A real cut-up
May 26, 2009 11:54 AM   Subscribe

You've probably seen (and heard) his version of Alice in Wonderland, but have you seen The King and I, Harry Potter, The Sword in the Stone, or Mary Poppins?
posted by flatluigi (32 comments total) 49 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was impressed until I realized that the pads and percussion weren't sampled from the films.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:05 PM on May 26, 2009


That Mary Poppins clip is either the best or worst drug trip ever.
posted by The Whelk at 12:05 PM on May 26, 2009


Sys Rq: I was impressed until I realized that the pads and percussion weren't sampled from the films.

If I recall correctly, all he adds is a minimal bassline and percussion. Everything else is straight from the film.
posted by flatluigi at 12:08 PM on May 26, 2009


He put all the music up as free download (128k) on his last.fm page.
I was going to file it under "not so interesting without the visual", but then it came up on shuffle and I was surprised how good it sounded. Of course random music collage is my cup of tea so YMMV.
posted by robinhoudt at 12:13 PM on May 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


I've already seen the Alice one, but I just wanted to say these just blow me away.
posted by dunkadunc at 12:24 PM on May 26, 2009


And of course the best thing is they're all very, very illegal.
posted by dunkadunc at 12:25 PM on May 26, 2009




Great stuff, but this has been out for quite some time. I'm surprised Disney hasn't had these pulled by now.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:35 PM on May 26, 2009


Maybe if enough people post how illegal it is, and we /. the youtube page, it will go away.
posted by Chuffy at 12:44 PM on May 26, 2009


Hm. All of these disrupt my thought processes in exactly the same way the Alice one did - they make it impossible for me to focus on anything else. They are interesting pieces but I could never put these into general rotation in my library.

I feel like I should applaud this kid for managing to make something that makes a lover of Difficult Electronic/Concrete Music like me feel like an ol' grandma shaking her cane and railing at how this new-fangled JAZZ is all discordant, brain-rotting, and will be the death of civilization.

But on the other hand I also feel like this kid needs another trick in their bag; chopping the attack and decay off of samples of syrupy string chords is cool once, but by the time I listen to three or four of them I'm like, okay, I get it, you have a bunch of old movies and like the way it sounds when you butt the middle of the strings up against each other at random, now surprise me again.
posted by egypturnash at 12:58 PM on May 26, 2009


Cool.

You know what? God damn if Marry Poppins isn't a subversive film on Class Struggle cleverly disguised as a child's classic.
posted by tkchrist at 1:00 PM on May 26, 2009


Brilliant stuff. He has a short film up on the youtube account as well as a video that includes the artist in a darth vader mask.

Also, his myspace is here, and there's an extra track on there I'm digging called 'go out and love someone'.
posted by Catblack at 1:00 PM on May 26, 2009


I checked out his last.fm tracks and must say I absolutely adore the Go Out And Love Someone track.
posted by hillabeans at 1:15 PM on May 26, 2009


> chopping the attack and decay off of samples of syrupy string chords is cool once

He's building melodies and structure out of snippets of spoken and sung words, and manages to make it disorienting and catchy both at once. No mean feat.
posted by ardgedee at 1:22 PM on May 26, 2009


Here's his last.fm page, which has free downloads of his audio only.
posted by now i'm piste at 1:26 PM on May 26, 2009


It's a good thing I didn't snark at Catblack.
posted by now i'm piste at 1:29 PM on May 26, 2009


And of course the best thing is they're all very, very illegal.

Alice told me she was 18, I swear.

</Dodgson>
posted by dhartung at 1:43 PM on May 26, 2009


I posted this guy as an answer to someone's askme just last week.

