I believe in miracles
September 24, 2010 8:39 PM Subscribe
Miracles is the newest mashup by Norwegian Recycling, one of the few artists specializing in putting large numbers of samples into a single song. Others include the fantastic DJ Earworm (previously) and, of course, Girl Talk.
Wow.
When it's done like that, when you get close to but don't quite capture this multivalent, multivocal moment of all these people not knowing they're all singing and dancing in different voices and with different steps but ultimately to the same enormous overwhelming orchestrated thing they were never aware of at the time—
Well, wow.
You can't quite capture it because if you did it would become hivemindedly unbearable; whatever it is, this thing, it has to remain merely possible, safely in the realm of presque vu, unreified, glimpsed only in fragments, stuttering flashes, never seen entire. But—and yet—
posted by kipmanley at 8:57 PM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]
When it's done like that, when you get close to but don't quite capture this multivalent, multivocal moment of all these people not knowing they're all singing and dancing in different voices and with different steps but ultimately to the same enormous overwhelming orchestrated thing they were never aware of at the time—
Well, wow.
You can't quite capture it because if you did it would become hivemindedly unbearable; whatever it is, this thing, it has to remain merely possible, safely in the realm of presque vu, unreified, glimpsed only in fragments, stuttering flashes, never seen entire. But—and yet—
posted by kipmanley at 8:57 PM on September 24, 2010 [3 favorites]
Argh, I really want to like "Miracles" but instead of being more then the sum of it's parts like a mashup should be (IMO) but instead it seems to be more cloying and saccharine (can we use "aspartame" as an adjective yet?) then any of the individual songs, or an entire playlist of the individual songs. Considering the source material that's saying something, even if I really like Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy".
I think part of it for me is the production values - to be fair, they're are very polished and well done - but it's the same sort of big studio and big producer autotune'd production techniques that all of the original tracks use. The keys of the individual samples are spot on and the layering and composition is great - but as I'm trying to elaborate on it's just way too polished and too overproduced. I feel like I just poured a a five gallon bucket of corn syrup over my head and rolled in powdered confectioner's sugar.
Granted I just spent the last three days attending weirdo scumbag raver school in free workshops and conferences for Decibel Festival here in Seattle, so my ears may be a little tinny because we've been studying the software/DAW tools used to do exactly this sort of thing with digital DJ systems, Ableton Live and that sort of thing.
It's becoming mind-blowingly easy to do this kind of stuff in Ableton Live compared to just five years ago. The main barriers to producing mashups like this is now sourcing high quality samples and actually designing/inventing the production road map for the mashup.
The open-ended sampling/warping insanity of software like Ableton Live also explains why I've lately been "going back to basics" and focusing entirely on producing my own rhythm and percussion tracks from the ground up just like people used to do with hardware drum synths like the 808s and 909s, making my own very basic 2 to 4 oscillator synth patches, sticking to simple audio effects and focusing on improving my skills in writing, production and engineering techniques, rather then throwing a stolen beat loop in a beat repeat and granular synthesis delay blender and randomly tweaking knobs until I have something that sounds like interdimensional DMT aliens having kinky swinger parties. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I want to intimately know how it all works rather than relying on magic buttons.
posted by loquacious at 9:07 PM on September 24, 2010 [4 favorites]
I think part of it for me is the production values - to be fair, they're are very polished and well done - but it's the same sort of big studio and big producer autotune'd production techniques that all of the original tracks use. The keys of the individual samples are spot on and the layering and composition is great - but as I'm trying to elaborate on it's just way too polished and too overproduced. I feel like I just poured a a five gallon bucket of corn syrup over my head and rolled in powdered confectioner's sugar.
Granted I just spent the last three days attending weirdo scumbag raver school in free workshops and conferences for Decibel Festival here in Seattle, so my ears may be a little tinny because we've been studying the software/DAW tools used to do exactly this sort of thing with digital DJ systems, Ableton Live and that sort of thing.
It's becoming mind-blowingly easy to do this kind of stuff in Ableton Live compared to just five years ago. The main barriers to producing mashups like this is now sourcing high quality samples and actually designing/inventing the production road map for the mashup.
The open-ended sampling/warping insanity of software like Ableton Live also explains why I've lately been "going back to basics" and focusing entirely on producing my own rhythm and percussion tracks from the ground up just like people used to do with hardware drum synths like the 808s and 909s, making my own very basic 2 to 4 oscillator synth patches, sticking to simple audio effects and focusing on improving my skills in writing, production and engineering techniques, rather then throwing a stolen beat loop in a beat repeat and granular synthesis delay blender and randomly tweaking knobs until I have something that sounds like interdimensional DMT aliens having kinky swinger parties. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I want to intimately know how it all works rather than relying on magic buttons.
posted by loquacious at 9:07 PM on September 24, 2010 [4 favorites]
All sorts of popular musicians singing about Miracles all up in this bitch.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 9:13 PM on September 24, 2010
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 9:13 PM on September 24, 2010
Forget that comparison. This is a different animal than Earworm or Girl Talk. Less danceable, more coherent (and also just plain better). That said, I'm a bit less impressed by the other Norwegian Recycling videos I checked out on YouTube.
