Saturday, March 13, 2010

Backlog

Backlog of older tracks:

This track continues my infatuation with remixing Brazilian funk, it think it needs a new drum beat to kick a little more life into it.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/y1x1tzjmenn/Single - 01 - Different Places One Hip Hop feat. Rasco, Mic Stylz, Breez Evahflowin (Brazil Mix).mp3

Low key jazzy number I did. Soon as I heard the haunting piano from the sample I knew I had to remix it. I think the laid back atmosphere of the track fits the lyric style better than the mediocre original.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ex3yzrzzzmx/Single - 01 - Soul Obligation (Touchez pas au Grisbi remix).mp3

Uses a sample from the Zoobombs, a seriously funky Japanese band. The have a lot of variety and I look forward to mixing more of their work. Simplest track I've remixed so far, rap acapella over a re-ordered version of the song, no extra drums or samples.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/2jtynzoyzzm/Single - 01 - The 6th Sense (Music for Japanese people F-Bomb Remix).mp3

A mix of Jazz legend Dizzy Gilespi's magnum opus Bird of Paradise. I wasn't particularly happy with it but it's my mom's favorite.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jko4inebn4z/Single - 01 - Heaven (ft. Jully Black) [Bird of Paradise mix].mp3

My first remix! Made in Garage Band using the included drum loops. It uses a lot of mixing techniques i'd like to revisit. Bo Diddley's guitar has a lot of funk potential. He passed away about 2 weeks after I finished the mix, RIP.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jdezlzznmym/Single - 01 - How We Do it Over Here (Mo Diddley in the Club Remix).mp3

Simple bass line from an Enoch Light track and some blues harmonica from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack. Still one of the best animated shows ever made and a phenomenal soundtrack to boot. You should own the soundtrack even if you hate anime.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/tnmz14tjmzu/Single - 01 - I Want It All (Consumerism Blues Remix).mp3

Deep bass and grimy drums set to Missy Elliot. The sample comes from French 1970 animated film "Le Planete Sauvage" (aka. Fantastic Planet). Trippy Sci-fi animation with a hugely influential experimental soundtrack, cult classic.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/haabmhyiujt/Single - 01 - Loose Control (Sauvage Edit).mp3

More brazilian funk. Just give it a listen.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/d5tnyo45jmz/Single - 01 - One Little Indian (La La La Rmx).mp3

First cumbia remix I made. Cumbia style is best known for the repetitive folk songs ghetto blasting out of immigrant Mexican junkers. Because of that it gets a bad rep. Some of the older, classic tracks are pure gold dance hits and have little in common with their modern bastardizations.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ndjwm0mgjgz/Single - 01 - Planet of the Apes (Cumbia Remix).ogg

What's Happening?

Back in the game with some more Method Man for ya.

I was hesitating to post this track as I feel some of the track transitions aren't quite up to snuff with the quality of tracks that I've been producing recently. It's been a few weeks since I finished the track and I still haven't fixed any of the issues I've found with it. Instead of holding on to it for eternity I decided to release it as it is for better or worse.

Enough about what's wrong with the track though, I'm still damn proud of it. Why? For starters, the track samples some awesome Korean funk collected by DJ Soulscape from the DJ collective "360 Sounds" from Seoul. Soulscape has dug through mountains of vinyl to find some of the gems of the Korean 1970's music explosion.

That may be partly because of South Korea's history of cultural repression of youth countercultures. During the 1970s, young Koreans in Seoul were being exposed to "Soul Train" and funk music via the U.S. Armed Forces Korea Network. A club scene arose in Itaewon to service American G.I.s. But as early as the summer of 1971, U.S.-backed dictator Park Chung-hee ordered his police to round up longhaired Korean men and cut their hair.

As the decade wore on, he escalated his "social purification" campaign, detaining artists, intellectuals and church leaders. In the first six months of 1976 alone, police reported checking over 600,000 men on hair length and possession of "obscene" T-shirts. Park's censorship committee blocked hundreds of American songs, from "We Shall Overcome" to "Me and Mrs. Jones."

"Black music was considered illegal because it was not good for the youth. The only music allowed was folk music," said Lee "MC Meta" Jae-hyun of the influential Korean rap group Garion, through a translator. "The music scene itself died. Influential music makers left the country." When he and his peers became enthralled with images of b-boys at the 1984 Olympics, they had no outlet for their creativity.


Soulscape's impressive mixtapes "The Sound of Seoul" and "More Sound of Seoul" are essential to any collection of international funk. Needless to say I'm working on mixing some more of the tracks off these CDs.

The track starts off layering some simple drum loops. If you listen closely you can hear a teaser of the sample behind the drums before the lyrics and full volume funk kick in. The sample itself is heavy on the bass guitar with disco keyboards and violin highlights. I speckled the track with further highlights from a bright saxophone section in the track and some female "La la lala" vocals. Not much to say about the rap lyrics other than it fit with the track.

I've got a handful of other stuff I'm working on at the moment including Os Mutantes, Django Reinhardt, surf track Comanche made popular in Pulp Fiction's bring out the gimp scene, and much more. I also hope to get some help mixing and recording drum tracks from my pal Sam.

Enjoy listening and feel free to play at your next party.

Method Man & Tical's "What's Happening? (feat. Busta Rhymes) + Unknown 1970's Korean Funk
http://www.mediafire.com/?yugiqf2yykm