I love the "Go Out and Love Someone" track, but the only video I've found for it is some fan's please-don't-leave-me-plea to his girlfriend. Blockbuster totally teased me with claiming they had the source material (a British sitcom series, Carry On, not some Audrey Hepburn movie I spent hours combing thru scripts of, looking for the phrase "helplessness is the last thing I'm looking for in a man" ), but sadly don't actually have it in stock for rent.
posted by nomisxid at 1:45 PM on May 26, 2009


To be clear, Carry On... is not a sitcom, but a series of feature films; you'd probably have better luck looking for each individual one than the full set.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:48 PM on May 26, 2009


(It also helps to go anywhere but Blockbuster.)
posted by Sys Rq at 1:49 PM on May 26, 2009


Alice is still my favourite - but overall this guy's work is so impressive.

I was discussing with a buddy about how such remixes would be made -
and while I think anyone with the right equipment and an infinite amount of time could eventually make this by methodically chopping up and sorting the soundtrack, this dude must have a preternatural sense of what bits will sound good when reduced to blips and resorted; the end product is just too good to be trial and error based.

Another example of someone with this extra sense is Aphex Twin does who does alot of chopped up/recycled stuff on the Richard D. James album. While most electronica contains it to some degree, the guys who can construct pretty much the whole song (harmonic progression and melodies - whether carried by percussion or not) by this method always blow my mind.
posted by sloe at 2:43 PM on May 26, 2009


I like the Mary Poppins remix way better than I like the actual movie.

I actually hate the movie. I always have. I remember being eight years old and wishing I could jump into the TV and tell Bert to get a g-ddamn job already. Also, every day was NOT a jolly holiday with Mary who went and told people to get *down* from the ceiling. Not very jolly if you ask me.

And yet, here I am, joining Ms. Poppins' own ranks as a nanny. I have at least once caught myself asking a child to stop doing something fun and at that moment, I want to hit myself in the face.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 3:31 PM on May 26, 2009


It's not an exact fit, but those of you who really like this would probably also like the work of Jan Jelinek: My Favorite Shop, Do Dekor, Rock In The Video Age, Modell Stadt Berlin.
posted by Ian A.T. at 3:44 PM on May 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


Huh, having watched the Mary Poppins video again I have to admit that, as long as he doesn't open his mouth, Dick Van Dyke was a very good looking man.

.


I don't know how to feel about this.
posted by The Whelk at 3:46 PM on May 26, 2009


If you sync this up with Dark Side of the Moon the universe implodes.
posted by DU at 5:16 PM on May 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


I feel like if Disney hasn't hired this guy already, they're really screwing up a good thing. They could do all KINDS of cool stuff with this. Back when I was a lass, the Disney channel used to have all kinds of random three-minute clips they'd stick in between TV shows or movies, and this work would be totally perfect to randomly show on the Disney Channel late at night during a break too long for just commercials. I can picture using this music at Grad Nites or having him do live DJ sessions at Tomorrowland Terrace, releasing a special edition DVD with never before seen videos...it doesn't take a freaking rocket scientist to think up half a dozen pretty excellent ways to monetize this guy's talent.

It's conceivable to me that he works for them already and that's why his stuff is still up on Youtube, but I doubt Disney would be that subtle.
posted by crinklebat at 10:17 PM on May 26, 2009 [1 favorite]


Does anyone else think this is the musical equivalent of saying a word or words over and over again until you can't think of anything else but how alien they sound?
posted by bettafish at 12:42 AM on May 27, 2009


It's conceivable to me that he works for them already and that's why his stuff is still up on Youtube, but I doubt Disney would be that subtle.

We were thinking the very same. It might help introduce "classics" to a new generation, which would otherwise pass on these films.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:52 AM on May 27, 2009


"Go Out and Love Someone" has been one of my favorites for some time, but I hadn't seen/heard "Expialidocious" before. Quite catchy. Thanks for the post!
posted by dilettanti at 6:29 AM on May 27, 2009


Interesting take on techno music. I could actually hear it out and not know it was from a Disney movie.
posted by Mastercheddaar at 7:25 AM on May 27, 2009


Other film-to-music conversions:

The MFF vs The Evil Dead (YouTube, age verification required.)

Addictive TV have also made a bunch.
posted by reventlov at 6:36 PM on May 27, 2009


New track: Mary's Magic
posted by flatluigi at 6:14 AM on June 11, 2009


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