A few weeks ago I was talking to Solid Sam at the coffee store and we were talking about music projects we're both working on. I was really hyping up the idea of CD-Rs, which are 1), the best format for underground / independent music and 2), due for a comeback.

1). CD-R's (Compact Disk - Recordables) are cheap to make and cheap to ship. You can get a CD-R drive for your computer for like, $20, and the blank disks are what, 25¢ each? Burning them is fast, way faster than making tapes, and if you don't want to sit there and DIY (Do It Yourself) there's a whole host of DIFM solutions (Do It For Me) if you look around. Unlike tapes you can make them at any length and it's not weird. And if you're an mp3 head like me you can rip the CD to mp3s easily, no download code needed. For packaging you can get regular plastic cases or just like, be creative! It's hard to be creative with tape packaging and it's expensive to do so with record packaging. And doing things cheap increases the liklihood that you'll do it at all.

2). Records and tapes came back, why not CDs??? Unlike tape players you can still reliably get a new CD player. Incidentally I just bought a new one and it was actually cheaper to get a DVD player that plays CDs. And for some reason there's a jack for a microphone on the front of the DVD player???? which I will definitely be using. Looking at the timelines for record obsolescence 🡆 record comeback and cassette obsolescence 🡆 cassette comeback, I think we're right about there for CDs and CD-Rs. As with tapes in 2008, I'm hearing a lot of 2026 people saying of CDs "I need something to play in my old car". It's a great time to be ahead of the wave!

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Anyway we were shooting the shit (me and Solid Sam) and I was laying it on kind of thick I guess, because they said "OK, well when's your CD-R coming out?". This was on January 20th, when we had this conversation, and I said "February 14th". We laughed a little and then I realized that I was suddenly in Big Talk territory. Was I making a promise just to get a laugh, knowing I could bail at any moment, maybe even subconsciously planning on bailing??? I don't like that. Sure, not every plan that gets voiced can or should make it to drop day, but I don't want to be the type of person who says something wild just to get a reaction, and then the story ends. I want to be wild but for my wildness to be dependable. If I should talk myself into boldness, let me then walk into eternity. So in order to put more interpersonal oopmh on the matter I told Sam that if I didn't have a new CD-R for them, on or before February 14th, I'd give them $100 cash. Admittedly I shocked myself with this, but having said it, I had no choice. I've had other people challenge me on my shit before or make a bet that I won't do something I said I'd do, but I've never made the bet myself. It felt inspirationally dangerous to impose stakes like this, and it worked like a charm, I did it. Recommended for any of you Big Talkers that actually want to get something done now and then.

I didn't talk about the new CD on here yet because at first I only made a couple copies, but now I have more, and they're in the Fujichia storefront. And of course I brought them to Armageddon Shop too. The first edition is just 30 copies, numbered.

MESSAGE FROM SPACE
NO TALKING

OK it's not like, "music", it's just sound. But what it is is a reduction of the audio from the movie "Message From Space" (1978) without any (or nearly any) of the talking. I wrote a short script that looks at the subtitle file from the movie and uses that to get information about when people are talking, and output all the non-talking parts to a file.

The method is pretty elegant, I think! The subtitle file shows when to start displaying the text and when to stop, plus of course what the text is. My program takes this:

00:08:46.573 --> 00:08:47.365
Hmm?

00:08:48.408 --> 00:08:50.660
Oh! Those are space fireflies.

00:08:51.786 --> 00:08:53.413
- Fireflies?...
- Mm-hmm.

and saves to a separate file only the audio BETWEEN the last timestamp (after the arrow) and the first timestamp of the NEXT subtitle (before the arrow). So I'm getting only the parts of the audio where there aren't any subtitles, aka no talking. Then I broke that huge file into chunks of 1 minute 40 seconds. That's it.

Here's an arbitrary track:

The cuts can be a little sloppy so there is some vocal sound in there, but I'm fascinated by those parts where the cuts are dead on and you only hear the echo of the word!

