Gnawledge's instrumental record Granada Doaba is done and the remix project has just barely begun, but we already got some amazing contributions...
First, a peek into the kitchen of French rapper Kaya while she practices lyrics over the Granada Doaba instrumental "Nunca Fui A Granada" [featuring Gnotes on the guitar + cajon]. Video recorded in the Albaicín (Granada, Spain)
Gnawledge - "Nunca Fui A Granada (Kaya Remix)" Download MP3
Second, we got a wicked bilingual dance track from Moses, an MC from the nuAi tribe.
Gnawledge - "Bohemia Al-Andalus (Moses Remix)" Download MP3
anyone else down for a collab?
Showing posts with label remix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label remix. Show all posts
April 13, 2009
Murs "Everyday" (Gnotes Remix)
Gnotes contributed a beat to the Murs remix contest. Always a dutiful rule-abider, Gnotes' instrumental contains no samples (as per stipulated); Gnotes plays live bass, guitar, accordion, bongos and MPC.
Murs - "Everything (Gnotes Remix)" Download MP3
James Blunt? really?
March 6, 2009
Knaan + Granada Doaba [Music Video]
music video smashup silliness to fill the time before Granada Doaba's April 21st release.
much thanks to knaan, chubb rock, carlos saura, el niño de las pinturas, sunny marley, afro dz ak, mohammad dominguez and tú también.
February 3, 2009
Bohemia Al-Andalus [Yanng Remix]
The first Granada Doaba remix is from a Spanish MC named Yanng, who sharpened his canines performing every week with a live band at the Sunday JamSessions at BoogaClub in Granada (Spain).
- Free Download: Granada Doaba - "Bohemia Al-Andalus" [Yanng Remix]
Yanng came by the Gnawledge studio with his compañero Asis (video below) and freestyled over the instrumental "Bohemia Al-Andalus." Yanng went home with the beat his brain and scribed us a Doaba anthem:
"Eso no son rumbas de feria,
es una fusión de músicas serias.
Música antigua, ahora hecha nueva."
Much respect to Yanng for breaking the seal on the Granada Doaba remix project.
Anyone else interested? We got strumentals --> doaba@gnawledge.com
January 23, 2009
Kaya - Metaform Crush Remix
The producer Metaform is working with Gnotes and Elemental Zazen on both of their upcoming albums, but this here's just a likkle bootlegd remix of his track "Crush" from Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, one of my favorite albums of 2008.
Metaform - "Crush (Kaya Remix)" Download MP3
Kaya [aka Cat Gomez] is a French MC based in Granada (Spain) who collaborated with Gnawledge on Granada Doaba. For the anglophonos in the room, she's rappin in français until 1:38 and then reboots into espangñol for the finish.
Metaform's blenditure of instrumental hip-hop and old-school funk is right up my cup o'tea alley. Support the artist.
February 3, 2005
Kill Bill soundtracks remixed
By Canyon Cody
Published in The Heights
The soundtracks to Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 were mixtape masterpieces put together by Quentin Tarantino and Wu-Tang Clan leader The Rza. The Rza was chosen to score the kung-fu epics as a result of his ethnic credibility after being officially drafted by the Asian Delegation during the Racial Draft on Chappelle's Show.
Most of the songs on the soundtracks are either covers of long forgotten originals or cult movie theme songs. Only a few of the tracks are individually remarkable, but the combination of hipster songs from every era and corner of the globe makes a fine mix.
Taking Tarantino's theme of juxtaposition a step further, a group of DJ's have released a remix mashup album called Hanzo Steel, one of the most innovative mash-ups since Danger Mouse's Grey Album.
A-Side
Billions McMillions - "Ironside Jumpoff"
When Uma Thurman, aka "The Bride" aka "Black Mamba," gets angry, whether in a knife fight in a suburban kitchen or at the hospital with a necrophiliac trucker, dizzying horns foreshadow the impending rampage. The sound effect comes from the theme song from the old TV show Ironside, composed by Quincy Jones (who, incidentally, is an alumnus of Boston's Berklee School of Music).
