Sometimes the best rhythmic tracks are hiding in plain site. New York’s Myroslaw Bytz caught nearly a minute of MTA Escalator at Times Square on Monday at 5am. It’s a slow, gangly beat, like a chain being pulled a long distance, or like some old gears shuffling in place. Sisyphus wears a reflective orange vest.
It’s a rhythm that suggests itself as metronomically precise but that, in fact, soon reveals itself to be a slurry mass of inaccuracies, a wonder of mechanical imprecision. The presence in the recorded track of a rote municipal announcement, apparently spoken by a woman, provides a keen parallel to the soundbite shout-outs of standard dance music. In place of 4/4 beats and diva proclamations, we get the mundane chaos of public transportation.
Track originally posted at soundcloud.com/bytz. More on Bytz at mbytz.com and twitter.com/mbytz.
(Photo via the Creative Commons and flickr.com.)
Great find. The escalator sounds beautiful and almost mechanized clockwork it in the way it ‘ticks’ over.