Also, if we're namedropping mashup artists, don't forget The Hood Internet, who more closely resemble Earworm and GT, but also manage to squeeze the most unlikely indie music samples into their mashups. I find that their Mixtape Vol. 4 makes for great treadmill music.
posted by schmod at 9:17 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
Also, if we're namedropping mashup artists, don't forget The Hood Internet, who more closely resemble Earworm and GT, but also manage to squeeze the most unlikely indie music samples into their mashups. I find that their Mixtape Vol. 4 makes for great treadmill music.
posted by schmod at 9:17 PM on September 24, 2010 [1 favorite]
Fuckin MPC60's: how do they work?
posted by Threeway Handshake at 9:25 PM on September 24, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by Threeway Handshake at 9:25 PM on September 24, 2010 [4 favorites]
"I find that their Mixtape Vol. 4 makes for great treadmill music."
.zip download link: "This file is either removed due to copyright claim or is deleted by the uploader." :[
posted by christopherious at 9:30 PM on September 24, 2010
.zip download link: "This file is either removed due to copyright claim or is deleted by the uploader." :[
posted by christopherious at 9:30 PM on September 24, 2010
This is great but could do with less Michael Jackson.
posted by cronholio at 2:20 AM on September 25, 2010
posted by cronholio at 2:20 AM on September 25, 2010
Such skill wasted on such asinine source material. If the same skills were to pit Cedar Walton's free jazz, Schostakovitch's lyricism, Tuvan throat singing and Norwegian Polka against one another, the result might be worth listening to.
Oh yes, then there's the Kleptones, of course. But you knew that.
posted by stonepharisee at 6:57 AM on September 25, 2010
Oh yes, then there's the Kleptones, of course. But you knew that.
posted by stonepharisee at 6:57 AM on September 25, 2010
It is an unbelievably tight mashup but I prefer the more raw mixing of Girl Talk or Dj Mei-Lwun
posted by geekyguy at 7:21 AM on September 25, 2010
posted by geekyguy at 7:21 AM on September 25, 2010
Damn near seamless blending. Although like the Mefites above, I was expecting a Girl Talk/Hood Internet-style mashup and was waiting for the "drop" so I could dance.
I still like this track though. Different, but good.
posted by bayani at 7:43 AM on September 25, 2010
I still like this track though. Different, but good.
posted by bayani at 7:43 AM on September 25, 2010
You can't quite capture it because if you did it would become hivemindedly unbearable
It already is unbearable. This mashup takes a bunch of individual songs with individual feels and chords and meanings and historical contexts and reduces them to one sort of trite ubersong, all the quirks fully airbrushed out.
Also, it reminded me of this.
posted by speicus at 1:58 PM on September 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
It already is unbearable. This mashup takes a bunch of individual songs with individual feels and chords and meanings and historical contexts and reduces them to one sort of trite ubersong, all the quirks fully airbrushed out.
Also, it reminded me of this.
posted by speicus at 1:58 PM on September 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
HOLY SHIT THEY ALSO COMBINED TWO OF MY LEAST FAVORITE SONGS!
I sat through the beginning of that video just to see what songs they were, and wow, that really is a combination of two really loathsome pieces of music. I wish the first song hadn't been given so much solo airtime, had to make it through like 30 seconds before I could close the video.
posted by little light-giver at 6:26 PM on September 25, 2010
I sat through the beginning of that video just to see what songs they were, and wow, that really is a combination of two really loathsome pieces of music. I wish the first song hadn't been given so much solo airtime, had to make it through like 30 seconds before I could close the video.
posted by little light-giver at 6:26 PM on September 25, 2010
The good news is the next time somebody wants to do an All-Star "We Are the World" Charity Single, it will be unnecessary to record any new material...
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:40 PM on September 25, 2010
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:40 PM on September 25, 2010
The good news is the next time somebody wants to do an All-Star "We Are the World" Charity Single, it will be unnecessary to record any new material...
For a second I misread that as an "All-Star" Charity Single, meaning a charity single of celebrities covering en masse the late-90s Smashmouth sensation. That would be amazing, especially if it was for some cheerless, extremely serious cause.
posted by Sticherbeast at 9:45 PM on September 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
For a second I misread that as an "All-Star" Charity Single, meaning a charity single of celebrities covering en masse the late-90s Smashmouth sensation. That would be amazing, especially if it was for some cheerless, extremely serious cause.
posted by Sticherbeast at 9:45 PM on September 25, 2010 [1 favorite]
My favorite oh-god-did-they-really Norwegian Recycling song will always be How Six Songs Collide, from a couple of years ago. Jason Mraz, Five For Fighting, Howie Day, and a few other carbuncles on the ass of the 2000s all within the span of 5 minutes. It's just agonizingly perfect. I'm not sure what niche it is that these guys fill, but they're good at it.
posted by ZaphodB at 12:32 AM on September 26, 2010
posted by ZaphodB at 12:32 AM on September 26, 2010
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posted by empath at 8:44 PM on September 24, 2010