8+

"The Telephone Call" by Kraftwerk which clocks in at 8:03

From Wikipedia: "Chinese whispers or Telephone is a game in which each successive participant secretly whispers to the next a phrase or sentence whispered to them by the preceding participant. Cumulative errors from mishearing often result in the sentence heard by the last player differing greatly and amusingly from the one uttered by the first. It is most often played by children as a party game or in the playground."
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What I've done here is to play with the traditional game of telephone, or Chinese whispers, in two separate ways that involve the song "The Telephone Call" by Kraftwerk. Taken on its own the song is a fairly average Kraftwerk song from one of their less important albums. Viewed in the following two contexts the song will (hopefully) take on new life.

Our two versions of telephone are as follows. First you'll find a Babelfish version of telephone that involves multiple translations translating with, through, and against each other; beginning in German, passing through English, and ending again in German. Secondly, there's a quickie music video I've created using found YouTube footage of some business people playing a physical/breakdance version of telephone at some kind of team building conference. Click through and enjoy.

Babelfish Telephone

Below: A variation on the traditional game of telephone done using Alta Vista's Babelfish language translator. I first started with the title of the song as it is listed on the German release of Electric Cafe: "Der Telefon-Anruf". This title was then translated through a variety of languages in the manner listed above to end up with the results you see here. Notice the difference in both the German and English versions of the phrase from number 1 to number 7.

1) beginning phrase: Der Telefon-Anruf (in English: The Telephone Call)
2) German to French: L'appel téléphonique
3) French to Dutch: Het telefonische verzoek
4) Dutch to English: The telephone request
5) English to Italian: La richiesta del telefono
6) Italian to French: La demande de je téléphone
7) French to German: Der Antrag von telephoniere ich (in English: The request of I telephone)
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Music Video Telephone

Below: A music video created (by me) using this footage found on YouTube (by searching for "Chinese whispers") coupled with a portion of the song "The Telephone Call" by Kraftwerk. Watch the dance evolve as it's passed from one person to the next.



*above photo of Thai girls playing game of Chinese whispers from HERE.

Buy Electric Cafe on Amazon.

EAR FARM's 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. In the recent past these songs were featured on EF's 8+:
Neutral Milk Hotel - "Oh Comely"
George Gershwin - “Rhaphsody in Blue"
Múm - "Smell Memory"
Tool - "Lateralus"
Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks - "Real Emotional Trash"
Iron Maiden - "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son"
Mandy Reid - "Tornado"
Genesis - "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight"

To see a full list of every song featured in EAR FARM's 8+ click HERE.