M Is FOR MASHUP - April 28th, 2008
What A New World Sounds Like
By DJ Useo
Last week, I saw a lot of promotion & some good measure of online chat about a new Mashup comp coming out from the fine folks at ?INISTRY o? ?AS?ED ?oUND. I was looking forward to writing about it, but even more to listening to it. Well, it stood up to all my expectations & is one gem of a release.
"Sounds from a New World..." is seventeen tracks of fun & mixing brought to you by folks who care whether you listen or not. Bringing well-known names with it like Bobby Martini, Envision, MadMixMustang, & Ben Double M, the album is another of those unlicensed mashup albums that you can hear for free. As they say in the post, "every song that is featured on this compilation has been produced with one aim...SMASH THE GENRE!" I thought I'd give you a peek at how we bootleggers talk about each other's work, so here's my track-by-track on the whole release.
1. envision = P!nk vs. Pretty Ricky - Yes Sir, I Can!
A track that sounds very much like it began this way. Although it has a fine amount of bootleg sound to the production. The mixer has a good presence in the sound with some chosen effects that enhance nicely. I did hear a slight buzz hovering in the back of the sound. Perhaps a leftover from the extraction process. I mostly prefer a livelier tempo, but this has a good intensity that drives it.
2. The Reborn Identity = Oasis vs. Beyoncé ft. Shakira - Wonderful Liar
Two songs you know quite well paired a+b style to good results. It takes an immediate adjustment to re-orient the ear to the re-pitched Oasis vocal. The Oasis is tightly-woven into the Beyonce with some nice pop-ups of Beyonce & Shakira vocals. Not noticing any dj-effects for the most part beyond a good production sound to the words & music. The levels are good for me with a warm sound.Bass is fine, too.
3. g4gorilla + CjR Mix = Beyonce vs. Linkin Park - I've Given Up On Single Ladies
A splendid track that revives the over-played Beyonce. A good pairing of material with a sound that rocks, yet won't alienate pop fans. Linkin Park vocals appear in spots to good contrast. There's a distant sound to the instrumental production that allows the singing to be very clear & audible. A fine plus to listeners.
4. envision = Fall Out Boy vs. SagaBoy - I Don't Care About The Photo Album
A good blend going on here. If I hadn't known the Fallout Boy I would never have suspected it was a bootleg track. I like the music so it held up with the slower tempo. The rhythms shine well during the bridge especially. Mashups seem more a+b style lately, but this is why people like that.A smoothly-arranged pop gem that is a boot even if you can't tell.
5. MadMixMustang = Rick James vs. Queen - Tie Your Superfreak Down
A dynamite combo with familiarity & aggressiveness working for it. It had me guessing as to the direction this track would proceed. But then it mainly developed into the queen mental & the james pella with some good interchange of both to spice it up. The pairing works splendidly & I really liked the superfreak vocals more this way. Very successful track this is. I get carried away with it & forget to judge it. Funny lyrics when it says tie your superfreak mother down! lmao
6. mash2mix = Smokey Robinson vs. Nelly Furtado vs. Incubus - Drive Into My Smokey Face
I love that Incubus track & Smokey fits in an ingratiating manner. It really is a great addition to hear the Furtado as well. Spices it up & keeps the arrangement interesting. I can dig this right away & it's easy & fun to sing along. Nice preservation of the solo bridge. The levels on the added vocals are excellent when contrasted with the original Incubus singing that is left whole. Placing of vocals is a big plus here.
7. envision = No Doubt vs. Solange - I Decided I Won't Speak (Part I)
I didn't know either source track here.Not really my type of interest musically, but the pop pureness comes through well. Another generation stylistically,innit? Can't fault the production in any way other than that it ain't my bag. Gwen sounds marvelous in the production & I can see her actually doing it this way. (Hey,Gwen!)
8. Colatron = Orbital vs. Belinda Carlisle vs. Opus III vs. Apollo 11 - A Happy Heavenly Day
Hey! I was ready to dislike this as I never cared much for the Opus or Carlisle, but the music gives this a lovely feel. Even when she sings 'it's a fine day' it never bugged me. Very good pitching. The Apollo samples are cool, too. An enhancement.Belinda's track is a likeable song to me again. I like the ambient-ness in the background of the sound. It aids but never distracts. Length works great, too, & I never tired of it.
