I am seriously behind posting my mashups to my site and here – check my Sowndhaus page for the up-to-date latest releases, but this recent mashup made the Bootie Top 10 for June – surprised because it features Negativland, not the usually most ‘pop’ of artists (although they are popstars in my heart…) but the rest is very radio friendly.
It mixes Genesis with more memories of 1986 with ‘Throwing It All Away’ – one of my first albums was Invisible Touch and I still stand by that album – mixed with U2’s stadium-bothering I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and the lawyer-bothering ‘The Letter U and the Numeral 2’ acapella and ‘radio edit’ which U2 famously nuked and is a part of mashup/copyright history.
I even did a ‘booper’ radio version – I asked The Weatherman if I could use some of his booper and he said yes, so I took some bits to edit out the rudeness, still think those bits are too strange for radio, but Stranger Things have happened (see what I did there?)
As it’s Pride month (well in the States/the Stonewall anniversary, our Pride is the start of July in London, Brighton is in August.) so here’s two new mashups/ First is a mashup and video of not one but TWO queer artists – MIKA and Aurora .
Her song ‘Cure for Me’ is about conversion therapy, so it’s sadly very apt for these times. No Cure for Me! MIKA – who recently presented Eurovision, his Relax, Take It Easy song which contrast the Aurora vocal, like a call and answer, and has some quite alarming lyrics to contrast the chorus. It’s intentionally bittersweet pop vs pop with a deeper message.
It got it’s exclusive first play on DJSQWRL’s Bootie stream early this morning, and went down well, so here’s to many more! And it has a video – had a lot of fun with effects and layering, it’s one of my best.
And also this is the second mashup I made for Pride this time from Captain Obvious – my Lizzo vs Patrick Cowley ft Sylvester – Do Ya Wanna Funk mashup, very 1978 disco like the Lizzo song – About Damn Time – in two versions, extended and shorter ‘radio’ edit (as if I’d ever be played on the radio!)
A double shot of downtempo punnery again for the Crumplbangers Discord Challenge – it’s the only reason I make mashups nowadays seemingly!
One Fleetwood Mac vs Fleet Foxes – a combo I am surprised has not been done before, and the clever pun of Philip Glass Animals, after the New York composer and the London artist.
Did someone say Fleetwood Mac? What would the Fox Say? Well he’d say Fleetwood Mac vs Fleet Foxes is the shiz. If rather horizontal.
Also some cultured Rime of the Ancient Mariner engravings by Gustav Dore as the artwork. Ooh fancy! If I ever do that Fleetwood Mac remix album I’ve been threatening for literal decades, this will be on it.
And here is the Philip Glass vs Glass Animals downtempo mashup no-one was asking for! (Well the challenge did say genre clash was important, and nothing is more genre clash than modern classical /soundtrack vs EDM pop?).
Heatwaves is a surprising jam, with a very odd video about living and performing in a lockdown…yes the PTSD of that is basically staining all my work now, like a grain running through it all.
EDIT: This won the challenge! Although I do find it interesting that I win the challenge yet both have gotten get zero likes on Sowndhaus. :-/
DJNoNo decided to have another go at the Crumplbangers Discord Spanish Challenge, he felt more bangin’ drum and bass was needed, but after a failed attempt to meld Cuando Cuando Cuando with Shy FX (watch this space, likely a non-Spanish version might appear in future) he then found this track called El Silbido (El Pito) (The Whistle in two languages?) by Pablo Beltrán Ruiz, the Mexican bandleader who wrote the song that became “Sway”.
So he mixed it with Drumsound & Bassline Smith – Through The Night, but very strangely for him also liked the non-banging version just using the synths and acapella from that. He hopes this track is in Spanish, he can’t make out the words? It’s quite a short set of lyrics…but definitely by a Spanish speaking artist.
It’s Drum n Boogaloo, or Swing n’ Bass, Latin bugalĂş meets drum and bass, I have to say I am fast preferring the synthy less busy and less beat-y quiet version more and more.
So here are both, they are separate entries and mixed and tweaked differently – one a quiet whistle, another a loud one. Very much inspired by Senor Coconut and London Elektricity.
And again, DJNoNo never makes political statements but he feels that this needs to be dedicated to the people of Ukraine, who need help to make it through the night atm.
Which is far too serious for a DJNoNo mashup! But we live in serious times.
And another entry for the When We Were Young competition. Wolf Alice are another band on the When We Were Young bill that I’ve heard – and played on the podcast recently. I love the singer’s voice, it reminds me of shoegaze bands.
So here is a shoegaze version of Wolf Alice’s ‘Lipstick on the Glass’ via Slowdive’s 2017 closer, ‘Falling Ashes’. Very emo/goth to reflect the lineup, and it gives me shivers. This came 3rd in the challenge out of 35 entries! I was surprised about that as it’s quite different.
It’s not my first rodeo with mashing Slowdive, back in 2004 I did one of my best mashups with Nina Simone for the Parkspliced Blur album ‘Golden Beard’
This was done for this week’s Crumplbanger’s Challenge which was from Will Battle – and he challenged us to use a track from a band on the When We Were Young festival. A lot of bands I am not into, but at the bottom is The Linda Linda’s which I LOVE.
