We're proud to welcome Hoboken's one and only Bar/None Records to our download store, and the legendary indie label is hand-selecting some of their favorite releases for the site. Their Langley Schools Music Project reissue is one of OM's top selling CDS of all time, featuring '70s era school children singing the pop hits of the day (Bowie, Wings, Fleetwood Mac, Beach Boys, Bay City Rollers, etc.), the results being both ethereal and funny, but most of all mystifying.

In 1976, Hans Fenger was hired into the Langley School District as a music teacher. New to the task, he was impressed by the Schulwerk method of Austrian composer Carl Orff, which involves making music with a variety of easy-to-learn, mostly percussive instruments. But Orff's methods usually apply to students self-composing, or following a quite different repertoire than the one the Langley students found most compelling. They, with the encouragement of Fenger, picked out their favorite songs to render in the Orff style, (one dominated by xylophones and drums, for a gamelan-like sound). Beach Boys (6 songs) and Wings (2) were particular favorites, but Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, The Carpenters, Neil Diamond and more are also given the treatment. 60 angel voices singing pop songs with their own sense of phrasing and tuning, set to a not-always-steady beat? The results are devastating, ethereal and funny, but most of all, mystifying. Hits you in the gut where you didn't even realize--their renditions can make you tremble with amazement. - Robin Edgerton (October 24, 2001)