9. CrowdedBabes = Lily Allen vs. The Chemical Brothers - Fear Guitar
I didn't like the pitching for Lily it seemed slightly off,improving more during the chorus.That left it hard for me to enjoy the rest. At the halfway point the pitching improved lots with only a stray note sticking out. That Chem Bros has a few tricky chord changes with the effects going. Lily goes out again for me right after that middle section, then comes back almost. Sorry to say. Pitching aside, all else is sound.
10. Bobby Martini = Avril Lavigne vs. Dragonette - Get Lucky and Complicated
Haha, I got a smile right away from this. Avril's voice sits atop the sound in a removed way that harms the track. I was hoping for a more-integrated production-sound. Otherwise, this overcomes any cheese factor & is rather likeable. I can imagine Avril singing this to assorted Muppets on the Muppet Show. A fun song that is memorable. At 4:28 I wasn't sure if the length was overdone, but afterwards I still was happy.
11. MadMixMustang = Coldplay vs. Thin Lizzy - Viva Les Boys (Part 2)
This is way cool, & I was looking forward to hearing it after your reverse mix of last week. I liked the vocal intro a lot. This is a killer track that is an instant keeper. Best boot of this Coldplay song I know, even over my own, lol. Marvelously-spotted with fine production. It holds my interest fast with the Coldplay singing to this driving rock riffing. This track will be played a lot I wager!
12. envision = Savage Garden vs. Fort Minor - Where'd You Crash & Burn
Sounds like a really good track that is from the top ten. Not particularly the kind of tune I go for first with the ballady feel, but the vocals really raise this boot to new heights. The chorus works best. Nice bit with the vocals being paired, too. Nice work on the sound. It could easily be too harsh with the beats, but that never happens.
13. G3RSt = Mindless Self Indulgence vs. The Cure - Never Wanted A Forest
I know this track already & it's a treat. The MSI fits great with the Cure music. The production sound leaves all very clear & appealing. This sounds like a classic mashup from around 2004. The give & take in the words & music propels this wonderfully. I like the intensity this arrangement adds to the track.
14. mARKYbOY = Sting vs. Nach Baliye - Monsoon Season
Great variety here. Don't know the source tracks, but that is no prob here. I like the tune & the vocals sneak in & out perfectly. Sounds like more than an A+B. It may not be but it gives that impression. It really seems true to the artistic vision of Sting, yet it's your bootleg mix. Another track I think the label artist would like.
15. envision = Billy Joel vs. Metro Station - Only Kelsey Died Young
Quite an interesting track. I don't normally go for Joel too much, but this made him better for me. A good build to the arrangement that strengthened it's appeal as it continues. Good sound again here on this track.
16. acafreak = Red Hot Chilli Peppers vs. Edward Chun - Give Me Love In California
Chili is misspelled here. It's the only thing wrong. lol. This takes mellowness to a fine new place. I liked how the parts assisted each other so well. The RHCP's words moved lightly through the delicate tune, & both ended up the better for your mixing.
17. Ben Double M = Rick Astley vs. Chris Rea - Sleeping On The Beach
Incredibly nice, like Steely Dan. This is one fine track. Again, it overcomes my preference for livelier tempos & simply satisfies. The sound is perfect with vocals that sound so very natural this way. Ben, the double-M here stands for Masterpiece.
It would have been a welcome inclusion to tag the tracks with the mixers' names.
Also, numbering the tracks preserves the running order when they are loaded in mp3 players.
I did really like how the covers were attached as they display in my mac's mp3 player.
The packaging is incredibly good.
After listening to all it seems obvious that someone went to the bother of levelling this project to success.
There's a similarity of production sound that binds the release.
That's my review of the album. It should be clear that this is a great record with strong variety. Get yours now before forces beyond your control remove the links. (Please don't let that happen.)
Get yours as direct linked mp3's or one large file here -
ministryofmashedsound.wordpress.com/
or here -
markyboymashupsite.blogspot.com/2009/04/sounds-from-new-worldcoming-soon.html
Mix Of The Week - Vepik's Lazy//Sexy 42 - The Spirit Window is A downtempo mix with an intro that pays homage to (dare I say) 60's psychedelia, which is then followed by standard fare chillout. A lot of guitars. The last three tracks are meant to tug at your heart a bit. All the Lazy//Sexy series is great & this doesn't let up.
Grab yours here -
bmbx.org/2009/04/18/lazysexy-42-the-spirit-window/
Mashup Tip : Mash music your audience will know, & for grud's sake leave off with all the (Words missing here)
DJ Useo's Podcast
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lally Weymouth: 'I Am Dr. Realist' (newsweek.com)
The bottom is still a year off, says the economist who warned of the plunge.
