5 ms·

I know what you mean about The Prodigy video (and even more so the Daft Punk sample source ones), it’s a bit disappointing to learn a track is almost entirely s

I know what you mean about The Prodigy video (and even more so the Daft Punk sample source ones), it’s a bit disappointing to learn a track is almost entirely samples, but I think there is also a real art to picking those samples. If you’ve not been on it before check out whosampled.com and prepare to lose some time, lol. I have to say I’m more impressed by artists who’s music is largely sample based but they twist them into entirely new forms (eg DJ Shadow and Future Sound of London) than just lifting a few loops wholesale though!

tptacek 4y ago
I've been in a 90s hip hop rut for the past couple years and I'm pulling myself out of it by making playlists of the original songs getting sampled (one great thing about good hip hop is that any given song or pair of songs tends to produce a pretty excellent playlist), and one thing I've discovered is that RJD2, a musician I was into in the mid-aughts during an instrumental hip hop phase, puts essentially zero effort into things; the best example I can think of there is "Bless The Telephone", which he "covered" from Labi Siffre in the funniest possible way. Finding stuff like that will definitely give you a new appreciation for DJ Shadow (both, for what it's worth, were excellent live). Also Labi Siffre: very good stuff.
- specialist 4y ago
  Fun. In case you didn't know: KEXP occasionally does breakdowns. Here they played every song sampled on Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique. https://www.kexp.org/breakdown/paulsboutique/ https://www.kexp.org/breakdown/paulsboutique/
  - tptacek 4y ago
    Not my favorite band (they're fine), but I'll say that from Paul's Boutique through Hello Nasty, they're by far the best to generate playlists from.
- crtasm 4y ago
  Let's not dismiss RJD2's studio efforts entirely, he made Ghostwriter: https://parallaxatives.blogspot.com/2011/06/sample-spotting-rjd2s-ghostwriter.html https://parallaxatives.blogspot.com/2011/06/sample-spotting-... and the whole of that first album, Deadringer, is great.
  - tptacek 4y ago
    Deadringer's how I got into him. And I still like a lot of it! And I saw him at Abbey Pub and it was a fantastic show. But also: his cover of "Bless The Telephone" is just him playing a recording of "Bless The Telephone". :)
    - crtasm 4y ago
      Glad you've been able to catch him live! Oh, I only found this which is an actual cover - did he put the original on one of his releases too? https://www.whosampled.com/cover/5048/RJD2-Making-Days-Longer-Labi-Siffre-Bless-the-Telephone/ https://www.whosampled.com/cover/5048/RJD2-Making-Days-Longe...
  - SamPatt 4y ago
    Ghostwriter has always been one of my favorite songs.
comprev 4y ago
DJ Shadow's Entroducing [0] is an amazing body of work if you think about the effort required to crate dig for all the samples. Truly mind boggling! [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endtroducing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endtroducing.....
- zero_one 4y ago
  Entroducing is one of the albums that got me into music production as a hobby. But to put some shine on some other great samplers while we're at it, The Avalanches' Since I Left You is also fantastic is comprised of around 3500 samples.
- 8bitsrule 4y ago
  On top of the effort, the infinite patience, it's also one of the most amazingly musical things ever put together with electronics (one box!) Shadow stands in a class of one.
Rodeoclash 4y ago
I'm a huge FSOL fan and I think what they did with sampling to produce albums like ISDN was ground breaking stuff. Daft Punk not so much. Rather than composing the samples together they use the entire sample as the hook. Maaaybe they might speed it up a bit but that's usually it.
- tomduncalf 4y ago
  I definitely agree, but can’t argue with the end results that Daft Punk come up with (they’re not really my kind of genre but I don’t think you can argue they make great songs) and there aren’t that many artists out there making such catchy and successful sample based songs, so they definitely still have some skills which are quite unique (but maybe it’s more like deep music knowledge and recognising catchy hooks, than surgically splicing samples together)
hirvi74 4y ago
Have you ever heard the album, "Since I Left You" by The Avalanches? The whole album is nothing but a medley, and it's one of my favorite albums of all time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBjuX1Gs5hU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBjuX1Gs5hU
- tomduncalf 4y ago
  Yes, really great album! I’ve not listened to it for years so thanks for the reminder
sk5t 4y ago
For a journey into amazing music assembled from samples, have a listen to Amon Tobin.
- tomduncalf 4y ago
  I didn’t realise his stuff was all sample based. I’ve heard some of it and saw him live once, it’s a bit “frenetic” for me (I’m drawn to smoother more hypnotic stuff in general) but definitely cool!
  - sk5t 4y ago
    I guess it depends which era/album you happen to catch; Long Stories (2019) is pretty chilled out, and the Chaos Theory soundtrack is somewhere in the middle.

