New Videos I have made, timelapses from Icelandic volcanoes and a long ambient video from Antarctica

I do not think I will be making any mashups soon  again. I have been busy though with some video.

From my sailing trip to Antarctica in 2012 I made a video with very long shots and using Brian Eno's entire Apollo soundtrack as ambient music background. It is a slow video, take your time to view this.





Recently I got interested in an Icelandic volcano, the Bardarbunga that started to erupt in view of some webcams. I started making screenshots from this and got the idea to make timelapse videos, some of those with music. Here a few:

With music from the video game Mass Effect, 'Vigil' by Jack Wall and Sam Hulick and the track 'Sudden Throw' by Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds.






The first one I made with music,the songs Fyrsta and Only The Winds by Ólafur Arnalds





And a few others without sound:

Gybo closes and a sideblog

A little while ago I received the message that primary mashupforum GYBO (Get Your Bootleg On) is closing due to pressure from copyright enforcing regulations.

GYBo was one of the first sites that dealt with mashups and more than one noteable mashup had it's origins on this board. But it was more than just a music site. A remarkable group of people from all over the world gathered here and shared their ideas, helped each other with their musical struggles and were discussing everything you could think about with an open mind and it hardly ever ended in shouting contests.

GYBO has been and will remain a special piece in my heart and it will be missed.

A heartfelt thank you for the good times provided.


On some other news.

Probably you have noticed I haven't been making mashups in quite a while.

The reason for this is that I had made a journey to Antarctica in February, on a sailing ship, the Bark Europa. I have finally finished editing and sorting out the thousands of photos and just opened a blog for this.

Here's the location: Antarctic blue

The Wolf And The Ripper (Fever Ray vs Nick Cave)

It's been almost a year since I made a mashup.
Here's finally a new one.
It's based on the brilliant dark brooding new track from Fever Ray and the always dark and menacing Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds.

The Wolf & The Ripper:

Fever Ray - The Wolf
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Jack The Ripper

The Rocking Cumbia Machine (Kraftwerk, El Remolón, Steve Miller Band)

This tune is a reworked track of one of my entries to the Gybo Weekend challenges.
I changed a lot compared to that entry, notably I added a vocoder to Steve Millers voice and resturctured the backing track so that there would be less clashing vocals,
I also made a version with almost no Steve Miller in it (the inhuman mix).



The Rocking Cumbia Machine:

Music:
Kraftwerk - The Man-Machine
El Remolón - Cumbia Bichera

Vocals:
Steve Miller Band - Rock N Me

VDJ - The Rocking Cumbia Machine (Kraftwerk and El Remolon vs Steve Miller) by VirtualDJ

VDJ - The Rocking Cumbia Machine (Kraftwerk and El Remolon vs Steve Miller)(inhuman mix) by VirtualDJ

Gloomy Angels and Reptiles (Akira Yamaoka/NIN/Carol Kidd)

This tune probably would be more suitable for Halloween.

It features a tune from Akira Yamaoka, composer of the Silent Hill videogame soundtracks.
His tunes usually are dark and foreboding and this is no exception.
I heard some similarities with Reptile from Nine Inch Nails which I layered then with this.
I also wanted to use Glooomy Sunday for a while and here it fit perfectly.
The singer is Carol Kidd, a Scottish jazz singer I had never heard of, but I could find an acapella from her for this song that fitted the bill well.
(Maybe somewhere in the future I will try to make an acapella of the version from Diamanda Galas, that would make it more chilling for certain)

Gloomy Sunday is also known as the Hungarian Suicide song. The lyrics are quite explicit about that.
However, when it became known by Billie Holiday's version, record companies wanted to add a 3rd verse with a lighter tone, the song was to depressive for them.
I skipped that last verse. It doesn't make sense at all, explaining that the other verses were just a dream.

Music:

Akira Yamaoka - Angel's Scream
Nine Inch Nails - reptile

Vocal: Carol Kidd - Gloomy Sunday

Off The Beaten Meter: Mashups Beyond 4/4

A video to my mashup Watcher of Facades which was created for
Off the Beaten Meter: MashUps Beyond 4/4:
A compilation of mashups using rhythms other than the standard 4/4.

This project conceived by DJ Not-I will be released on april 12th 2010 on the following website:

offthebeatenmeter.blogspot.com/

Watcher of Facades from Virtual DJ on Vimeo.

This mashup features music and vocals from:

Philip Glass - Facades
Genesis - Watcher of the Skies
William S. Burroughs - What Keeps Mankind Alive?

The image sources are from:

2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick
The Shepperton Concert by Genesis
The Music of Kurt Weill: September Songs by Larry Weinstein.

From the Off The Beaten Meter site:

Off The Beaten Meter: MashUps Beyond 4/4 is a compilation of new exclusive (as well as a few previously released) mash-ups in time signatures other than 4/4.

Off the Beaten Meter features tracks by a range of noted bootleg remixers/mashup artists, including Andrewherring, DJ not-I, Eternal Khaos, G3RSt, Lee Spoons, Overdub, RIAA (Mr. Fab), ToTom, Virtual DJ, and Voicedude, who mash up and regenerate odd-metered tunes by the likes of 4Hero, Chris Squire, Dave Brubeck, Foo Fighters, Genesis, Joan Osborne, Louis Armstrong, Metallica, Muse, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, Outkast, Philip Glass, Pink Floyd, Primus, Queens of the Stone Age, Quindon Tarver, Radiohead, Ravel, Slayer, System of a Down, The Commodores, The Future Sound of London, The Supremes, Tool, UK, and many more.

