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Monday 28 January 2008

Six Day War part II (And the War Goes On...)

I never go back, only forwards. Once a track is finished, I will rarely if never go back to tweak it, even at someone's advice - if I can't nail a track first time round, that's the way it was meant to be. And I will rarely if ever use the same vocal twice (unless I am really struggling to make anything, or the vocal could work better in the new idea that hits me). This hopefully keeps things fresh from me.

However, there is one track that I would go back to every day of my life if I could think of something new or better for it - Colonel Bagshot's "Six Day War". The track which was so wonderfully treated by DJ Shadow on the Private Press album, has long remained one of my favourite songs of all time. Classic late 60s psychadelia where the lyrics seem as pertinent today as they did back then (the 1967 Arab-Israeli War) with hard funky beats and soulful backing built in by Shadow.

And it holds a special place in my heart as it was one the main part of one of the first mashes I made - Six Day War (I've Got Something to Say mix), which if truth be told, was probably a little sloppy but got me noticed and made me a few friends along the way. Hell, after everything I've made, it's still the favourite track of 95% of my friends who listen to my stuff.

And then there was the mash I made with Janis Joplin vs. DJ Shadow - Mercedes Benz vs. Walkie Talkie. Again, I think this was the 2nd track I ever made, and I still love it now, nearly one year on. Another anti-war mash.

I was in the car the other day listening to the DJ Shadow Live at Brixton Academy set from 2006, just after the release of the Outsider album (I went to the gig in Birmingham on that tour - an amazing night of music, scratching and German Kirschbier - trippy!), and early in the set Shadow plays an amazing live mash of his own "Six Day War" with "Walkie Talkie". Something clicked. I had made mashes based on both tracks, so why not re-mash them in to one mighty mash - my Opus Magnum, my celebration of nearly one year in mash-up land, my celebration of Bush's final months in term...

I was inspired and jumped straight to work. To my delight, the Bagshot original fitted Walkie Talkie with a few minor tempo adjustments and cuts here and there. But I wanted to get Janis Joplin in there too, to make it a Colatron vs. Colatron, or Colatron Squared gimmick. Problem being, Walkie Talkie is only about 2:30 minutes long. Janis had to go (although she did help out on the intro, setting the theme of the record against Georgie boy's gibberish ravings), but still, I wanted to extend the track.

Again, sat in the car, only this time listening to my CD of Shadow's "Live! In Tune and On Time" set from 2004 (if anyone's wondering - I love DJ Shadow!), I checked out his live mix of Walkie Talkie and was struck by the mixing of the track with drum n' bass maestro Sci-Clone's "Red Fever". Gives it a real menacing feel. Perfect for the sound of war. I had to somehow blend the original with the live version and I think I've managed to blag it.

Then, dropping in the obligatory sounds of Bush sounding like a hypocrite/idiot/war-mongerer/the devil incarnate, a few choice sounds of horror, a few samples from Paul Hardcastle's amazing anti-war track "Nineteen" of Albert Dobbs and Peter Thomas (thanks to DJ Prince for posting a superb sample pack over at GYBO) and the sample of Shadow himself closing the track, I had myself the sequel I've always wanted to my original anti-war mash.

It still moves me...I hope it moves you too.

Six Day War part II (And the War Goes On...)

Colonel Bagshot vs. DJ Shadow vs. George W. Bush (w/ Paul Hardcastle and Sci-Clone)
Six Day War vs. Walkie Talkie



MP3 Download Page Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?30emldxy5tn

The full list of tracks used are:
DJ Shadow - Changeling
George W. Bush - Various speeches from 2001 - 2004
Janis Joplin - Mercedes Benz
DJ Shadow - Walkie Talkie
Colonel Bagshot - Six Day War
Paul Hardcastle - Nineteen
DJ Shadow - Six Day War (from Live! In Tune and On Time; feat. Sci-Clone - Red Fever)
various samples of the souds of war

"Ladies and Gentlemen..."

Sunday 20 January 2008

Inna Raya Furtada

Forget Timbaland - Frank Farian is the real uber-producer of pop music. This dude was making high quality, catchy beat driven rhythms when Timbaland was still in his nappies.

And as such, I was driven to this - mashing the mighty Boney M.

