Supermarket Christmas chaos

Recorded 24th December 2015 by Gavin Morrow (Grey Frequency).

Supermarket Christmas chaos. The electronic ping of barcode scanners. The sound of coins clattering in and out of self-service checkouts. An automated Father Christmas Ho-Ho-Ho-ing through the constant babble. Tension and pressure in the air. Consumerism overdrive. Mindless and joyless.

This piece was constructed from a very short field recording, made at a local supermarket on Christmas Eve (2015). From this, random sections were recorded onto a tape loop using a portastudio. Without any monitoring, brief bursts of sound were recorded through each of the portastudio's channels, producing a four-way audio cut-up or collage.

This was then recorded in one take through a Korg Monotron - utilising the delay, feedback and cut-off functions. This created an added dimension of abstraction to the sounds, but also allowed for a small element of control. The rather old and worn analogue tape produced a wonderfully lo-fi sound which bound everything together.

Despite its random starting point, the final piece has certain rhythmic qualities as sounds tumble over each other. As they progress, the looped segments become blurred and hypnotic, before finally shifting to a crescendo of distorted harsh noise. I felt that this reflected the chaos-filled atmosphere in the supermarket and the whole accelerated hype which surrounds the Christmas season.

Part of our Dada Sound project (February 2016) - see more at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/dadasounds