Songs Of The Humpback Whale - Dr. Roger Payne, 1970

A lot of good blogs have made mention of this record, but most of the links for it are dead. It's a total gem.

"The rare recordings are from a 'Bel Canto' era of whale singing. Even though Humpbacks change their songs every year, none from recent years has been so beautiful as these they sang in the 1960's."
... can you argue with that?

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Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations - The Conet Project

This isn't much in the way of music, more a way to spend a few hours (or a whole day) sifting through through the wealth of shortwave numbers recordings and the mythology surrounding them. I think the most incredible thing about these recordings is the fact that numbers stations are still owned and operated by different government agencies, notably Cherry Ripe (active until December 2009) and the Lincolnshire Poacher (active until July 2008). Shortwave transmissions continue to be a widely used form of covert communication given that one-pad systems are notoriously difficult to decipher and therefore there is no danger in broadcasting them publicly (assuming the key is completely randomized).

I uploaded Disc 1 and Disc 2, and maybe I will upload more, but metadata was a nightmare and there's more than enough material here for hours upon hours of conspiracy-theorizing.

While preparing to post this, I came across a Pitchfork article from 2012 announcing the anticipated reissue of these recordings. Evidently I'm not alone in my obsession with Cold War ephemera/espionage theories. Also, here's a good NPR segment on the topic, along with the Irdial website containing more information that you could ever want to absorb.

Disc One 

Disc Two