I used to live in a second floor apartment in downtown Manhattan where car alarms were a part of the soundtrack of daily existence. The most common one was the basic honk at about 60 BPM. I was listening to a lot of dub music at the time, and the alarm sound always reminded me of a reggae horn section playing a chord on the 2 & 4 beat. So sometimes I would grab a guitar and play a dub bass line over the honking to amuse my chums and transform the noise into music.
Fast forward to the present tense, when a band called Bitter Actions in Linlithgow, Scotland was rehearsing for a gig during an annoying and recurring round of fire alarm tests. I exchanged emails with band member Adam Stark, who made the video below with his camera phone. Watch what happens. Inspired.
