Gangnix Wolfadaeus Phoeamada

September 20, 2010 11:53 AM

In the mood for some homebrew remixing? Phoenix has put the complete multitracks to their album Wolfgang Amadeux Phoenix online for your downloading pleasure, for free.

This isn't the first time an artist has made remixable samples of their own albums available to the listening public -- even as far back as '97, Haujobb included a second CD in their Matrix release that included every sample used to create the album, allowing listeners to "make their own Haujobb", free of copyright under the MACOS movement. Ninja Tune briefly had an online app where people could build their own Amon Tobin, and of course, communities like ccMixter (previously) are chock-a-block with CC licensed samples for adventurous audiologists.

posted by Shepherd (15 comments total)

god bless us, every one.
posted by Grizzlepaws at 11:56 AM on September 20, 2010

I'm having some mixed initial results -- the unzip of Lisztomania got me Beats and Bass, and then threw up an error message (Archive was compressed with an unknown compression method (Error #17535)). Some other similar stuff with the other multitrack zips. This might just be me (Mac OS X, Stuffit), but caveat downloador.
posted by Shepherd at 11:57 AM on September 20, 2010

Well, and don't forget that the multi-tracks for the last 3 Nine Inch Nails albums (and select other tracks from other projects) are available for download at remix.nin.com.

There are a LOT of these kinds of things going on, actually. Heck, even the stems for Bowie's Space Oddity were released not too long ago.

It's a fun time to like playing with music.
posted by hippybear at 12:02 PM on September 20, 2010

I'm having some mixed initial results -- the unzip of Lisztomania got me Beats and Bass, and then threw up an error message (Archive was compressed with an unknown compression method (Error #17535)).

Yeah, I got an error unzipping that, too. (Unexpected end of archive.) All I got was the bass track.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:10 PM on September 20, 2010

Another reason to love Phoenix. Those guys are all kinds of cool.

One of my favorite albums of all time, David Byrne and Brian Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts was released like this a few years ago as well. If I knew WTF to do with raw multitracks, that album would be a crazy goldmine of samples to play with...sadly, the site where these are available is unreachable for me right now (flagged as "badware"?)
posted by mcstayinskool at 12:12 PM on September 20, 2010

These are fun. In 1995 I participated in a remix competition of the Orbital track "Crash and Carry" (see ad on left side of the linked page, which predates widespread use of the internet and offers interesting download instuctions). I didn't have a proper sampler, much less modern software, and instead used some wonky sampling sound card in my home PC along with, I think, Cakewalk MIDI sequencing software.
posted by exogenous at 12:14 PM on September 20, 2010

Awesome. I'm hoping to see some Phoenix remixes pop up in MeFi Music.
posted by naju at 12:15 PM on September 20, 2010

Love this and love the title, good find.
posted by Fizz at 12:17 PM on September 20, 2010

One of my favorite albums of all time, David Byrne and Brian Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts was released like this a few years ago as well.

I don't think it was all of Bush of Ghosts, just a few tracks - the ones I have are "A Secret Life" and "Help Me Somebody." If there were more, they weren't up when I visited a few years ago.

This is neat, though. They've released "1901" and "Lisztomania" before, but I'm grabbing them all for a rainy day.
posted by mykescipark at 12:23 PM on September 20, 2010

If I knew WTF to do with raw multitracks

- Download and install Audacity (it's free!).
- File > Import > Audio.
- Invest an hour or so in zipping through the user manual. It's easier to use than you'd think!
- Repeat for multiple tracks.
- Start sliding things around, or open tracks in new windows to mess around with, then re-import.
- If the bug bites, kiss your free time goodbye...
posted by Shepherd at 12:33 PM on September 20, 2010 [2 favorites]

re: Shepherd or anyone else having difficulty extracting these: They extracted fine with Windows' built-in archive handling. However it seems they were tagged to use filesystem encryption in windows and this flag persisted in the zip, which is likely making other OSes have some trouble with it.

Unfortunately my work's upload speed is abysmal, so I can't really extract and re-up decrypted copies of all these at the moment without rendering the internet unusable for colleagues. Hopefully someone can step up (or contact the band?)
posted by pahalial at 12:45 PM on September 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

Ninja Tune briefly had an online app where people could build their own Amon Tobin

TELL ME MORE. This is the first I've heard of such potential, and searching for ninja tune remix amon tobin returns unhelpful results.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:38 PM on September 20, 2010

TELL ME MORE. This is the first I've heard of such potential, and searching for ninja tune remix amon tobin returns unhelpful results.

It was Flash, it was a few years ago, it was... brief. I looked and looked so I could link it in the post, but with no luck. Ninja Tune has redone their site at least three times since it was up. Around the Out From Out Where era, IIRC.
posted by Shepherd at 1:53 PM on September 20, 2010

Shepherd, you made my night with that link. Thank you!
posted by agregoli at 4:50 PM on September 20, 2010

This might just be me (Mac OS X, Stuffit)

Don't use Stuffit. Try the built in archive utility or The Unarchiver.
posted by Sidnicious at 6:36 AM on September 21, 2010