Tomoyasu Hotei - "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" (Nas Remix)
Nineteen seconds into this song, the beat drops so hard, it'll break your big toe. Unfortunately the cheesy 80s electric guitar solo ruins the song. Blackstone and Atari, who apparently also sensed the hair band vibe in this Japanese pop-rock song, put the vocals from "Shout" by Tears for Fears over the beat. An uncredited remix floating around the Internet featuring Nas' gritty lyrics from "Made Your Look" is a better match.
B-Side
Nancy Sinatra - "Bang Bang" (Remix)
Frank's better half sings a quiet tale of revenge that perfectly fits the Kill Bill story, with lyrics originally penned by Sonny Bono: "Bang bang, my baby shot me down." This remix pairs Sinatra's sultry voice with the hard drums and squeaky London accent of Dizzee Rascal's "Fix Up, Look Sharp" [aka "The Big Beat"].
Billions McMillions - "Missted Nerve"
Nurse Daryl Hannah whistles an eerie, gleeful tune as she heads down the hallway in the hospital towards an unconscious Uma Thurman. The whistle appears on the soundtrack to Vol. 1 as Bernard Herrmann's "Twisted Nerve," but DJ Billions McMillions throws some meat on the simple tune to make a funky treat. Instead of just mashing two songs together, Billions McMillions bakes a three-layer cake with the original whistle, the syncopated Lain hand claps from the flamenco disco track "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Santa Esmeralda (also from Vol. 1), and the bouncy beat from Missy Elliot's "Pass the Dutch."
By Canyon Cody
Published in The Heights
The soundtracks to Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 were mixtape masterpieces put together by Quentin Tarantino and Wu-Tang Clan leader The Rza. The Rza was chosen to score the kung-fu epics as a result of his ethnic credibility after being officially drafted by the Asian Delegation during the Racial Draft on Chappelle's Show.
Most of the songs on the soundtracks are either covers of long forgotten originals or cult movie theme songs. Only a few of the tracks are individually remarkable, but the combination of hipster songs from every era and corner of the globe makes a fine mix.
Taking Tarantino's theme of juxtaposition a step further, a group of DJ's have released a remix mashup album called Hanzo Steel, one of the most innovative mash-ups since Danger Mouse's Grey Album.
A-Side
Billions McMillions - "Ironside Jumpoff"
When Uma Thurman, aka "The Bride" aka "Black Mamba," gets angry, whether in a knife fight in a suburban kitchen or at the hospital with a necrophiliac trucker, dizzying horns foreshadow the impending rampage. The sound effect comes from the theme song from the old TV show Ironside, composed by Quincy Jones (who, incidentally, is an alumnus of Boston's Berklee School of Music).
Tomoyasu Hotei - "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" (Nas Remix)
Nineteen seconds into this song, the beat drops so hard, it'll break your big toe. Unfortunately the cheesy 80s electric guitar solo ruins the song. Blackstone and Atari, who apparently also sensed the hair band vibe in this Japanese pop-rock song, put the vocals from "Shout" by Tears for Fears over the beat. An uncredited remix floating around the Internet featuring Nas' gritty lyrics from "Made Your Look" is a better match.
B-Side
Nancy Sinatra - "Bang Bang" (Remix)
Frank's better half sings a quiet tale of revenge that perfectly fits the Kill Bill story, with lyrics originally penned by Sonny Bono: "Bang bang, my baby shot me down." This remix pairs Sinatra's sultry voice with the hard drums and squeaky London accent of Dizzee Rascal's "Fix Up, Look Sharp" [aka "The Big Beat"].
Billions McMillions - "Missted Nerve"
Nurse Daryl Hannah whistles an eerie, gleeful tune as she heads down the hallway in the hospital towards an unconscious Uma Thurman. The whistle appears on the soundtrack to Vol. 1 as Bernard Herrmann's "Twisted Nerve," but DJ Billions McMillions throws some meat on the simple tune to make a funky treat. Instead of just mashing two songs together, Billions McMillions bakes a three-layer cake with the original whistle, the syncopated Lain hand claps from the flamenco disco track "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Santa Esmeralda (also from Vol. 1), and the bouncy beat from Missy Elliot's "Pass the Dutch."
