under the hum

spoken under the mains

2:45 · 76 BPM · G minor

A voice speaking low over the modules on the home page, and nothing else. The mains’ hum is the key, PECKING ORDER mixes it, and at the end the breaker trips.

0:00 / 2:45

The rack

Every module it was played on, a card each time it’s used, in the order the sound goes through them, with the cables between them. While it plays, each lights with its own part, and FIREFLIES’s cable is pulled at the end. The notes and gates come from the score, so they have no cables.

THRENODY's panel: a mushroom cloud in gold newsprint halftone dots on black, its cap between the top knobs and its stem running down the middle, with fifteen knobs and jacks and two lit buttons on a staggered grid — threnodythe low strings

HUM's panel: a lit power pole, its crossarm, insulators and wires, a transformer throwing sparks, drawn in gold hum lines on black, with fourteen knobs and jacks and two lit buttons on a staggered grid and MAINS, a two-way switch with a dot at each stop — humthe mains, tuned to G: the bed

RAIN's panel: rings of gold dots spreading out across the black from eight jacks down the middle, as rain spreads rings on a puddle; between them a braid of bare circuit board lit white and blue, the water running through every channel, round three knobs and through the jacks — raindrops ringing G minor pentatonic

FIREFLIES's panel: an old glass jar with a punched lid in gold dots, the whole panel tall; inside it a plume of sixty little oval windows of bare circuit board, most of them lit yellow-green like fireflies, a few strays out among the knobs and jacks — firefliesthe chimes

The PECKING ORDER panel: black, and in gold dots eight hens roosting up a ladder roost, four up each side to the top, two by two, under the boards of a pitched roof with light through its cracks. A jack by each hen, I to VIII; the knobs up the middle. — pecking orderthe back’s mix: strings, hum, rain, fireflies

SYCAMORE's panel: heavy curtains drawn in vertical gold lines over a zigzag floor, on black, with fifteen knobs, jacks and two lit buttons on a staggered grid — sycamorethe room on the front’s send

TONGUES's panel: a woman singing a long note, in gold halftone: her eyes shut under a crown of big daisies and poppies, garlands of daisies down both sides of her face, her mouth wide open; its sixteen upper teeth windows of bare glass lit bone white, its tongue a screen of dots lit rose, WORD on it like a stud and the TAKE button at its foot — tonguesfive of her words, sung as the hook

MARROW's panel: half a red cabbage cut through its core in gold halftone, its cut face filling the panel, the white core rising up the spine to FRESH, a round lit button, in a row of ten windows of bare circuit board lit white across the middle — marrowthe kit: cabbage, celery, hot oil, radish tops, melon

REDLINE's panel: a wall of steering wheels in gold dots down both sides, a jack or a knob at the hub of each; in the middle the big THROTTLE knob ringed by a tachometer of bare circuit board lit cold white, a red band at its top end, and a gear digit reading 3 over it — redlinethe sub, idling in first

The words

Hold still. The house is humming.

Lay me down in the low light.
Let the wires sing.
Every drop on the glass is a word for you.
Say it slow.

Under the hum.
Under the rain.
Hold me under,
and say my name.

Count the fireflies. Lose count.
Start again.
Something under the floor is keeping time.
Keep it slow.

Under the hum.
Under the rain.
Hold me under,
and say my name.

If I go quiet, leave the light on.
If I go under…
hum.

Under the hum.
Under the rain.
Hold me under,
and say my name.

Hold still.

How it was made

Every sound but her voice comes out of a module on the home page. Her voice is Vesper, the voice of TONGUES’s first demos, speaking our lines, one take a line. Each module runs its own engine, the same code its page plays, and a score plays them the way hands would: notes and gates into their jacks, a knob turned, a breaker tripped.

HUM is the bed: the mains’ eighth harmonic, tuned to G, and the song is in its key. THRENODY’s three sections bow the chords, RAIN’s drops ring G minor pentatonic, and FIREFLIES’s chimes find the beat in the hooks. MARROW is the kit: a cabbage for the kick, celery for the snare, hot oil for the hats. REDLINE is the sub, idling in first, cranked under the intro’s last bar. TONGUES cuts five of her words (hold, under, hum, slow and light) into syllables and sings them as the hook. Her lines go through SYCAMORE, so each one swells in out of its own reverse reverb.

Two PECKING ORDERs mix it. The back holds the strings, the hum, the rain and the fireflies, with a second SYCAMORE on the front’s send, and comes into the front’s return. The front has her voice on top, then TONGUES, MARROW and REDLINE, each a rung under. The hum takes the top of the back when it leads.

76 BPM · G minor · 2:45 · −15.4 LUFS · two sycamores, tongues, marrow, redline, three threnodys, hum, rain, fireflies, two pecking orders · the voice: Vesper