tptacek 4y ago

I've been in a 90s hip hop rut for the past couple years and I'm pulling myself out of it by making playlists of the original songs getting sampled (one great thing about good hip hop is that any given song or pair of songs tends to produce a pretty excellent playlist), and one thing I've discovered is that RJD2, a musician I was into in the mid-aughts during an instrumental hip hop phase, puts essentially zero effort into things; the best example I can think of there is "Bless The Telephone", which he "covered" from Labi Siffre in the funniest possible way. Finding stuff like that will definitely give you a new appreciation for DJ Shadow (both, for what it's worth, were excellent live). Also Labi Siffre: very good stuff.

specialist 4y ago
Fun. In case you didn't know: KEXP occasionally does breakdowns. Here they played every song sampled on Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique. https://www.kexp.org/breakdown/paulsboutique/ https://www.kexp.org/breakdown/paulsboutique/
- tptacek 4y ago
  Not my favorite band (they're fine), but I'll say that from Paul's Boutique through Hello Nasty, they're by far the best to generate playlists from.
crtasm 4y ago
Let's not dismiss RJD2's studio efforts entirely, he made Ghostwriter: https://parallaxatives.blogspot.com/2011/06/sample-spotting-rjd2s-ghostwriter.html https://parallaxatives.blogspot.com/2011/06/sample-spotting-... and the whole of that first album, Deadringer, is great.
- tptacek 4y ago
  Deadringer's how I got into him. And I still like a lot of it! And I saw him at Abbey Pub and it was a fantastic show. But also: his cover of "Bless The Telephone" is just him playing a recording of "Bless The Telephone". :)
  - crtasm 4y ago
    Glad you've been able to catch him live! Oh, I only found this which is an actual cover - did he put the original on one of his releases too? https://www.whosampled.com/cover/5048/RJD2-Making-Days-Longer-Labi-Siffre-Bless-the-Telephone/ https://www.whosampled.com/cover/5048/RJD2-Making-Days-Longe...
- SamPatt 4y ago
  Ghostwriter has always been one of my favorite songs.

comprev 4y ago

DJ Shadow's Entroducing [0] is an amazing body of work if you think about the effort required to crate dig for all the samples. Truly mind boggling! [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endtroducing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endtroducing.....

zero_one 4y ago
Entroducing is one of the albums that got me into music production as a hobby. But to put some shine on some other great samplers while we're at it, The Avalanches' Since I Left You is also fantastic is comprised of around 3500 samples.
8bitsrule 4y ago
On top of the effort, the infinite patience, it's also one of the most amazingly musical things ever put together with electronics (one box!) Shadow stands in a class of one.

Rodeoclash 4y ago

I'm a huge FSOL fan and I think what they did with sampling to produce albums like ISDN was ground breaking stuff. Daft Punk not so much. Rather than composing the samples together they use the entire sample as the hook. Maaaybe they might speed it up a bit but that's usually it.

tomduncalf 4y ago
I definitely agree, but can’t argue with the end results that Daft Punk come up with (they’re not really my kind of genre but I don’t think you can argue they make great songs) and there aren’t that many artists out there making such catchy and successful sample based songs, so they definitely still have some skills which are quite unique (but maybe it’s more like deep music knowledge and recognising catchy hooks, than surgically splicing samples together)

hirvi74 4y ago

Have you ever heard the album, "Since I Left You" by The Avalanches? The whole album is nothing but a medley, and it's one of my favorite albums of all time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBjuX1Gs5hU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBjuX1Gs5hU

tomduncalf 4y ago
Yes, really great album! I’ve not listened to it for years so thanks for the reminder

sk5t 4y ago

For a journey into amazing music assembled from samples, have a listen to Amon Tobin.

tomduncalf 4y ago
I didn’t realise his stuff was all sample based. I’ve heard some of it and saw him live once, it’s a bit “frenetic” for me (I’m drawn to smoother more hypnotic stuff in general) but definitely cool!
- sk5t 4y ago
  I guess it depends which era/album you happen to catch; Long Stories (2019) is pretty chilled out, and the Chaos Theory soundtrack is somewhere in the middle.