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: The Inflection Is Near? (nytimes.com)
We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese ...
Joe Weider: A Teen Can Not Grow on Shakes Alone (creators.com)
Tip of the Week: If it doesn't bring you joy, don't do it. I hear so many people complaining about how they have to drag themselves to the gym or force themselves to go outside for a run. To me, that's no way to live. I can't imagine having to force myself to do anything, much less do it every day.
Ben Sherwood: Swine Flu Survival: The Science of a Single Sneeze (and Three Simple Ways to Protect Yourself (huffingtonpost.com)
... young, healthy people (ages 20-40) are dying at a striking rate, a telltale sign of the worst flu epidemics. ... It may sound obvious, but hand-washing with soap and water for around 20 seconds is the single best thing you can do (if you're going to go out into the world and interact with other human beings).
Bill Maher: The GOP Is Acting Like a Guy Who Got Dumped (latimes.com)
Listen up Republicans: It's been almost 100 days, and your country is not coming back to you. She's found somebody new.
Andrew Tobias: Daily News (andrewtobias.com)
His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan on 'Meet The Press' ...:
MTP: "What's the image of the United States in the Middle East today?"
KING ABDULLAH: "Fantastic."
MARK C. TAYLOR: End the University as We Know It (nytimes.com)
GRADUATE education is the Detroit of higher learning. Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market (candidates for teaching positions that do not exist) and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand (research in subfields within subfields and publication in journals read by no one other than a few like-minded colleagues), all at a rapidly rising cost (sometimes well over $100,000 in student loans).
Carolyn Foster Segal: On the Assembly Line (irascibleprofessor.com)
By the time I received my master's degree, when I was 25, I had had 26 jobs, not counting the teaching assistantship that carried me through the last semester of my master's program. Often, these days, I find my thoughts returning to one of those jobs in particular -- the assembly line in a pickle factory.
Germaine Greer: "Martin Kippenberger is just a man exposing himself. Why is his work a hit with women?" (guardian.co.uk)
Shockmeister? Schlockmeister, rather, I thought, averting my eyes as if he were a man exposing himself, as of course he was.
KRISTIN A. SMITH: Q+A Najarra Townsend (curvemag.com)
Catching up with the star of 'Tru Loved.'
Michael Giltz: Film Critic Roger Ebert Alive and Kicking at EbertFest (huffingtonpost.com)
A thumbs up from Ebert is still the highest accolade (other than an Oscar) that a movie can get. EbertFest is like a week-long thumbs-up for filmmakers.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Good Deeds (athensnews.com)
In the early 1980s, the soul group Tower of Power hit a low point in their musical careers. Band founder and tenor saxophonist Emilio Castillo credits Huey Lewis of Huey Lewis and the News fame with resurrecting TOP's careers. Both Mr. Lewis and TOP were from the San Francisco Bay area, and Mr. Lewis asked TOP to tour with him. Mr. Castillo told Mr. Lewis, "Well, I can use the money most certainly. But the only way I'll do it is if you promote the band at every turn." Mr. Lewis agreed to the terms, and he kept his word to TOP. Mr. Castillo says, "He talked about us, literally, in every single interview he did. He would feature us prominently in his show. Tower of Power would also do these midnight concerts in some of the local clubs in the bigger cities we played. Huey would announce them during his show, saying how he and the News were going to the club afterward to sit in. So these places were just besieged with fans. So, yes, he literally resurrected our career."
The Weekly Poll
The 'First 100 Days - Pluses and Minuses' Edition...
Well, Poll-fans, President Obama, aka 'The Man', has reached the first 100 days of his administration. We might as well jump on the wagon with everyone who is evaluating his work and make an assessment of our own...
What are the Pluses and the Minuses of The Man's First Hundred days?
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to
What is the name of Gumby's dog?
replied:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast til mid-day, but nice.
He Gets It
Tony Bennett
Singer Tony Bennett says it's a crime that performers don't get paid by radio stations when their music is broadcast.
He says, "The radios don't want to give up one penny."
The Grammy winner's comments came Tuesday evening at a private gathering of invited guests and legislators, including Senators Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Dianne Feinstein of California, at the Capitol Visitor Center.
The group is pushing legislation that would require radio stations to pay musicians royalties similar to those paid to songwriters.