February 10, 2004
Beatles Sing Back-up for Jay-Z
By Canyon Cody
Published in The Heights
When John Lennon said, "Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it," clearly he failed to anticipate underground hip-hop producer DJ Danger Mouse.
Danger Mouse (DM) has taken the anarchy of musical intellectual property to a new level by remixing Jay-Z's Black Album, using nothing but samples from the Beatles' White Album, creating an impressive and entertaining new remix, The Grey Album.
When Jay-Z released the a capella version of his entire Black Album on vinyl, he seemed to be offering his tacit approval for DJs remixing his vocals onto their own beats. In just a few months, no less than six major producers have offered their own versions of Jay-Z's final album.
The remix fad began with 9th Wonder, when he remixed Nas' God's Son, layering Nas' vocals on top of his own signature fluid, old school beats. The remix project earned the unknown producer so much buzz that when Jay-Z was gathering his all-star list of producers for The Black Album, he included 9th Wonder.
At first, Danger Mouse wasn't even going to do his own remix, since he knew that so many other DJ's would be doing the same. He was busy working on other projects, including the follow-up to his stellar debut album with emcee Jemini, Ghetto Pop Life.
Then, the idea of taking samples exclusively from the Beatles' White Album dawned on him. "I did it real quick," Danger Mouse told The Heights in an interview, "because I was afraid someone else was going to have the same idea." After just two weeks and over 200 hours of studio time, Danger Mouse released his remix.
The Grey Album is awe-inspiring collage of Ringo's snare, Paul's bass, Lennon's voice, and Harrison's weeping guitar that demonstrates the delicate art of sample-based production. Some songs are immediately recognizable as looped samples, while DM rearranges some songs to an almost indecipherable effect.
"It was basically just an experiment for me, like an art project," DM said. "I'm actually surprised people like it because I really just did it for me. It was a test, like 'For this song I have two loops and that's it, so let's see what I can do with that.'"
On "What More Can I Say," when Jay-Z's first verse drops on top of a slowed down guitar riff from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," the collaboration at first catches the listener off guard. Fortunately, the quality of Danger Mouse's production eclipses the gimmick that initially piques listener's interest.
Many will listen to the album simply for the concept's novelty value, but this is no generic mash-up. On "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," DM takes "Julia," speeds it up, slices it in half and throws some meat on the beat until it's an entirely new song.
As Nick Hornby writes in Songbook, to accuse an artist like Danger Mouse of plagiarism is ridiculous: "You may as well make the same case against a writer whose book contain words that other writers have used before."
Unfortunately, copyright law does not agree. Sampling has been a rich man's game ever since Biz Markie was sued for sampling in 1991. The judge ruled that the Biz had violated "not only the Seventh Commandment, but also the copyright laws of this country."
Danger Mouse knew there was an insurmountable sample clearance issue that prevented him from releasing the album commercially and instead made the album available to friends and fans on underground hip-hop sites on the Internet. Recently, the album has even disappeared from these non-traditional venues.
Danger Mouse suggests, "Go find it on the Internet and make copies for your friends. I knew I was never going to make money off this, that wasn't why I did it."
On "Encore," DM's production reaches its most impressive point, with a looped breakbeat from "Glass Onion." Halfway through the song, DM switches the beat to a short drum-based sample from 1:08 into "Savoy Truffle."
On some songs, such as "Moment of Clarity," Danger Mouse falters and fails to create an engaging beat from the scraps of "Happiness Is A Warm Gun." Similarly, The Beatles' "Cry Baby Cry" doesn't seems to be able to keep up with Jay-Z's double-time rhyme on "My 1st Song."