OK, here's another track:

Starts with some primitive electronics / harsh noise, then a phaser solo, then there's a sort of microsound / Wandelweisser part, then a sudden vocal hocket hit??? If this was a band I'd be really into this band. Imagine writing, practicing, and playing this in front of a throbbing crowd!

As an album, I don't know if this is very rewarding listening but I put the mp3s in my library and it comes up on shuffle sometimes and it's nice. That might be the ideal listening situation for this actually, it comes up randomly and you're like wait what is this? and then you're like ahhhh hahahaha right. It's this. Would also be a great CD to play on your porch on Halloween.

Or it could also be a nice source for those new sounds you're looking for!. While I was making the insert for this I had the idea that this cd would be Message From Space No Talking volume 1, and volume 2 would be music that uses samples from volume 1. Or like, "music inspired by the legendary second-wave CD-R 'MESSAGE FROM SPACE NO TALKING'". I'm thinking it'll be a compilation so if you make music of any genre and that sounds like something you could get into, get to work! I set the deadline for this at September 20th, 2026, that should be enough time, unless you immediately forget. Please try and keep your track under 4 minutes. Email WAVs to jacob@fujichia.com or mail CD-Rs to Jacob B PO Box 29081 Providence RI 02909. Full disclosure: if it winds up being just me on volume 2 I retain the right to mint some new pseudonyms to save face. But if you know you want to do this, or you need a personal invitation, or you want to commit before you can really think about it too much, leave a comment on this post and include your email in the email field and I'll send you a reminder later :)

Links / Misc

• This release is available in the storefront that's tacked on to the outside of the castle. If I sell out I'll change this message, or realistically, I'll forget. [link]
• Download the entire release as mp3s, for free: [zip file, 92.6mb].
• Sam's band is called Baby; Baby: Explores The Reasons Why That Gum Is Still On The Sidewalk. Cool band! Website is here: [https://babybabyexplores.com/].
• relevant to the sound-world at play, friend-of-the-castle ASUNA has a new record out with Yasushi Yamashita (from INOYAMALAND) and it's really nice! [bandcamp]
• As noted a couple weeks ago ([link]), I'm trying to come up with a reward I can give myself for 10 weeks of regular writing, of which this week is week 3. Or alternately, like Sam's unearned hundred, a punishment. It should be good (or bad) enough to inspire action but not so good (or bad) that its absence (or presence) is life-denying. I have a top idea which presently I will not divulge in full, but I'm still accepting other suggestions, in the comments section below.
• Here's my movie review:
  • Message From Space (1978) - I could imagine seeing this as a kid and being totally uptight about "this isn't Star Wars" but I'm an adult now and I enjoyed this. It's fun, it looks cool, great costumes, no problem. "You have to dress like this movie" would be a great setup for a party I think, and if any slobs show up without a costume you can just wrap them in a sheet, give them a schmear of Seven Seconds eye makeup, and plonk a crown of plastic leaves on top-- the host could purchase these items in bulk.

    As MDF pointed out in his review, this isn't better than the Star Wars trilogy but it's definitely better than the prequels. We got 3 Han Solos here, one of whom is 30% Luke Skywalker. Then there's a lady that's like Luke plus Leia, then a lady that's Leia minus Luke. Then there's a Ben Kenobi divided by Han Solo, he's been drunk since his C-3PO died in battle, but he's got a little R2 unit that's 20% Ewok. Darth Vader, the emperor, John Williams, Space Shintoism, they're all here too. They even did a little franchise on this, spinning out to a TV show, which according to IMDB was very popular in Peru. Chris Isaak is in this for a split second (playing space poker in the cantina) so if you're having an Isaakathon (Married to the Mob, Silence of the Lambs, That Thing You Do!, Little Buddha, Fire Walk With Me) you gotta watch this too. In conclusion yes I enjoyed this movie. If anyone does this party concept please call me up or at least send pics.

  There's more movie reviews in the TV room, that's on the second floor on the left, past the game room and the haunted mirror. I just updated the Movie Diary, it's current up to today.
• full movie: [Message From Space (105min) on YouTuve] in Japanese with subtitles

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