Just back from Egypt and South Africa (hey they put on a revolution just for me! So nice!) but I’ve still been busy in my absence. DJNoNo’s spooktastic Xmas mashup ‘BlacKmas Dub’ went up yesterday as part of the inaugural post for the 13 Days of Creepmas – a Halloween protest against the creeping of Christmas into other seasons. In fact I was really surprised in South Africa (and obviously Egypt as a Muslim country) there were no Xmas decorations, so when I arrived at Heathrow I had a shock as the deluge of Xmas-related eye-tinsel had already started….Anyway also on the mashup EP are mashups from Sticks Downey, Cheekyboy, G4Gorilla And DJ Useo. You can also download my track here if the link goes AWOL in future.
There are LOTS of mashups I haven’t released for various reasons over the last few years – either they’re not quite there, or they were for things that didn’t happen, or exclusives, or just didn’t get round to posting them. Problem with working in the digital age is you can be a perfectionist, but sometimes that really gets in the way, Kate ‘Decade per album’ Bush style.
So I’m having a clear out of my Mashup Cupboard, My OOK of the Convenant (hoho) – the quality will range from 99% there or perfectly playable to more rougher ideas and demos I won’t probably finish.
First up is Dubble Blow Job from 2009 – a mashup I did on spec for an Outsider Music mashup album that someone was arranging which never seemed to happen (?) – I’m a massive Bruce Haack freak and so jumped at the chance to use on of my favourite ‘outsider’ musicians, mashing his Blow Job from his last posthumously released Haackula album with RAH Band’s ‘Is Anybody There?’ which is also a rather odd attempt at synth-dub from their first LP and Disrupt’s ‘Jah Red Gold and Green’ from the excellent Foundation Bit 8-bit dub album.
It works although still not happy with the mastering, it really does have a nice curiously traditional dub reggae feel to it, it’s close in feel to White Witch Dub – loads of effects and filter sweeps and the like.
I discovered this old Northern Soul gem on ‘Shoot the Piano Player’ records down the charity shop – who knew that Marvin Gaye and Mayer Hawthorne ripped this poor guy off? I ripped it from the original 7″ in glorious original mono just for y’all.
Another slice of cheesy rather obvious dancefloor fun from Captain Obvious – this time inspired by DJ Schmolli’s excellent Joan Jett vs Crookers ft Yelle mashup, I’d not heard the Crookers track before and immediately thought Laura Branigan’s hand-punching classic ‘Self Control’.
So here it is – not exactly genre-defining, full of cheese du guilt and probably not that original. I’d store it behind the breadbin and only get it out secretly on Sundays if I were you.
Oh I hope you like the artwork, again by the legendary JCBF Productions – last seen on those classic compilation cassettes in the early 90′s, they’ve come out of retirement just for the ol’ Cap’n.
First quickie mash as part of Jez CMP’s Weekend Challenge (to create a bootleg in a weekend) and as I don’t release things enough (sit on them for months > years) I thought like the CO bootleg to just get this out there to the usual deafening silence
The instrumental given was Hot Chip’s ‘One Pure Thought’ and it’s afrobeat drums reminds me of Fela Kuti, the king of Afrobeat, so here it is mashed with ‘Lady’ and a little bit of ‘Schuffering and Schmiling’. Given the sources probably about 0.5 people will get it, but if it makes one person (or 0.5 of one) check out Fela’s back catalogue such as Black President then job’s a good ‘un.
The mashup cupboard emptying and Aphrodite-luvvin’ continues, this time with Instamatic on the mix (could just as well be a DJNoNo release but it’s more on the serious side; the quote at the start from one of my favourite films Garden State about family changes was rather spookily prophetic – this track was finished in July last year!)…anyway this takes Fever Ray’s excellent ‘When I Grow Up’ and makes it share a bunk bed with Aphrodite’s jungle classic ‘Stalker’.
Like some of my mashup vids I sometimes make mashups or longmixes with a feeling or specific intention to be about something – this was definitely about me having to empty my room at home the year previous – and became prophetic about the thoughts around my mother’s death and emptying the house. I don’t think we really appreciate those things til they’re gone.
