Four Tet : Twenty Three

Four Tet is Kieran Hebdan, an electronic music artist who crafts ambient-feeling abstracts by melding basic beats with low-key instruments and concrete sounds, prefering to lace his tunes with acoustic guitar and clacking computer keyboards rather than bombastic synths. His works, at least on his early albums, are very relaxed but they refuse to fade into the background.

"Twenty Three" is off what I thought was his first album, but is actually his second. It's a pretty straightforward piece, kicking off with a variety of wind chimes. As the song progresses he adds in bits of sound, layering acoustic guitar, a chiming organ, a nice trumpet and a smooth backbeat. Plus there's the only vocal on the entire album which is just somebody going 'tok tok'. It serves as a rhythmic counterpoint to the beat, but the oddness of it, especially against the otherwise organic and flowing sounds, is really arresting. This juxtaposition is what pulls the piece up from a simple exercise in new wave environmental records to something interesting and worth hearing again and again. I think you could even toss it into mix for a dancefloor crowd.

The whole album is pretty good and is a pleasant listen to late in the evening. You can find "Twenty Three" on Kieran's post-debut album, 2001's Pause.

[You can listen to Four Tet's "Twenty Three" by navigating to the post "Song094" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Uminski : Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Philippe Uminski is a French artist who I don't know much about.  There's nothing in Wikipedia to help me out and precious little on his last.fm page.  But that's okay.  We're really here to talk about his cover of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger".

Considering that the awesomeness of the original lies primarily in its jazzed up funk based on Edwin Birdsong's killer riff and use of vocodered vocals as the main instrument, this rock cover should fail.  It has no funk, and there's nothing jazzy about it, instead opting for a straight-ahead four-on-the-floor hard rock riff straight out of a 60's garage, with power chords that would make Pete Townshend weep with joy.  There's clearly no synthed-up vocals, or synths of any kind.  Instead the lyrics are shouted with a ferocity and intensity that turns them into a punk rock call to arms.  Plus there's those background "Wooooooo!" vocals that can't help but make you smile.  At the halfway point, there's a bit of a reprieve with a little Deliverance sample and a tasty funk intermission, but then it's right back into the fray, non-stop to the very end.

It really shouldn't work, but it really does.  This awesome cover can be found on Uminski's 2005 release, Sain & Sauf.  I have no idea where you could buy it from.

[You can listen to Uminski's cover of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by navigating to the post "Song093" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Edwin Birdsong : Cola Bottle Baby

Okay, now, if you've been paying attention, you should recognize this tune. That's because Daft Punk sampled it for their awesome "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". Edwin Birdsong was a minor player in the 70's funk field with his song "Rapper Dapper Snapper" that's also been sampled a bit.

The song is a loping funk piece built on a descending hook crafted with bubbling late-70's analog synths that gives it a very warm feel. It's not a burner, but it's got a good groove and reminds me a bit of P-Funk tracks from the same period. 


I really don't have much more to say about it. It's a fun track, though, and leads off Edwin's 1979 self-titled album, on which it's followed by the track "Phiss-Phizz".  Apparently he was into carbonation.  I pulled my copy from the appropriately named compilation Discovered: As Sampled By Daft Punk.

[You can listen to Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby" by navigating to the post "Song092" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Daft Punk : Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

So, if you listened to the radio at all in 2007, you heard Kanye West's smash "Stronger". It was a decent rap over a killer vocoder-driven vocal track shouting "harder, better, faster, stronger". "How cool! What a genius!" you probably thought to yourself, at least if you're as square as I am. Well, he is a genius, but mostly a genius at picking out cool but obscure samples.

"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is a jam by French electronic duo Daft Punk. It's an exceptionally  funky tune that takes a simple self-empowering chant, wraps it in vocoder splendor and splays it over groove in a most jazzy way. The vocoder is a device that breaks sound, particularly speech, down into composite wave forms. These are then transmitted and decoded resulting in a decidedly robotic tone.
In this case, the tone is also being warped by incredible keyboard work by the duo. In a sense, the vocals are the keyboard sound, not in a digital sampling sense, but in a very analog sense. Listen to the syncopated funk as they chop the lyrics up around 2:20 or the near incomprehensible squeaks in the final solo around the 3:20 mark. I just love the way they break it down, with the vocals becoming less vocal-like and more mechanically instrumental as the song progresses.

