Title: Thanks for the Lobster & other Regina Music Box Favorites
Artist: ANALOG arts
Label: ANALOG arts
Release: August 1, 2013
Digital Retailers: iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Nokia

All proceeds from this recording will help sustain Iron Composer.

Thanks for the Lobster is a collection of music box recordings featuring instruments and discs that were built by the Regina company more than 100 years ago. Regina music boxes use flat discs instead of cylinders, and they were renowned for their sumptuous tone. The songs reflect the popular music from the late 19th century, ranging from hymns and marches to opera and musical comedy numbers, not to mention novelty songs like the title track. The arrangements have their own peculiar quirks as well, with an extraordinary amount of filigree on the melodies in order to show off the musical range of the music boxes.

Originally assigned as the secret ingredient in Iron Composer 2011, Analog Arts liked the sound of these Regina music boxes so much that they decided to record an album of them. Every song and album sold will directly benefit the Iron Composer competition.

Liner Notes In 2011, Analog Arts assigned a Regina music box as the secret ingredient for Iron Composer. The Iron Composer finalists were required to use one of 12 discs for Regina music box #28846, which shipped from the company’s factory in Rahway, NJ in May 1898!. In making this recording, Analog Arts chose to record a much larger Regina music box (#50752, from June 1902) which has an even richer tone. This standing Regina box is designed to play up to 12 discs at a time, changing them much like a jukebox. With mechanical musical instruments that are over a century old, there are unavoidable quirks which are part of their charm. Sometimes in the process of recording the teeth holding the disc would slip. Some of the discs were so rusty that they were unidentifiable.

We decided to record them nevertheless, and we think you’ll agree that some of these flaws in the music box’s performance are quite endearing. We photographed each disc to give you a sense of how they are genuine physical artifacts from another century. The bonus tracks are the 12 original recordings that the Iron Composer finalists used to determine which discs they would use in their compositions.
Track Listing 01 Thanks for the Lobster
02 Drinking Song from Traviata
03 The Rocket March
04 The Charlatan March
05 My Country Tis of Thee
06 If I But Knew
07 Darktown Cake Walk
08 The Chimes of Normandy
09 Abide With Me
10 Wedding March
11 Cavalleria Rusticana Intermezzo
12 Stille Nacht
13 The Free Lance March
14 Glittering Gloria, …cordelia Malone Song
15 Largo, Xerxes
16 Diddle Daddy
17 Where Is My Boy to Night
18 Spring Song – Mendelssohn
19 Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?
20 Mid the Green Fields of Virginia
21 The Mill in the Black Forest Idyll
22 Home Sweet Home
23 The Beatrice Waltz
24 Adeste Fideles
25 Rock of Ages
26 Priscilla Colonial Intermezzo
27 Zampa Overture
28 Starlight March Song
29 I Want to Be a Military Man (March from Florodora)
30 Ave Maria
31 Two Sweethearts Song (Box) (Bonus)
32 The Mill in the Black Forest (Box) (Bonus)
33 Nearer My God to Thee (Box) (Bonus)
34 Selection from Lucia De Lammermoor (Box) (Bonus)
35 The Charlatan March (Box) (Bonus)
36 Abide With Me (Box)
37 You’re As Welcome As the Flowers in May (Box) (Bonus)
38 If I But Knew (Box) (Bonus)
39 Cavalleria Rusticana Intermezzo (Box) (Bonus)
40 Smokey Mokes (Box) (Bonus)
Credits All of the Regina music boxes recorded on Thanks for the Lobster belong to the private collection of Rudi and Joan Kamper. The main tracks were recorded in their home on September 5, 2012. The bonus tracks were recorded in Suburban Clock & Repair on September 15, 2011.

Engineer: Rudolf Kamper
Producer: Joe Drew
Mastering: Joe Drew
Technical Advisor: Nigel Rawles
Microphones were provided by Dariusz Skoraczewski.