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James Murphy Proposes Plan For NYC's Noisy Subway Turnstiles
By
Jen Carlson
Published Apr 10, 2012
Modified Apr 10, 2012
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Apr 10, 2012
Modified Apr 10, 2012
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Original photo by Bitchcakes
Last month David Byrne and James Murphy (formerly of LCD Soundsystem) sat down at Yale to talk about some stuff. Today WNYC has posted audio of their chat, which includes Murphy's grand plans for NYC's noisy subway turnstiles. Honestly, we must have started tuning out the little beeping noise they make, because we never notice it anymore... but it is rather annoying, as this YouTube will now confirm:
So, Murphy explains what his main problem is with this sound, and offers up a solution... that surely the MTA has a budget for, right?:
All the subway turnstiles in New York City…make a beep. It’s a really unpleasant sound and the one that’s right next to it is slightly out of key with it. So, it’s like “ehhh….aehhh…uehhh” Unless you get it wrong and it’s like, “No!” Then it’s the sound of your bruised hip as you hit the thing… So I thought, I love New York and I love its aggression, and I love that it doesn’t make it easier for you to be a member of the city…But, I wanted to change the sound of going through the turnstile to a series of notes—I could do a little program. I could be like, well, the dominant note is the root, this is the fifth, this is the third, have a couple of sevenths, throw a few sixths in there just to be crazy. And during rush hour it would make arpeggiated music. And each subway station could have its own key or tonal set. For me, for a new person going to work, I think it would just be nice. It would be hard not to like that more than “shut up, idiot, you’re walking so slow!”
We approve. We would also approve if the turnstiles just played this from now on:
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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