The National Association of Broadcasters opposes the proposal, saying it threatens thousands of radio jobs corporate profits.
Tony Bennett
Waterboard Offer
Olbermann
The debate over torture is getting personal for two of cable TV's prime-time hosts. After Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity made a seemingly impromptu offer last week to undergo waterboarding as a benefit for charity, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann leapt at it. He offered $1,000 to the families of U.S. troops for every second Hannity withstood the technique.
Olbermann repeated the offer on Monday's show and said in an interview Tuesday that he's heard no response. He said he'll continue to pursue it.
Charles Grodin was challenging Hannity on the issue on Fox last week, and asked whether he would consent to be waterboarded.
"Sure," Hannity said. "I'll do it for charity ... I'll do it for the troops' families."
Olbermann's offer was quick. Besides the $1,000 per second, Olbermann said he'd double it if Hannity acknowledges he feared for his life and admits that waterboarding is torture.
Olbermann
Oklahoma Honor
Flaming Lips
After weeks of controversy and uncertainty, Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry is scheduled to sign an executive order Tuesday (April 28) that names the Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize??" as the official rock song of Oklahoma.
Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne told Billboard.com that the experience has been alternately exciting and disappointing, and, in quintessential Lips fashion, always surreal.
"It just seemed to me the whole thing was absurd to begin with, and now it even becomes more absurd," Coyne said. "Now I really feel like it's something worth fighting for because I don't want people to just think, 'Oh, Oklahoma is this backward state as we suspected.'"
The Oklahoma City band has watched as its popular song (from 2002's "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots") won an Internet contest for best Sooner State rock song -- over tracks by The All-American Rejects, Leon Russell and The Call. Over the course of a month, the Oklahoma state senate passed a measure to officially name the song the state's rock anthem, and then the state House of Representatives rejected it because band member Michael Ivins wore a T-shirt adorned with the image of a hammer and sickle, a Communist symbol.
Flaming Lips
Growth Industry
E-Books
The latest J.R.R. Tolkien project lasted six years, more than half as long as the author needed to complete his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Getting permission to release a book in electronic form can be as hard - or harder - than writing it.
Tolkien's addition to the e-club fills a major gap, and, with e-books the fastest (and virtually only) growing sector of publishing, other authors and their estates have softened. Former holdouts Tom Clancy and Danielle Steel have allowed their books to be digitized and John Grisham will reportedly do the same. Grove/Atlantic Inc., which has published William Burroughs, Samuel Beckett and Malcolm X, expects many of its older works to become available.
But you could still build a brilliant collection with the books that remain off-line. They include, most notably, the "Harry Potter" series, and countless other favorites: "Catcher in the Rye" and "Catch-22"; "Lolita" and "To Kill a Mockingbird"; "Atlas Shrugged" and "Things Fall Apart"; "The Outsiders" and "Fahrenheit 451."
No e-books are available from such living authors as Thomas Pynchon, Guenter Grass and Cynthia Ozick, or from the late Studs Terkel, Roberto Bolano and Saul Bellow. Only a handful, or less, have come out from Paul Bowles, Hunter S. Thompson and James Baldwin.
E-Books
Fox Reschedules
"Sit Down, Shut Up"
After two episodes, Fox is pulling Mitch Hurwitz's vile and unfunny animated comedy "Sit Down, Shut Up" from its post-"Simpsons" slot Sunday nights.
Starting next week, "Sit Down" will air instead at 7 p.m., a low-rated hour that's considered "primetime" only on Sundays. Repeats of "American Dad" will fill the 7:30 p.m. slot.
The remaining episodes of the final season of "King of the Hill" will ride to the rescue, filling the 8:30 slot. The rest of Fox's lineup remains unchanged.
"Sit Down, Shut Up"
'Fleeting Expletive' Rule OK
FCC
The Supreme Court ruled narrowly Tuesday in favor of a government policy that threatens broadcasters with fines over the use of even a single curse word on live television, yet stopped short of deciding whether the policy violates the Constitution.
In six separate opinions totalling 69 pages, the justices signaled serious concerns about the constitutionality of the Federal Communications Commission's "fleeting expletives" policy, but called on a federal appeals court to weigh whether it violates First Amendment guarantees of free speech.
By a 5-4 vote, however, the court did throw out a ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. That court had found in favor of a Fox Television-led challenge to the FCC policy and had returned the case to the agency for a "reasoned analysis" of its tougher line on indecency.
