January 29, 2002

4:13 AM

Aguilera vs the Strokes!George Michael meets Missy Elliot! Nirvana and Destiny's Child get it together! Mutant spliced mp3s: the new rock'n'roll, surely.
posted by creeky (36 comments total)

it's a london thing, mostly. this is due to the limited 7" vinyl (usually 500 or so) they never reach further than rough trade, or so jo whiley says. there is a club in brixton (i think) that plays this type of thing exclusively.
these mp3s show some nads, but pressing the tunes, distributing and selling them is in another ball park IMO. of course you will only hear them on pirate radio. recently, i heard a live bootleg mixing of michael jackson's latest (s)hit, mixed with some bronx style hip-hop, actually sounding quite good. also, 'putting and acapella ontop' is something dj's have been doing for ever. indeed, why do acapella and dub mixes appear on almost all hip-hop 12"s?
before anyone rushes to the defence of the 'ripped-off' artists, if 500 sales makes a difference to them, i am a banana.
posted by asok at 4:54 AM on January 29, 2002

There are more of these bootlegs available here. 'Sugababes vs Richard' X is pretty fantastic.
posted by jonathanbell at 5:13 AM on January 29, 2002

There are quite an unbelievable number of samples on the Osymyso - Introspection tune (#2), many of which -- Cure, Pet Shop Boys, Lou Reed (or is that a Tribe Called Quest?), Beech Boys, New Order, Kinks, Doors, etc. -- are not mentioned on that already lengthy list.

I'm not sure how I feel about this yet, but it's certainly interesting.
posted by fidelity at 5:41 AM on January 29, 2002

The Beech Boys are certainly not to be confused with the Beach Boys, by the way.
posted by fidelity at 5:45 AM on January 29, 2002

Awesome post. I found a 30 minute osymyso set on napster at random, and havent ever laughed so hard in my life. This is great, finding out that theres *more* of this stuff. Ohhh man.

*puts bit meddler's shitmix 2000 on the headphones*
posted by atom128 at 5:56 AM on January 29, 2002

Bloody great :o))))))
posted by MintSauce at 6:10 AM on January 29, 2002

Yeah, this stuff is fantastic - I found this site a couple of weeks ago. "A Stroke of Genius" - the Strokes/Aguilera piece - is bastardized wonderfulness.
posted by Marquis at 6:17 AM on January 29, 2002

this is cool.
posted by juv3nal at 7:35 AM on January 29, 2002

jonathonbell - i must agree with you on that one. it is available on green 7" vinyl via the 'girls on top' label, should you wish to hear the full length version.
fantastic tunes on the linked site, my favourite must be nelly vs. grange hill theme.
posted by asok at 7:46 AM on January 29, 2002

I think the novelty effect wears off pretty soon, but it's a concept that is going to leave its mark and probably result in some longer-lasting music as it develops. Artists can no longer expect to have any rights to their music after it's been released.

Also wait and watch for major labels producing their own 'fake' bootlegs, maybe linking up two of their own artists and selling the result to both markets, thereby instantly doubling their money.
posted by kerplunk at 8:01 AM on January 29, 2002

It's an interesting phenomenon - the logical result of mixing cheap and cheerful home recording technology with mp3 distribution. Thanks asok - green vinyl! (my favourite) I'll look out for it if next time I'm in Rough Trade.
posted by jonathanbell at 8:10 AM on January 29, 2002

DJs On Strike - audio terrorism featuring outkast, destiny's child, pink, nelly, nsync, and frank sinatra. all tied together with that universally unifying theme: BOOTY.
posted by afx114 at 8:30 AM on January 29, 2002

These songs remind me of Z-trip's & DJ P's Uneasy Listening Volume 1 Mixtape. This 73 minute cd is amazing - I listen to it at least once a day. Z-Trip and DJ P forge the unlikeliest of sources into seamless combos, including a layering of Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" with Run-D.M.C.'s "It's Like That", and the Pharcyde's Runnin' with some Pat Benetar song...... the name escapes me.

