Banshee on Nathan La Franeer

juanmoth   2009-Oct-25 at 13:44:20 Can anyone shed any light on what a banshee is? I spent an afternoon googling it and didn't find anything conclusive. The consensus is that it's some sort of talk-box effects pedal for a guitar (used most prominently by Peter Frampton, Aerosmith & Joe Walsh in the 70s), but to me that seems unlikely, since the banshee of NLF doesn't sound anything like the talking electric guitar. My hunch is that it's some sort of homemade instrument, either a siren-like aerophone or a hurdy gurdy. Anyway, I'd be immensely grateful if anyone could share what they know about this. I find the dissonance it provides on Nathan La Franeer to be a surprisingly avant element.

sweet.bird   2009-Oct-30 at 12:11:12 i've also googled it, and yes... the talk-box is coming up. by the sounds of it, it's a pre-amp... and i'm assuming they just reverbed it (maybe not a good choice of words, but i can't think of anything else at the moment) or tweaked it to have a sound such as on NLF come out. thanks, honestly for mentioning this... as i was listening to NLF yesterday, i was taking notice of the banshee and just hearing how distinct it is in the track. i really do enjoy it.

davidmartin   2009-Oct-30 at 16:57:18 I have always wondered about it too. Is it possible that it is not the name of the instrument but refers to the imagined wailing sound of the Irish myth? I listened to it again and it sounds like it could be a harmonica. If you watch the 1984 George C. Scott version of "A Christmas Carol", you will hear the exact same sound when one of the scary spirits visits Scrooge.