First up, I gotta give props to Bobby Martini, who made this possible. I received a mail on Facebook last week asking if I ever read the blog over at:

http://www.audioporncentral.com/

Now, whilst I did read it once or twice a week, I never took a great deal of notice as I was generally too busy to sit down and read it all. Silly really, especially as it introduced me to one of my favourite Memes of all time - the Tommy Seebach "Apache" video mash. Seriously, I cannot watch the Prodigy one without a great big smile coming across my face (although am I the only one who finds it strangely erotic?)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bJduTv1ucq8&feature=PlayList&p=F5914606B2E02A7D&index=2

Anyway, after reading Bobby's message I headed straight over to APC to catch up and the first post that my eyes clocked, was the various disco covers of psychadelic rock classic "In A Gadda Da Vida" by the mighty Iron Butterfly. One of my favourite movie moments is in 80s classic "Manhunter" when the Tooth Fairy is hunting down his blind victim to the sounds of In A Gadda Da Vida. Awesome use of a soundtrack. But amongst the various disco covers, the one version of this mighty rock epic that stood out to me, was the Boney M. version.

Now I don't care what anyone says, cheese or not, Boney M. have some serious tunes. We all know them, and we all love them, whether the 4 guys were singing them or not. Farian's electro-processed vocals and Bobby's dancing were ahead of their time. Seriously. And I challenge you not to want to dance whenever a Boney M. track comes on.

So after watching about 8x Boney M. vids on Youtube, plus the accusation from Zendi that last year I went a bit too hip-hop (what is he talking about?!! Dude, I love ya, but stick to your guitar!), I was set on making my first disco mash.

The problem was - I had about 6 vocals lined up to use with this. Taylor Dane (!!) nearly made the cut, plus the Gossip was on the cards, although I've already mashed SITWOC so decided against it. In the end, I settled on Madonna, but then Nelly Furtado was bugging me too. What to do? I couldn't have the vocals together as they were too distracting from each other and the original Boney M. track was too short to split them out.

What do you do when your instrumental isn't long enough? Hack it to pieces and make a new track! Or in this case, copy and paste the body of the track back in to the main one to extend it, and hope the beats line up! Lol.

Pull on your flared catsuit, pump it up with your affro comb, and dance like Bobby Farrell never went out of fashion

Oh, and needless to say, I now read APC on a daily basis. I recommend you do the same.

Inna Raya Furtada

Boney M. vs. Madonna vs. Nelly Furtado
Gadda Da Vida vs. Ray of Light vs. Maneater



MP3 Download Here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?62gq8f1mg9z

Backup MP3 Download at Divshare, here:
http://www.divshare.com/download/3537952-129


PS. It's coming soon, a kick up the eighties. It changed my life and saved me from my vices....??

Saturday 12 January 2008

Independent Mentasm

Geez, this took me some time to get around to. Since New Year, I've really struggled to come up with anything new - not for lack of files or ideas, but nothing seemed to be gel-ing for me. I've got about 6 projects on the go but just not feeling them at the moment. Writer's Block. It's a crippler!

Still, I threw this one together as a means to start the new year with a bang.

I've had several ideas for crazy 1991 Hoover-rave track Mentasm floating around since I came up with the hardcore trilogy last year, but none of them were really paying off. Then come New Years Eve, in the Cross bar in Moseley, the DJ dropped a housed-up, sped-up mix of the classic Independent Woman and my mind was racing. This seemed like the obvious choice.

Admittedly, the vocal has probably been done to death on the scene, but hey, I still love it and I've never heard a bad mash-up of it (the legendary "Dreadlock Woman" still being one of my fave mash-ups of all time) so I make no apologies for making another version of it.

Throw in a tiny sample from an Altern-8 track, and a HUGE rant at the sound tech, at legendary rave Universe's "Big Love" event (13th August '93 - Lower Pertwood Farm, Wilts.) by the greatest MC of all time (although it's a close call with the Original Detonator, MC Robbie D - I was searching high and low for one sample of him saying "Callin' all the ravers!" but I couldn't place it, hence Mad P got the shout), and you've got a bass-thumpin' rave pop classic.

Are you robbin' the people? Probably....

Independent Mentasm

Second Phase vs. Destiny's Child (w/MC Mad P)
Mentasm vs. Independent Woman



Download Page Here:
http://www.blogger.com/'http://www.mediafire.com/?cvtldwv5n5m'

Back-up Divshare Download Here:
http://www.divshare.com/download/3444712-883



Happy New Year everyone!