The nub of Tuesday's ruling was whether the FCC took a reasonable course in changing its policy and concluding that curse words referring to sex and excrement are always indecent.
FCC
Round One
Woody Allen
Woody Allen has won the latest round of his battle against clothing giant American Apparel - the judge has ruled he does not have to prove the company's advertisements are "sleazy".
The Annie Hall director filed suit against the firm last year, claiming ad bosses used his likeness on billboards without his consent, branding their campaigns "sexually gross, in a witless and infantile way".
The firm's bosses hit back by challenging Allen to back up his allegations by identifying the ads to which he referred.
But according to the New York Post, a judge at Manhattan's Federal Court in New York has overruled the demand, insisting Allen proved "he would not have voluntarily agreed to endorse" the company's products on the unauthorised posters when they were erected two years ago.
Woody Allen
Game Goes Offline
Faith Fighter
The creator of the Faith Fighter online game allowing players to stage fights involving Jesus, Mohammed and other prophets said on Tuesday it has withdrawn the game after a Muslim protest.
The game is "incendiary in its content and offensive to Muslims and Christians," a spokesman for the Jeddah-based Islamophobia Observatory of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference said.
Italian game publisher Molleindustria said on its website: "Today after an official statement from the Organisation of Islamic Conference we decided to remove the game Faith Fighter from our site."
Molleindustria said Faith Fighter was meant to be a game against intolerance that used over-the-top irony and a cartoonish style.
Faith Fighter
Hops Fence
Arlen Specter
Veteran Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania switched parties Tuesday with a suddenness that seemed to stun the Senate, a moderate's defection that pushed Democrats to within a vote of the 60 needed to overcome filibusters and enact President Barack Obama's top legislative priorities.
Specter, 79 and seeking a sixth term in 2010, conceded bluntly that his chances of winning a Pennsylvania Republican primary next year were bleak in a party grown increasingly conservative. But he cast his decision as one of principle, rather than fueled by political ambition as spurned GOP leaders alleged.
Not long after Specter met privately with Republican senators to explain his decision, the party's leader, Sen. Mitch 'The Bitch' McConnell, said, without a hint of irony, the switch posed a "threat to the country." The issue, he said, "really relates to ... whether or not in the United States of America our people want the majority party to have whatever it wants, without restraint, without a check or balance."
Specter was a Democrat until 1965, when he ran successfully on the Republican ticket for district attorney in Philadelphia.
Arlen Specter
What Global Warming?
Antarctica
An area of an Antarctic ice shelf almost the size of New York City has broken into icebergs this month after the collapse of an ice bridge widely blamed on global warming, a scientist said Tuesday.
"The northern ice front of the Wilkins Ice Shelf has become unstable and the first icebergs have been released," Angelika Humbert, glaciologist at the University of Muenster in Germany, said of European Space Agency satellite images of the shelf.
Humbert told Reuters about 700 sq km (270.3 sq mile) of ice -- bigger than Singapore or Bahrain and almost the size of New York City -- has broken off the Wilkins this month and shattered into a mass of icebergs.
The new icebergs added to 330 sq kms of ice that broke up earlier this month with the shattering of an ice bridge apparently pinning the Wilkins in place between Charcot island and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Antarctica
Fight For Survival
Britain's Squirrels
Deep in the heart of England's seemingly peaceful countryside, a fierce battle for survival is being waged between the domestic red squirrel, its tougher grey cousin -- and a new mutant arrival.
Where there were once 3.5 million red squirrels in Britain, only about 150,000 remain. About 75 percent of these live in the wild in Scotland, while most of the rest are protected in nature reserves in northern England.
Imported from the United States in 1876 to populate country estates, the greys were larger and had thicker fur than their English cousins and quickly began to dominate -- so much so that in 1930, it became illegal to release them into the wild.
The reds were less hardy than their American cousins -- they need more space and their food takes longer to ripen -- but it was the squirrel pox virus that did the most harm. Greys are immune, but it proves fatal for reds.
Britain's Squirrels
Not Kosher
Swine Flu
Swine flu? Not in the Jewish state.
"We will call it Mexico flu. We won't call it swine flu," Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman, a black-garbed Orthodox Jew, told a news conference on Monday, assuring the Israeli public that authorities were prepared to handle any cases.
Under Jewish dietary laws, pigs are considered unclean and pork is forbidden food -- although the non-kosher meat is available in some stores in Israel.
Swine Flu
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
