So I took part in the Crate Digger Deathmatch on saturday. In a nutshell, it’s a competition wherein 12 producers can each spend $12 on thrift store sound sources (records, toys, whatever) and then have 12 hours to create an album. There were three additional limitations: one sound source had to be from the 80s, there had to be either a backwards sample or circuit bent machinery used, and the album had to include either a dance track or a country song.
I was a bit worried about finding decent material, especially once I got to Value Village and discovered the LPs cost $2 (they used to be $1!). Also, you gotta have some breaks, if only to pull clean drum sounds. But as it turned out, there was gold in them hills.
The biggest score is that “Popular Music That Will Live Forever” box set, which was $4 for 10 glorious albums, including “film music”, “marches”, and “music for relaxation”, all of which got some play on my album. The New Kids on the Block CD gave forth its bounty of mediocre 80s drum machine breaks, but a few effects fattened them up okay. I grabbed a country compilation to see if I could pull off a country tune. I was pleased to find the Danny Kaye Fairy Tales disc – it wound up providing the glue, if you will, to hold the whole affair together: every track in my entry features a sample from a different fairy tale, and those samples have at least a tenuous relationship with the music.
Lastly, the James Last album was a blast. (I sincerely apologize for that sentence.) I had never heard of him, but the sleeve displayed dozens of albums by the man, all called “Non Stop Dancing”, “Super Non Stop Dancing” etc. Wikipedia is indeed correct when it states that his albums feature “brief renditions of popular songs, all tied together by an insistent dance beat and joyous crowd noises”. It’s the album I used the least, but it still kinda cracked me up. Plus, sweet cover.
I think it went pretty well. The country comp was the biggest surprise, both because the record in the sleeve wasn’t the same as the sleeve (but was luckily still a country comp), and because I managed to use quite a bit of it. In general, I tried to take the rules more to heart than necessary and blend in both 80s and country textures wherever possible.
Because of the time limitation, the tracks aren’t well mixed and could probably use a few more layers and changeups. Thing is, just playing through the records and sorting the samples takes a few hours out of the day, and I figured I’d be better off spending time on the composition phase than on the fine tuning and mixing. But judge for your own self.
True Tales (25MB zip archive)
Here are some liner notes FWIW. I don’t mean them to ‘explain’ the songs, and I hope you wouldn’t believe me if I did anyways, as listening to what artists say about their work is a fool’s game. But I thought it would be interesting to talk a little about the samples used.
1. Intro – had to set up the fairy tale motif. Assorted loops in the background, ending with a flourish of NKotB.
2. Texas Is Probably Pretty Hot – this is the one I selected as a single, and it’s also the country track. I get the biggest kick out of the little synchronicities of loop-based composition, and here a James Last party track matched up perfectly with the country sample – it only comes in at the end, the horn blasts. In the bridge, I managed to blend a bit of mambo from the “music for relaxation” disc with the country song. Another rewarding synchronicity.
The Kaye bite is from “Ugly Duckling”. There’s a brief bit in the tale about some wild birds who don’t give a shit about how the duck looks, but soon after they’re introduced they’re killed off. They seemed kinda like cowboy types to me.
3. The Princess – another country sample is the base upon which a melancholy, vaguely 80s track emerges. Again, a Last horn sample makes its way in toward the end. I was happy with how “The Princess and the Pea” synched with the vocal sample, making this the song of a failed princess maybe? Overall this reminds me of “Sometimes I Rhyme Fast” by Nice n Smooth. Wish I coulda laid some of their raps over it.
4. Taking Candy from a Baby – main sample is the theme from Exodus which I see now has been widely sampled. I hadn’t seen the film and had never heard the theme before, oddly enough. YAN country sample managed to fit in nicely and give the track a real spaghetti western feel. A country vocal sample gives the track its name and jived with the fairy tale’s motif of personal gain coming at a cost.
5. The Truth – the fairy tale is called “Absolutely True”, and I wasn’t familiar with it, but it’s basically about broken telephone. The hen’s original statement is progressively garbled by retellings until she herself doesn’t recognize it when it comes back to her. I figured that this would be the place to deploy reverse messages, and that plus the “story like this cannot be hushed up” and the main musical sample (theme from Laura give the track a sorta international conspiracy flavour.
6. The Fire – what a sad tale “The Tin Soldier” is. Anyway this started when I saw “Oh Canada” on the marches disc and thought it might be fun to mangle. Which it was, and the national anthem and soldier story just went together. If I had time I would fix the mix on this one and flesh it out a bit more.
This was a lot of work but also fun and as a result I wound up with more ‘finished’ tracks than I’d made in a year. Can’t wait to hear everyone else’s. Also, I normally only metaphorically crate-dig, on the internets, so it was a great pleasure doing it literally, actually feeling the albums, reading the sleeves, smelling the dust and awesomeness. I felt like I connected with some of my musical role models. I’m thinking about making a habit of it.
See here for links to all the other producers’ sites. Hipster Please would also be a good place to look for more news on the competition and the inevitable results.
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Dude, you totally killed it!
This album is fucking great!
Love the orchestral cuts and those beats. Very ecclectic and highly relistenable. S.E. ftw!
— Doctor Popular Jan 7, 08:41 PM #
Thanks man. Not only is your album great, the whole event is a frigging masterpiece.
Why am I saying frig on my own site? Cock. Balls. Motherfucker.
— D Jan 7, 10:12 PM #
value village is the holt renfrew of charity shops mon ami.next time try out the goodwill at 345 bloor east.albums till priced at a buck an’ under. bonne chance!
— Jacques Derriere Jan 8, 02:20 PM #
Ah Jacques – is that one good? I heard it was pretty small. Anyway I’d love to head out with you one time when you’re going digging.
— D Jan 8, 04:07 PM #
Damn, if you don’t win the judges vote thin this is a sham. You’re album is dope as hell. This is better than an album most peeps make in 12 months.
I’m actually amazed how great this is. You mixed so much different shit together flawlessly.
Peace
You got my vote
— D-Form Jan 11, 02:37 AM #
Thanks D-Form – appreciate the appreciatin’ and it means a lot coming from a fellow participant. Your album is awesome, some really great beats on there. I’ve been jamming it and Doctor Popular’s album on my iPod every day.
— D Jan 11, 12:53 PM #
Snake Eyes,
So true! if you don’t win, this whole thing is a rigged. The peeps with all those votes probably have my space pages and 2000 facebook friends that they asked to vote for their song.
Not to say their music isn’t really good but your album is by far the best. Good Luck!
— juice Jan 11, 01:21 PM #
The online vote is only 1/5 the overall weighting, the rest is judges. That shit doesn’t matter to me anyway – at this point I’ve already gotten so much out of taking part in this thing, I’m all set.
— D Jan 12, 02:48 AM #
I too loved my album; was my #1 as a judge but you have to go with the consensus – if I’d had my evil dictatorial way, it would’ve won!
Can I play tracks from this on my podcast? :-D
— tim from Radio Clash Jan 25, 06:18 AM #
Tim, you sure can! I’ll email ya too in case you’re not watching this thread..
— D Jan 25, 12:10 PM #
Bitchin cuts bro. Love the James Last, I actually have about 6 Last albums on wax… my folks used to rock out to him in the old days. Respect!!
— P-ron Jan 26, 03:14 PM #