Listening to their last but one single ‘Oh!’ I was reminded of the Go Go’s and We Got The Beat, so I mashed the two together. A short pop punk gem, if I say so myself.
This was awarded 4th out of a massive week of 35 entries! Very proud of that.
Rolling the credits on 2021…as Billie Eilish says, Fuck You to 2021.
There was a Crumplbangers Discord challenge last week to make an ‘ending’ mashup for 2021 using only 2021 sources, so I decided to use two tracks I loved and actually only heard this year – Taylor’s Version of ‘All Too Well’ and Billie Eilish’s hit ‘Happier Than Ever’.
I realised while I was tweaking it what it was about, I lost a close longterm friend a year ago over his behaviour which had been a problem for a long time, but I had been dealing with it alone, keeping it under wraps. He then chose to escalate it to the circle of mutual friends and tread over my boundaries, which was far from acceptable. It wasn’t acceptable to begin with, but I felt if I could control it, keep the peace, it’d be fine (stupidly), but as soon as it broke those bounds I couldn’t really see how I could carry on pretending it’s OK anymore.
Yet I never closed the door and made it clear what my boundaries were but that he could contact me when he wanted to be a friend and be there for me. Sadly a year later it’s still total radio silence, so this has very deep personal meaning since the anger at what he did is still there, and the sadness of that loss was basically my 2021.
But also feeling better without that negativity, because I didn’t realise how much manipulation had gone on til I stopped and had to explain it to that mutual friend. I realised how much it was affecting my mood, it was a weight lifted. To be constantly aware that any positive thing about myself would be pounced on as ‘bragging’ or get bitchy criticisms when drunk I could not answer to because then the tantrums and sulking would start.
So this is the end credits on 2021 but also unless a miracle happens, probably rolling the sunset end credits on that friendship.
BTW this combo has been done before (as far as I can find) but only as the reverse – Taylor Swift’s vocals over Billie Eilish’s instrumental, so I think this is an original and not a reboot.
P.S. All original artwork, well the photos are CC Zero – background from Engin Akyurt and the red man is from khezez, but the montage and post production is all mine. It took a lot to find an image relating to the ‘red scarf’ of All Too Well, the man overboard is my friend (or me), and the underwater part is from video of Happier Than Ever.
I do think about these things far too much! Then again, looking at Billie Elish’s video and Taylor Swift’s short film, so do they.
DJNoNo’s Anti Angry set (starts 7 mins in) for the still-going Crumplstock 9 is up – yes didn’t take him weeks to post it! And he goes HARD and intense and fast – think silly plunderphonic mashcore, donk, Does It Bang?, gabba, breakcore, bootleg, white label, classical techno, even a bit of disco and strange Xtian music. And that’s just the danceable bits.
Extreme BPMs, dumb noise and very angry and a wee bit offensive. To anyone with ears, basically. Can you survive the DJNoNo Set Survival Challenge?
It’s made of WRONG. So it’s very crumpl. pure Crumplbangers! ;-(
Download it here (59:32. 87MB) or listen to past Crumplstock sets here (weirdly I never really posted the older mixes here, but over at Radio Clash – not sure why)
SPYRO – Nobody Likes The Records
Phil Mac – Welcome To The Jungle
Malcolm Middleton And David Shrigley – When Words Fall In A Toast
Spongebob Squarewave – Feel Da Luv
Audiotist – Gimme Gimme
G3RSt – Gimme Pussy! (ABBA vs. Rammstein)
Little Marcy – I Love Little Pussy
JAKAZiD – Donk Español
Petrol Hoers – Baby Donk
DJNoNo – Eva’s Polkka Donk Troosers (Bilal Göregen vs Donald Where’s Your Troosers vs Donk)
Classical Techno – Vivaldi 2000 (club mix)
Edwin Triumph – Music Banger
rastatroll – Big Up (feat general levy)
JAKAZID – Wanasthasia (T99 vs. Spice Girls)
Alien Hand – Zaggacore
Katy Stott – Chirpy Chirpy Cheep (Disco Version)
Rokhausen – Pianomang
DJNoNo – Leave Home For A Watermelon Tonight (Too Busy Edit) (Savoy Havana Band vs Chemical Brothers)
Dsico – Compton Magic (N.W.A. vs. Olivia Newton-John)
Sarah Brightman – Who Wants To Live Forever (Xenomania Club Mix)
It increasingly looks like the unlocking of the lockdown will be delayed…which makes this yearning ragga jungle call to return back to clubbing either very topical or very redundant. Created for the Crumplbangers Reggae Challenge, I loved the new reggae cover of 2013’s Wilkinson single Afterglow by Nextmen featuring Eva Lazarus so much, I made a ragga jungle version!
This calls back to DJ Zinc’s Fugees 2003 bootleg by recreating it with two other Ready or Not sampling jungle tracks with the original Enya-sampling track. Are you ready for the Afterglow? Or not? Take It Slowly (like the probable date for opening up).
