(Now back up: Capt. Beefheart "Clear Spot" instrumental tracks, and the Caribbeana Esoterica of Elmore Stout, and The Lashing Dogs.)
"The flipflopaphon – the tromballoony – the springy tuby thingy – the gardenhoseatoot": such are the tools of Saul Eisenberg aka Mr. Junk Man, who not only travels around his native England performing on his home-made junk instruments, but also works with kids to help them build and perform on (and dance with) their own recycled sounds. He seems to be the kind of "cool teacher" that I wish I had when I was a wee lad.
He has a resource page for other teachers that features and instrument-building demo video. Teachers, heck, I want to make these! And he will build for your park/recreation area a "soundgarden," which has nothing to do with any old Seattle grunge bands, but are rather children's play areas with instruments built into them. Just fantastic.
There are free streaming/download songs on his site:
http://www.thejunkorchestra.co.uk/
Wonderful stuff, but I have one complaint - some of the tracks are too short, some lasting barely a minute. C'mon, Mr. Junk Man, why so chintzy? We want a proper album!