You need this. Look on your favorite filesharing service, there are bound to be copies. If you still cant find a copy, check out this site. Charles will burn you a copy for a small donation ($1-2)
posted by ewwgene at 8:33 AM on January 29, 2002

Great link, Creeky! Last night I was listening to a friend's copy of This Isn't It by Diff'rent Strokes. Sort of like Strokes covers that you'd hear as background music in the supermarket in 10 years or so. That was bizarre enough, but this is crazy...

I'm digging out my copy of ACID tonight to see what I can cook up. I'm sure I can do better with the Grange Hill theme.
posted by dlewis at 8:38 AM on January 29, 2002

Amon Tobin did a set on dublab last year, and the first song he did was a Public Enemy vocals track (didn't recognize it, but it was definitely "Bring tha Noize" era) over Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass. Sheer genius.

The songs on this list are a little better than others I've heard, which are usually just familiar rock songs minus vocals with other vocals tacked on top.

BTW, does anyone know how these "bootleggers" strip the vocal track out of a song?
posted by sauril at 8:47 AM on January 29, 2002

BTW, does anyone know how these "bootleggers" strip the vocal track out of a song?

A lot of top40 tracks release acapella versions of the tracks as the b-sides to singles, mostly to be used by DJs in clubs for live mixes. Just search for "Acapella" on your favorite file-sharing network and you'll be suprised what's available.
posted by afx114 at 8:50 AM on January 29, 2002

more dj z-trip stuff over here - cheese, but the guy knows how to get the party started...

saurii a lot of dance music is released with acapella tracks included (theres an online trading scene out there if you where to look) + with a lot of tunes you can eq the backing music right out
posted by sawks at 8:59 AM on January 29, 2002

thanks afx.
posted by sauril at 9:04 AM on January 29, 2002

Using the same phase-comparison algorithms as a Dolby Pro-Logic decoder you can isolate the voice from the centre and then a bit of filtering will remove any instruments left as long as they aren't in the same frequency range as the human voice. A lot just rely on filtering though...
posted by kerplunk at 9:21 AM on January 29, 2002

alright then, story time:
in 1992 someone was enjoying the hyper-real sensations of the drug lysergic-acid diethylamide whilst djing at home (were both his and his father's record collections were) with a bunch of mates. someone, very impressed with his skills, proclaimed
-'i bet you could mix anything with anything!'
taking his que from this statement he popped in a tape and started recording. the result was - amazing; sex pistols vs acid house, bob marley vs break beat etc. for 90 minutes.
the tape is a classic and has remained a favourite since i managed to get hold of one.
the dj is now working as support to a rock band, having skills not being a sure-fire route to stardom. maximum respect to dj 'irish' adam.
posted by asok at 10:41 AM on January 29, 2002

i will be heading to london in late february.
anybody got any leads about clubs that spin bootleg on a regular or exclusive basis? recorded is one thing, live would be something unbelieveable.
posted by grabbingsand at 10:49 AM on January 29, 2002

They play lots of this stuff on xfm in London too, especliaay on their Remix show (at the weekends). Much cool.
posted by nedrichards at 10:53 AM on January 29, 2002

after this i really am going to shut up.

grabbing sand, a quick google uk search threw this up:

What: Electrik Pop
Where: Pop, 14 Soho Street
When: Wednesday, 9pm – 3am.
Contact: [e-mail]
Cash: £3/ £5
Vibe: Residents Adam Phillips, Robin 12 Trees and Sarah Bolshi fry your feet, burn your boots to the best in dubbed out disco and bootleg beats.

i imagine there are plenty, though where's best i couldn't say. i reccomend 333 old street, west london, for a good night out.

does anyone know if the 'source featuring candi staton - you got the love' was the first example of a major label ripping of a bootleg tune? (as suggested by kerplunk).
as far as i know the tune came about when a someone got hold of the 'you got the love' acapella before it was released and put it over the seminal 'your love' by jamie principal. it was a BIG TUNE in ibiza 1990.
the following year the official 'the source feat. c. staton' version was released.
posted by asok at 11:02 AM on January 29, 2002

A record lable (planet mu I think....) released some gabba versions of Christana Aguilera and Eminem last year and they were great, I've no idea what they were called though, but they were very funny and well produced.

