The Power of Mashups and Mixtapes

In 2004, Danger Mouse (real name: Brian Burton) released The Grey Album, which took the burgeoning mashup culture to a logical extreme. A mashup is a track comprised of two or more songs, which are seamlessly blended together. The most common trick is to take a vocal from one song and lay it over the instrumental backing of another. Mashups reached considerable popularity in the early 2000s, with artists such as 2 Many DJs seizing on easy-to-use audio editing tools (Wavelab, Soundforge) to bring their bastardized creations to life. The proliferation of free MP3 files available through Napster and elsewhere, coupled with the rise of broadband Internet speeds, suddenly led to a glut of amateur mashups all over the web.

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Hell - Teufelswerk: Album Review

If music is supposed to reflect the times we live in, DJ Hell hasn’t been paying much attention to the cataclysmic events triggered by the global economic crisis. Teufelswerk (German for “Devil’s Work”) is an ambitious collection of luxuriant techno that oozes opulence. Hell runs in direct contrast to the scrimp-and-save dictum that governs most people’s actions in times of hardship. Instead, he has made an album that reeks of money, with high-end production values and guest appearances from Bryan Ferry and P. Diddy. If Hell is aware of our impending meltdown, he appears to be working under the tacit understanding that such times require a piece of art that can free us from all our worries.

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Jeremiah Zagar: Interview

Jeremiah Zagar is a filmmaker with an infectious passion and commitment to his craft. His documentary, In a Dream, was shot over a seven-year period and is culled from 300 hours of footage. The film is based around the relationship between Zagar’s father, Isaiah, and his mother, Julia. Isaiah’s work will be instantly familiar to anyone who has spent time in Philadelphia. His beautiful mosaics are sprawled across numerous buildings in the city, making him one of the greatest American folk artists of his generation. In a Dream brings Isaiah’s work to life in bright, vivid color. But it also affords him room to ruminate on his personal life, sparking a number of revelations that provide genuine insight into his character. I spoke to Jeremiah about the film in Brooklyn.

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Women - Women: Album Review

The four men who make up Women know a thing or two about confined spaces. This debut album by the band, which clocks in at just 30 minutes, is so densely packed with sound that it feels like their songs are pushing down hard on your skull. The arid air that filters through Women is in marked contrast to the band’s origins in the foothills and wide-open spaces of their native Calgary. The band members appear to have balked at these surroundings, taking a deliberately contrary step by forcing their music into a tightly compressed corner.

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The Vaselines - Enter the Vaselines: Album Review

I was apprehensive about seeing The Vaselines when they passed through New York last year on a brief reunion tour. The thought of Frances McKee and Eugene Kelly bringing their filthy, funny and endearing songs to the stage more than 20 years after they were conceived, seemed to run in marked contrast to the youthful nature of the original material. My fears proved unfounded; seeing Kelly singing “It’ll take three to satisfy me/ 'Cause I’m more of a man than you’ll ever be” (from “Rory Rides Me Raw”) was riotously entertaining. Further sharp witticisms and ribald jokes flowed between songs, with both members effortlessly tapping into everything that made this band great in the first place.

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The Horrors - Primary Colours: Album Review

I come from the same small town as the Horrors. It’s a rundown seaside outpost in the south east of England, full of petty violence and hatred. The kind of place that will suck all the dreams out of you unless you find a way to escape. Morrissey’s “Everyday Is Like Sunday” video was shot there, and never has there been a more grimly appropriate interface between song and location. The Horrors are a band whose initial departure from such confines was met with a mixture of bewilderment, adoration and derision. Their debut album, Strange House, was a poorly received attempt at assimilating their ‘60s psych and goth influences, causing them to be swiftly dropped by their label, Loog Records.

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The Future of Music Writing

Last week, a group of British music critics united on Twitter to discuss the pertinence of their work in an age when their jobs may be sliding into irrelevancy. An unquantifiable, but abundant portion of recorded music is now available to stream or download online, often for free. The days of turning up at a record store and basing purchases on a shaky premise (the name of a producer, or a reliable record label) are over, and have been for quite some time. During the Twitter debate, former Melody Maker scribe Everett True asked: “In the babble of voices that is web 2.0, how is one more voice - however well-informed and succinctly argued - going to stand out?”

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