MPS MIXTAPE PRESERVATION SOCIETY HOUR 16

This week's podcast showcases my fascination with sampling and making mixes, specifically mash ups and compositions made from sampled content. Some of these compositions go back two decades while others were made as recently as last year. I am probably asking for it with this one, but I believe mash ups and mixes are creative endeavors unto themselves.

The first cut is a simple DJ mix of an a capella vocal track and an instrumental track. Nothing original there, but using KRS-ONE's "Stop The Violence" on top of Beastie Boys' "Groove Holmes" is something you don't hear every day.

The next mash up uses Fugazi's "Waiting Room" and Nirvana's "Scentless Apprentice". This was one of the first mash ups I ever did, and it's my favorite. That savage Dave Grohl beat is the right template upon which to layer everything else.

I have always felt that Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and The Smiths' "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" would make a good match, and they do. They are almost the same tempo and practically the same key, so it wasn't hard to pair up these two hits and see what came out.

Finally, a mash up of Modern English's "Melt With You" and R.E.M.'s "So. Central Rain" comes together nicely but not as satisfying as the others, mostly because of the different production dynamics in each song. This may have been the mash up that caused me to step back from making mash ups, as  much as I like the pairing.

The second part of the podcast concerns a sample-based EP I wanted to release but instead I have opted to just make it available on my podcast. There are too many samples to even consider clearing, and I can't remember where many of them originally come from in the first place. There's a murky concept album somewhere in there but frankly I don't need to get even more pretentious...

"Psychedelic New Year" originally started with the beat being used for another song that had guitars and bass and everything. I recorded over the guitars and but kept fragments of the bass line (only one bit of the guitar survived, right before the beat kicks in) and added all these samples on top, like a sonic nachos plate.

"Peace No More" was an attempt at a drum-and-bass beat that ended up being another sonic nachos plate, and is the only song in this cycle that actually has anything to do with the post-apocalyptic world concept I have dicked around with... It has the feel of exploring a nuked-out neighborhood struggling to retain some semblance of civility.

"Mad Drama" was probably the oldest track here, an experiment that started out with me playing the soundtrack to the movie Mad Max over a mix tape by The Alchemist. All the other samples were festooned onto it later, and it marked my first foray into doing my own turntable scratches (something I'm not that good at)...

"Fone Six" is sure to stir up some controversy or at least raise some eyebrows. I called a phone sex number one night, put the party line on speakerphone, and recorded the conversation. Then I laid it (no pun intended) over a beat I'd made and added a bunch of samples. While I was recording the conversation I almost burst out laughing listening to the girls talk-- it's obvious they were not taking their jobs seriously. You can hear me laughing on the track at various points, but most people do not listen to the actual dialogue. They are put off by the sexy moaning and groaning.

"Joy Burger" was partially recorded on my Android smart phone. It was the first time I realized the excellent microphones these phones possess; indeed, I did a lot of recording on my phone after the fact, and it inspired my decision to buy a portable hand-held recorder so that I wouldn't kill my phone battery recording interviews on the fly.

"Burnt Fuse" is the first part of a sample-based composition, the second half of which I am unable to locate at this time. It has changed a lot since I first recorded it, and this mix is by no means the final version. I think there is potential here but may have to overhaul it completely. It gets pretty chaotic in the middle, but when joined with its second part it makes a lot more sense as a piece.

Finally, we have "Sega Saturn" which has a beat looped on a Sega Saturn using the A-B function. The majority of the samples come from Sega games as well. My cousin left the console at my place and I figured out how to loop tracks on it. It has a concept unto itself: teenage gamer sitting in his room playing video games, listening to music, talking to himself, and ignoring his parents.

I end the hour with a bit from the movie Pootie Tang as a shout out to my boy Miguel, whose suggestions and advice have made MPS a possibility from the inception. Thanks for the support, Miguel, and thanks to everyone who subscribes or listens to this podcast!