If you're in London and you like this bastard pop/hop music, tune in to XFM (radio) for either the remix (James Hyman and Eddie Temple Morris) or X-Posure (John Kennedy) because this type of crops up on every now and again on their play list. Last night, I'm pretty sure I heard John Kennedy saying that Osymyso is relasing Introspection parts 1 and 2 in mid-March.

There's an interview with that Osymyso man available here and a specially composed musical response to the questions available here. (sorry, windows media only).
posted by davehat at 11:07 AM on January 29, 2002

Look what happens when you take your time composing..... nice to see other people enjoy this stuff too...
posted by davehat at 11:10 AM on January 29, 2002

A record lable (planet mu I think....) released some gabba versions of Christana Aguilera and Eminem last year and they were great, I've no idea what they were called though, but they were very funny and well produced.

This release was from Planet-mu, titled u All-Stars - Criminal and contained remixes of MC Hammer, Aguilera, Eminem, Queen, and Cylob by established electronic artists under various aliases (Luke Vibert = Butler Kiev, Rude Ass Tinker = Tusken Raiders = u-Ziq, Leafcutter John = Taut French Joel). There are rumors of a repress and/or volume 2 sometime 2002.
posted by afx114 at 11:55 AM on January 29, 2002

Funny, most of the tracks on the recent Solid Steel album reflect this: DJ Vadim's "The Terrorist" over Mr. Scruff's "Ug"; Jeru Tha Damaja's "Come Clean" over Cinematic Orchestra's "Channel One Suite"; The Beat's "Mirror in the Bathroom" over Mask's "Square Off"; and more. Must be a London thing, indeed. The archive of show's BBC London broadcasts are on Groovetech for the interested.
posted by teradome at 3:04 PM on January 29, 2002

bit meddler's shitmix 2000. wow.
kriss kross, vanilla ice, milli vanilli, technotronic,
maybe some mc hammer.

and he makes it sound good. wow.
posted by juv3nal at 3:04 PM on January 29, 2002

anyone been or going to any of those events advertised on the boomselector site -
i also picked up this one from www.haddock.org that i might pop along to, hellraiser and Osymyso are playing there - ohh myyyyyyyy! :-D
posted by monkeyJuice at 3:11 PM on January 29, 2002

Great link. And yes, fidelity, that is definitely A Tribe Called Quest.
posted by krakedhalo at 3:35 PM on January 29, 2002

I stumbled across a Beck vs. AC/DC track that finally unites "Mixed Business" with "Highway to Hell". BoingBoing linked it last week even though it's been on my Musica section since November (far right column).

If this breaks some sort of MeFi rule about linking to one's own site, please feel free to delete my post, but it is as on-topic as you can get.

(I'd link the track directly but I change the mp3 filenames monthly as per my hosts wishes)
posted by tsarfan at 5:01 PM on January 29, 2002

teradome: I have been listening to that mix almost constantly since I bought it (I bought it once I realised I couldn't listen to drukqs every minute of every day foreverwithout going a little mental); its fantastic, right up there with one of my favourite dj mixes of all time, 70 minutes of music madness by Coldcut (JDJ).

Incidentaly, possibly the best mix I ever heard was an very early Sasha mix from 1991/2. Somehow Whitney Huston's 'I want to dance with somebody' and Leftfield's 'Not Forgotten' fit together like....like....like two things that fit together really well and sound good. If I ever track an mp3 of that down, I know a lot of people who will be very happy.......
posted by davehat at 4:10 PM on January 30, 2002

Went to poke around in the previous 'bootleg' thread and discovered that the www.thedr.freeserve.co.uk server had been shut down (explanation here).

Does anyone have (or know where to get) the "Osymyso-Introspection" mp3 that everyone is raving about?

Much obliged.
posted by mapalm at 9:36 AM on February 1, 2002

mapalm: its on audio galaxy as of 0320PST on the 2nd feb.
posted by davehat at 3:23 AM on February 2, 2002

Thanks, davehat...I use a Mac, tho, so audiogalaxy isn't an option for me...
posted by mapalm at 8:15 AM on February 2, 2002

I use a Mac, tho, so audiogalaxy isn't an option for me...

Sure it is.
posted by kindall at 9:55 AM on February 2, 2002