally from Osaka, Japan who now lives and works as a furniture designer/maker in Montreal. English is not his first language so please forgive his glamour grammar mistakes. He is trying. He joined Said the Gramophone in 2015. Reach him by email here.

Site design and header typography by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet. The header graphic is randomized: this one is by Neale McDavitt-Van Fleet.
PAST AUTHORS
Dan Beirne wrote regularly for Said the Gramophone from August 2004 to December 2014. He is an actor and writer living in Toronto. Any claim he makes about his life on here is probably untrue. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.

Jordan Himelfarb wrote for Said the Gramophone from November 2004 to March 2012. He lives in Toronto. He is an opinion editor at the Toronto Star. Click here to browse his posts. Email him here.
our patrons
Said the Gramophone does not take advertising. We are supported by the incredible generosity of our readers. These were our donors in 2013.
watch StG's wonderful video contest winners
search


Archives
elsewhere
our favourite blogs
(◊ means they write about music)

Back to the World
La Blogothèque
Weird Canada
Destination: Out
Endless Banquet
A Grammar (Nitsuh Abebe)
Ill Doctrine
A London Salmagundi
Dau.pe
Words and Music
Petites planétes
Gorilla vs Bear
Herohill
Silent Shout
Clouds of Evil
The Dolby Apposition
Awesome Tapes from Africa
Molars
Daytrotter
Matana Roberts
Pitchfork Reviews Reviews
i like you [podcast]
Musicophilia
Anagramatron
Nicola Meighan
Fluxblog
radiolab [podcast]
CKUT Music
plethoric pundrigrions
Wattled Smoky Honeyeater
The Clear-Minded Creative
Torture Garden
LPWTF?
Passion of the Weiss
Juan and Only
Horses Think
White Hotel
Then Play Long (Marcello Carlin)
Uno Moralez
Coming Up For Air (Matt Forsythe)
ftrain
my love for you is a stampede of horses
It's Nice That
Marathonpacks
Song, by Toad
In Focus
AMASS BLOG
Inventory
Waxy
WTF [podcast]
Masalacism
The Rest is Noise (Alex Ross)
Goldkicks
My Daguerreotype Boyfriend
The Hood Internet

things we like in Montreal
eat:
st-viateur bagel
café olimpico
Euro-Deli Batory
le pick up
lawrence
kem coba
le couteau
au pied de cochon
mamie clafoutis
tourtière australienne
chez boris
ripples
alati caserta
vices & versa
+ paltoquet, cocoa locale, idée fixe, patati patata, the sparrow, pho tay ho, qin hua dumplings, caffé italia, hung phat banh mi, caffé san simeon, meu-meu, pho lien, romodos, patisserie guillaume, patisserie rhubarbe, kazu, lallouz, maison du nord, cuisine szechuan &c

shop:
phonopolis
drawn + quarterly
+ bottines &c

shows:
casa + sala + the hotel
blue skies turn black
montreal improv theatre
passovah productions
le cagibi
cinema du parc
pop pmontreal
yoga teacher Thea Metcalfe


(maga)zines
Cult Montreal
The Believer
The Morning News
McSweeney's
State
The Skinny

community
ILX