Meanwhile, the hook jams underneath, pumping the funk and holding down a solid base for the duo to vamp over. It's like jazz-funk from the '70's that's been shipped via time machine to the new millennium.

You can find "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" on Daft Punk's 2001 release, Discovery. While this song is an amazing tune, and when it's on, it's hard to argue that it's not my favorite tune of all time (the groove is just that good), the rest of the album is more pedestrian dance. There are people who love Daft Punk, but alas, I am not one of them. Except this song. This song is awesome.

[You can listen to Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" by navigating to the post "Song091" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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John Gregory : Six Million Dollar Man

The problem with John Gregory, aside from his having two first names, is that there are a lot of them out there. There are all sorts of John Gregorys and a bunch of them are musicians. But the John Gregory I'm talking about is the British composer and arranger from the 60's and 70's who also recorded albums under the pseudonym "Chaquito". And man, could this guy arrange the heck out of a tune.

Like most 70's cop and action TV themes, Oliver Nelson's theme for The Six Million Dollar Man is a tiny little gem of orchestral funk.  It's great listening in its own right (especially if the six million dollar sound effects are included). John takes this already fabulous tune and cranks the knob to eleven to create a rip-roaring brass-fueled musical adventure.

It starts with these crazy horn runs that swing back and forth between the speakers. Then the backbeat starts and the horns go to work on the main theme, but the flutes and other winds are still flurrying around the stereo spectrum. This little, almost disconcerting motif continues throughout the entire tune. Somewhere in the middle the band drops out and we get a nice drum and bongo solo. Then the band jumps back in and hits the theme again with even more gusto than before, if such a thing is possible.

It's a whirlwind of a piece and if you're lucky you can find it on John's 1976 release on Pye Records, The Detectives, which is, as it sounds, an entire record of funkified brass-driven detective themes. Yes, this album is awesome, and you should own it. I don't actually have the vinyl, but I do have Six Million Dollar TV Themes which is a compilation that includes this album, plus other cop show themes from other albums, almost all of which are just as awesome. Definitely worth grabbing.

[You can listen to John Gregory's "Six Million Dollar Man" by navigating to the post "Song090" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Mashups

Well, that about raps up the mashups. There were a couple of others I was interested in posting, but I think you'll have to wait for those. There was one I wanted to post, but it is 20MB large, so I'm not going to do it. But I'll point you to it, if you're interested. It's an interesting take on a mash by Wax Audio, in that he took as a base a Miles Davis jam from the 70's and layered over it an Angus Young guitar solo, a Miles Davis solo, Miles talking about music, a King Crimson improv, some turkish music, some Dead Can Dance and even a classic Public Enemy rap. It all ends up sounding very organic (except the Dead Can Dance part, I guess). It's called "I Can Hear It..." and you can download it straight from his site.

The only other mashes I was going to recommend are both rap-on-something-else mashes. The first is a great mashup by Party Ben of Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot" over Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love". The second is a nice mash of Kanye West's "Golddigger" over Bill Withers' "Use Me" by DJ Mei-Lwun, The instrumental is nicely sliced and diced to make a sweet new sounding backing track. You can search both of those down pretty easily using Google, if you're interested.

DJ Lobsterdust / Van Halen : Hot for Teacher

Okay, my final selection was chosen to reflect one other trend in mashups: the rock remix. There is a sort of subgenre of the mashup that consists of creating a dancefloor remix of a rock song. Often these are miserable, but sometimes they are awesome. I had a few to choose from, but ultimately chose Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" for a couple of reasons.

First, the original is kinda funky and has that spoken word stuff that really fits over the dance beat. Second, we all know David Lee Roth always wanted to be a disco diva. He never said as much, but you know he did. So one of the things I like about this tune is that DJ Lobsterdust gives him that opportunity to shine.

The beat is apparently from a tune "Ghosts N Stuff" by an artist called Deadmau5 and is apparently electro house. Whatever, not my bag, but it sounds good, especially under David Lee's growling libido. I could totally see this dropping right into the mix at the local nightclub. I know I would have loved it back when I actually did that sort of thing.

There were a couple of other tunes in the running for this category, all of which are great fun:

• Boston's "More Than a Feeling" by Ministry of Mashed Sound
• Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" by Marc Johnce
• Kings of Leon's "Sex On Fire" by Leedm101
• The Pixies' "Monkey Gone to Heaven" also by DJ Lobsterdust

If the idea of dancified versions of any of these songs appeals to you, by all means, search them out on Google.