Why did I hang on to it so long? Dunno, I rarely release stuff anymore…I still create mashups but have felt really apathetic about releasing them (ditto with podcasts, bar the making bit!). I think the inevitable criticism or attention wears heavy on me, as I’ve said before I make them for me, this is music as I’d like to hear it, or makes me laugh. If anyone else likes it it’s a bonus…but I’d be lying if external opinion had no bearing which tends to lead to apathy or being wary about letting others hear it, as a really negative review can make me disown ‘my children’ for years (see Stone Cold Roses for that one). It’s also why if you dig around the Wimpy player on the Artists site sometimes you might get the odd unreleased ‘surprise’
DJNoNo‘s frankly quite worrying love affair with Aphrodite (not as dodgy as his obsession with Julie Andrews, the stalking court hearing is in a few weeks) continues with this ode to the Asylum ‘Those Were the Drums’ mashing Mary Hopkin’s 1968 classic ‘Those Were the Days’ with ‘London Massive’ by Aphrodite – and craftily sneaking in some Osymyso talking about Bastard at the Asylum for Swiss TV all those years ago…
In 2010 I’m planning to release the backlog of mashups that got to the sort-of-finished stage and I left due to apathy re: making the covers, mastering (how I HATE mastering – the 7″ version of this took 3 tries!) etc.
So here’s the first, a mashup idea that unusually came from someone else – namely Jeb 50PoundNote who asked why isn’t there a Nasty Girls vs Chewing Gum mashup in existence? A very good question indeed, and here’s the answer:
This comes in two flavours, the ’7″ Juicy Fruit’ mix and the ’12″ Bubblicious Genius mix’ – not edits actually totally different mashups, second one I did first as I didn’t have the Chewing Gum instrumental (it’s on the flip side of the 7″) so I used the Headman Dub and Mix, but then Gavin Reborn Identity kindly provided it to me so hence the other version. The DJ version is of course faster, about 126bpm if memory serves, and as Chewing Gum is seriously influenced by Tom Tom Club’s Genius of Love I added a bit of my favourite intro to that song and little bits scattered throughout.
Big thanks to Jeb, Gav and Thomas who apparently couldn’t stop dancing along (that is praise indeed )
Nasty Chewing Girls(7″ Juicy Fruit mix – Vanity 6 ‘Nasty Girls’ vs Annie ‘Chewing Gum’)
Nasty Chewing Girls(12″ Bubblicious Genius mix – Vanity 6 ‘Nasty Girls’ (That’ll Work remix) vs Annie ‘Chewing Gum’ (Headman Dub & mix) & Tom Tom Club – Genius of Love (extended))
UPDATE: Annie Strand herself (if it is her official account) tweeted about this mash! Woohoo! Thanks Glad you like it.
As part of my Fleetwood Mac mashup album ‘Fleetwood Mix‘ I’ve got a new track out called ‘Go Your Own Steinway‘ which is Eric Prydz ‘Pjanoo’ (Fred Falke mix) vs Go Your Own Way.
Don’t forget to also check out the great Fleetwood Mac mashups and mixes from DJ BC (current Bootie Top 10 Exclusive!), Celebrity Murder Party, LeeDM101, DJ FOX, RIAA and 10000 Spoons.
Yo! Yo! Yo! Ere iz mah new mashup, a funkee lil gully numbah which is reet clart, m8. I took mah home-boy Hugo Montenegro (in da hizzle!) n’ mixed im wiv Aphrodite, drum & bass GOD(ess?) and a little known grime GANGSTAH! groop called The Osmonds? Nevah heard of ‘em but dey are super-smart funky m8, gr8 bassline. Not so shure aboot dose haircutz an flares, but who knose. Oh an’ it reminded meh of dem liverpoolian scouse gits the Beatles so I dropped in somefink direct from the street, totally bangin’ m8, the Swingle Singers doing Daytripper. PROPAH JOKES!
