Santa Pod CD

This CD contains recordings of drag racing at Santa Pod Raceway, Podington, England.

The still-stirring Ash International [R.I.P.] label commemorates the 50th anniversary of drag racing with a sonic tribute to the sport. Paul Williams set up his sensitive microphones at Santa Pod, an English raceway, and captured all the sound and spectacle of a day at the races. Announcers drone over the roar of the engines; spectators whistle, cheer, and mutter amongst themselves; dragsters guzzle their nitromethane lunches and leap from the starting line like thunderclaps. If not quite as viscerally gratifying as being there, the superb recordings do convey the excitement of the event.

Williams' fine liner notes explain the multiple levels on which SANTA POD functions. First and foremost, the CD is an audio document of a real place, presented in real time. Since drag racing is a modern phenomenon--and a popular one, at that--SANTA POD preserves a technological and sociological moment in history. Williams' recordings also reflect Santa Pod's acoustic peculiarities, and the discrepancies between the flat PA delivery and the racers' ear-bending Doppler shifts would be of great interest to those with a bent for spatial sound-science. Finally, those mighty "thundering gods" of the racetrack promise--and certainly deliver--the hair-raising, spine-snapping noise thrills audio-masochists and perverse DJs crave.

Play loud -- Do not mistake this compact disc for a musical product. 1999 marks the 50th year of drag racing, after the first official meeting was held in 1949 on the streets of Goleta in California. Then, the quarter of a mile course took 11 seconds with the vehicles travelling at over 150 mph. Now, they race at over 300 mph, taking just 4.5 seconds. The vehicles are completely purpose-built and represent the extreme fringe of non-commercially motivated technological research. Santa Pod Raceway was started in 1966 on the site of an old American airbase. It is the home of European drag racing and host to the FIA European drag racing championships. Drag racing is the fastest and loudest motorsport on Earth, with sensational race action from dragsters and door-slammers to beetles and bikes. See 0 --100mph in under 1 second and make your ribs rattle, your brain shake, and your ears roar! This CD captures all the thrills and spills of drag car racing - an activity at the cutting edge of technology. For fans and audio buffs alike, you can use this CD to recreate the awesome power in your own living room, or frighten the daylights out of the dancefloor by using this as a DJ tool."