Can't buy it, but the original Van Halen track is from their eternally classic 1984. Deadmau5's track can be found on his 2009 release, For Lack of a Better Name.

* My favorite line from David's Wiki page: "Roth has an uncle Dave who is a brain surgeon, an uncle Marty who is an orthopedic surgeon, and a grandfather who was a surgeon".  Uncle Marty would be a great band name.

[You can listen to DJ Lobsterdust's remix of Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" by navigating to the post "Song089" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Team9 / The Beatles : Eleanor Rigby

Here's another rock on rock mash.  Once again someone has taken a Beatles original and mashed it against another tune with an edge, showing how hard the Beatles could have rocked had they really, really wanted to ("Helter Skelter" not withstanding).

Team9 careens Paul's dour classic "Eleanor Rigby" off Queens of the Stone Age's hard rocker "In My Head", almost totally stripping out the dainty double string quartet that anchored the song before, keeping only a touch, and replacing it with rock riffs and a little keyboard that somehow match the song perfectly.  The vocals are even processed in a way that sounds a lot like Josh's trademark stoner rock murmur.  Unfortunately, I have more pictures than words for this one, as there isn't much more to say about it than I've already said for previous mashes.  But it's nice to hear the Beatles really rock out.

You can't buy the mash anywhere, but you can pick up the original "Eleanor Rigby" on the Beatles' 1966 Revolver and the original "In My Head" on Queens of the Stone Age's 2005 release, Lullabies to Paralyze.

[You can listen to Team9's mash of the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" by navigating to the post "Song088" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Party Ben / Radiohead : Reckoner

I'm not a big Radiohead fan, so I'm not real familiar with this tune.  I am a big Timbaland fan, although he's kind of played out lately, but I'm not familiar with the instrumental (Justin Timberlake's "My Love") used here either.  In any case, like many good mashups, I think this is a fortuitous juxtaposition by someone with a good ear.

The Radiohead tune is typical long-winded keening from Thom Yorke.  The original has him moaning over a pretty standard rock four-by-four beat.  Party Ben has taken the ultra-funky backing track from Justin's song and layered Thom's vocals over it and the result is, in my opinion, a drastic improvement.  The song moves from pedestrian to symphonic, with the lyrics soaring over the syrupy-thick electronic backdrop.  And the catcalls and beatboxing sprinkled liberally throughout, serve to destroy the cloying pretentiousness that normally permeates a Radiohead track.  Plus, they're just awesome.

You can't purchase the mash, but Radiohead's original is available on their 2008 release, In Rainbows, and Justin Timberlake's "My Love" is available on his 2006 release, FutureSex/LoveSounds, which also houses his smash hit "SexyBack".

[You can listen to Party Ben's mash of Radiohead's "Reckoner" by navigating to the post "Song087" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Martinn Bootleg / Madonna : Beautiful Stranger

So, I thought I would ride out a week's worth of mashes then bring the standard stuff back. The thing is, I'm still on vacation and there are a couple of mashes I still want to let you know about. So you'll have to stick with it for a little while longer.

Here's another example of taking a different route than the "drop a rap over a track" type mash. Martinn Bootleg takes Madonna's retro-pop hit "Beautiful Stranger" from the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me soundtrack, and fits it quite beautifully over the backdrop of Smokey Robinson's classic, "Tears of a Clown". Here's how perfect it fits. I had it on my little Shuffle and as I was listening to it while working in the yard, I thought to myself, "Jeez, I never realized how much this song sounds like 'Tears of a Clown'." Yes, it's so perfect I forgot it was a mashup. That, my friends, is a testimony.

To be fair, I think he uses some of the music of the original to help out. I have yet to listen to the three songs back-to-back, so I can't be sure what exactly he did, but it's amazing.  In any case, I don't think he had an a cappella vocal or instrumental backing track to work with, so on top of getting it all to fit together so perfectly, he did it by sonically pulling apart the originals.  An amazing piece of work.

You can't buy the mash, but the original Madonna song is from the Austin Powers soundtrack I mentioned earlier, and of course you can get "Tears of a Clown" on any number of compilations.

[You can listen to Martinn Bootleg's mash of Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger" by navigating to the post "Song086" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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