The Grey Album shows what Danger Mouse and sample-based production in general is capable of, if not for the financial limitation involved in clearing samples. Most likely this sort of art will continue to flourish in the underground, below the radar of record label lawyers but just perfect for true hip-hop fans.
By Canyon Cody
Published in The Heights
When John Lennon said, "Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it," clearly he failed to anticipate underground hip-hop producer DJ Danger Mouse.
Danger Mouse (DM) has taken the anarchy of musical intellectual property to a new level by remixing Jay-Z's Black Album, using nothing but samples from the Beatles' White Album, creating an impressive and entertaining new remix, The Grey Album.
When Jay-Z released the a capella version of his entire Black Album on vinyl, he seemed to be offering his tacit approval for DJs remixing his vocals onto their own beats. In just a few months, no less than six major producers have offered their own versions of Jay-Z's final album.
The remix fad began with 9th Wonder, when he remixed Nas' God's Son, layering Nas' vocals on top of his own signature fluid, old school beats. The remix project earned the unknown producer so much buzz that when Jay-Z was gathering his all-star list of producers for The Black Album, he included 9th Wonder.
At first, Danger Mouse wasn't even going to do his own remix, since he knew that so many other DJ's would be doing the same. He was busy working on other projects, including the follow-up to his stellar debut album with emcee Jemini, Ghetto Pop Life.
Then, the idea of taking samples exclusively from the Beatles' White Album dawned on him. "I did it real quick," Danger Mouse told The Heights in an interview, "because I was afraid someone else was going to have the same idea." After just two weeks and over 200 hours of studio time, Danger Mouse released his remix.
The Grey Album is awe-inspiring collage of Ringo's snare, Paul's bass, Lennon's voice, and Harrison's weeping guitar that demonstrates the delicate art of sample-based production. Some songs are immediately recognizable as looped samples, while DM rearranges some songs to an almost indecipherable effect.
"It was basically just an experiment for me, like an art project," DM said. "I'm actually surprised people like it because I really just did it for me. It was a test, like 'For this song I have two loops and that's it, so let's see what I can do with that.'"
On "What More Can I Say," when Jay-Z's first verse drops on top of a slowed down guitar riff from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," the collaboration at first catches the listener off guard. Fortunately, the quality of Danger Mouse's production eclipses the gimmick that initially piques listener's interest.
Many will listen to the album simply for the concept's novelty value, but this is no generic mash-up. On "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," DM takes "Julia," speeds it up, slices it in half and throws some meat on the beat until it's an entirely new song.
As Nick Hornby writes in Songbook, to accuse an artist like Danger Mouse of plagiarism is ridiculous: "You may as well make the same case against a writer whose book contain words that other writers have used before."
Unfortunately, copyright law does not agree. Sampling has been a rich man's game ever since Biz Markie was sued for sampling in 1991. The judge ruled that the Biz had violated "not only the Seventh Commandment, but also the copyright laws of this country."
Danger Mouse knew there was an insurmountable sample clearance issue that prevented him from releasing the album commercially and instead made the album available to friends and fans on underground hip-hop sites on the Internet. Recently, the album has even disappeared from these non-traditional venues.
Danger Mouse suggests, "Go find it on the Internet and make copies for your friends. I knew I was never going to make money off this, that wasn't why I did it."
On "Encore," DM's production reaches its most impressive point, with a looped breakbeat from "Glass Onion." Halfway through the song, DM switches the beat to a short drum-based sample from 1:08 into "Savoy Truffle."
On some songs, such as "Moment of Clarity," Danger Mouse falters and fails to create an engaging beat from the scraps of "Happiness Is A Warm Gun." Similarly, The Beatles' "Cry Baby Cry" doesn't seems to be able to keep up with Jay-Z's double-time rhyme on "My 1st Song."
The Grey Album shows what Danger Mouse and sample-based production in general is capable of, if not for the financial limitation involved in clearing samples. Most likely this sort of art will continue to flourish in the underground, below the radar of record label lawyers but just perfect for true hip-hop fans.
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