Mashups? “Oh well..”, you might say. True, there´s been way too many mediocre to clueless mashups trying to fuse what simply isnt matching – beatwise, harmonically, stylistically. However, once in a while there´s some true gems. And ever since the term “mashup” came to surface around 2001, you once in a while find tracks where you just dont get how well two formerly different tracks can blend into each other. So here´s a new series on the Man Recorder: The Mash Up Classics.

I did my first mashup in 2001 and I dare to say that it soon became a hit. My blend of George Michael´s “Faith” with Missy Eliott´s “Get Your Freak On” resulted in “Yougottahavefreak” and it became one of the first tracks that put the term “Bastard Pop” on the map. Bizarrely, Erol Alkan, under his Kurtis Rush guise, had the very same idea, and put out his version on a now much sought after 12″ white label. I flabberghastedly found out about his version reading in “The Face” magazine, and decided to put it out on a hand printed CD-R in an edition of 50 (distributed by Colette in Paris). Later, Alkan dissed me for stealing his idea, but I swear until today: I made it up myself, it was an idea that was in the air and we just happened to make it the same time. My friends Alexandliane – now infamous for their music videos for bands like Bloc Party, Scissor Sisters, Armand Van Helden, Ting Tings or Deichkind – were so impressed by the mix, that they made their very first music video for my very first mashup. P.S. The video was shot in a Country + Western club in Berlin-Lichtenberg.

Watch the video here:

Download the mix here:

Yougottahavefreak (Daniel Haaksman Remix 2001)

One of the best mixtape´s of 2008 for me was undoubtedly $olal´s “Back To The Country” mix. Put together by Philippe Cohen-Solal, the brain behind Gotan Project from Paris, it presented his new love affair for country music. The mix which includes Neil Young, Johnny Cash and Switch too also features a lot of tracks from his new solo project Moonshine Sessions, which released its debut album in 2007.

BACK TO THE COUNTRY

1. Alison Krauss,   “Down to the river to pray” (Intro)
2. $olal “The Academy of Trust” (Tunng Remix)
3. Neil Young “Heart Of Gold” ($olal Edit)
4. $olal “Psycow Girls + Psycho Boys (Haaksman+Haaksman Remix)”
5. Skeewiff   “Man Of Constant Sorrow”
6. Johnny Cash “Folsom Prison Blues”  ($olal Edit)
7. The Doors “Break On Through (Dublex Inc Rmx)”
8. Blues Brother ” Rawhide    Remix”
9 Dan Teminsky   “The boy who wouldn’t hoe corn” (Alison Krauss & Union Station)
10. $olal “I Lost Him – Ben Horn Remix”
11. Donovan “Hey Gyp – DJ Hype Remix”
12. Switch    “A Bit Patchy”
13. Herve     “Foxy Lady – Switch Remix”
14. The Raconteurs  “Steady as she goes – Slave to the Sunshine Rmx”
15. $olal “Luna’s song – Robag Wruhme Remix”
16. Moby   “Go”
17. Glen Campbell  “Wichita Lineman”

Download it from here:

$OLAL – BACK TO THE COUNTRY MIX

ARTIST:KU BO
TITLE: KAGGUA/LEM LEM
CAT NR: MAN 035
DIGITAL RELEASE: DEC 14TH, 2008
VINYL RELEASE: JAN16TH, 2009

With his third 12″ release, Viennese producer Stefan Mörth moves his laboratory of futuristic Afro-Brazilian music – Ku Bo – onto another continent: Africa. Discovering the African beat science of music styles like Kuduro, Kwaito and Hi Life, Ku Bo mixes up the best sounds of various African regions on his third release.

TSHILA

Kaggua” features Ugandian singer Sarah Tshila (www.tshila.com) singing enchanted over a mad Kuduro inspired beat. In 2007, BBC world service named Tshila as one of the best 20 unsigned artists in a talent search named „The Next Big Thing“. Her contribution on „Kaggua“ proves her amazing voice talent, which fuses the rich musical and lyrical traditions of her people with the concious hip hop rhymes.

SARA WORKNEH

On the instrumental “Bush Beats” Ku Bo fuses the sonic experience of European techno with South African choirs, creating a rave compatible Afro track. “Lem Lem” features Eritrean singer Sara Workneh rhyming over a Kuduro beat that would bring every Angolan dancehall to the boil. Finally, the 2nd instrumental, „Tindão“ brings back to the Portugese speaking African realm.

The third cover illustration of the Ku Bo 12“ series is marked by green color – the tricolore of the three Ku Bo 12″ covers, bringing together the red, black and green equals the Pan-African-Flag. There’s probably no better colors to catch the sound and vibe of Ku Bo.

TRACKLIST

1 KAGGUA feat. TSHILA
2 BUSH TOOL
3 LEM LEM feat. SARA
4 TINDÃO

For the NZ TV show “Making Tracks – Taking Kiwi Music To The World”, in which artists from around the world are asked to remix/mashup music from New Zealand artists, Deize Tigrona performs Shihad´s “You Again” in a baile funk version. Heavy metal never sounded better….

Ok, so the first of a series of interesting (non-baile) Brazilian releases that you can download for your xmas/new year’s entertainment. Here we have “Charque Side of the Moon”, which is Floyd’s proto-ambient classic covered by musicians from the city of Belem in the state of Pará in Amazonia.

The “charque” refered to in the title is a type of beef jerky that is eaten but is also an affectionate name for the female genitalia, hence the charming cover.

The project was put together by Luiz Félix, guitarist and vocalist of the band La Pupuña, who basically had the idea to redo the album but with a strong “paraense” influence and the album has contributions from fifteen members of the paraense music scene. Perhaps most interestingly it has the vocal talents of Gaby Amarantos – a technobrega singer from the band Tecnoshow, on “The great gig in the sky”

“Time” also has some nice heavy percusssion from the carimbó group, Os Baioaras, and “Any colour you like” has merengue percussion, for you music anthropologists out there.

The idea of redoing “Dark Side Of The Moon” is not an original one. The has of course been “Dub side of the moon” by the Easy All Stars, but here it has a distinct Paraense flava, a sound which starting to come into its own now and is worth investigating further.

CHARQUE “MONEY”

Download the whole album here or here is a torrent (courtesy of Som Barato)