The resulting compilation is a heady brew of progressive bootleg remixing that pushes the envelopes of both mash-up-making and rhythmic perceptions in general.

Off The Beaten Meter will appeal to and satisfy the chin-stroking muso-nerds as well as the much broader spectrum of people who enjoy and appreciate excellent and interesting music, liberated from genre constraints and the ubiquitous 4/4 straitjacket.

This compilation will blow your mind, yet also have your foot tapping and head nodding in time signatures off the beaten path. So get ready to "Sit back and have some fun / and tap your foot in 21!" (Tony Levin/King Crimson)

Odd Russian Fever (David Bowie, Rihanna, Fever Ray)

This is the second mashup I made with David Bowie's Space Oddity.
(the other one, with Calle 13 see here)

It features Rihanna's Russian Roulette as the main music, mixed with Fever Ray's dark and ominous If I had a Heart:

Odd Russian Fever:

David Bowie - A Space Oddity (vocals)
Rihanna - Russian Roulette (music)
Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart (vocals/music)

Kenji's Love Song (Bob Marley vs Röyksopp)

This song is partly inspired by the story about Kenji, a robot programmed to emulate human emotions, like love.
However Kenji's programming took an extreme turn for the worst, mistaking affection for possession.
You can read the story about Kenji here.

I guess the story is an internet hoax though.

The vocals by Bob Marley are entirely vocoded,
The instrumental track, Silver Cuiser by Röyksopp, is in 6/8 so I had to rearrange the complete song to fit in this different rhythm.

As you can imagine this sounds totally different than the original By Bob Marley.

Kenji's Lovesong

Bob Marley - Is This Love (vocals)
Röyksopp - Silver Cruiser (instrumental)

VDJ - Kenji's Love Song (Röyksopp vs Bob Marley) by VirtualDJ


More links to the mp3:
mediafire
fileden (direct link)
divshare

A Reggaeton Oddity (David Bowie vs Calle 13)

I did not think I would do this but after the previous 2 mashups with Calle 13 instrumentals and classic rock tracks from Queen and the Eagles I have made a 3rd one.
This time it's David Bowie's Space Oddity that gets a reggaeton treatment.

A Reggaeton Oddity:

David Bowie - Space Oddity vs Calle 13 - Atrévete-te-te

Diamanda Galas vs Digitalism - news

In the beginning of 2008 I made a mashup with a version of  I Put A Spell On You as sung by  Diamanda Galas and the electrosong  Idealistic by Digitalism.
To my surprise I got contacted recently by her labelmanagement, telling me that they liked it and if they could use it as a free download on her website. Needless to say that I was thrilled by this.

Many people are not familiar with her work but if you are open minded about music and not afraid where it can take you it is absolutely worthwhile checking it out. Don't expect a Disney or a bubblegum experience though.
Here's a link to her website and to a wiki about her.

My mashup is still to be found here on divshare

Hotel de los Aburridos (Calle 13 vs Eagles, The Doors & 50 cent)

Like the last track I posted this one also uses a classic rock tune and a beat from Calle 13, though this beat is somewhere between reggaeton and cumbia.

Actually this tune was made before the Bohemian Tango track,but it was meant to feature on a summer compilation from Sound-Unsound.
The compilation has been released recently and this was my contribution to it.

Hotel de Los Aburridos

Tracks used:

Calle 13 - Cumbia de los Aburridos
The Eagles - Hotel California
The Doors - Alabama Song
50 Cent - In Da Club

You can listen/download from these following links:




If you are interested in the full album from the Sound-Unsound members, please visit this page



Also, I'd like to bring this to your attention:

With all of Sound Unsound compilations from “Summer Unsound” onwards, we will be supporting a charity with each release. We have decided that this compilation’s supported charity will be the “British Heart Foundation”. The British Heart Foundation is the nation’s heart charity. Every day they save lives, through pioneering research, providing vital information to help people reduce their own heart health risks, campaigning for change and supporting and caring for heart patients. You can find out more information about the British Heart Foundation and make a donation here:-
http://www.justgiving.com/neiltomo/

If you enjoy the album or my tune, please consider making a donation to the British Heart Foundation. Every penny donated makes a massive difference.

Bohemian Tango (Queen vs Calle 13)

This started out of curiosity.

The Bohemian Rhapsody is a complicated song as everybody knows and I was curious if it was possible to do anything with this song at all.
It's probably the mashup I worked longest on, discarding it at first when I had made my first try.
After a few weeks I heard it again and thought it wasn't that bad after all, so I gave it another try.
Some problems I could solve in due time and this is the result.
I'm quite certain that many consider it sacrilege to use this song at all, but that's the challenge isn't it?
The instrumental is by Calle 13 from Puerto Rico, labelled a reggaeton act but they are much more than that and one of the best groups out of Latin America in the last few years.

Bohemian Tango:

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Calle 13 - Tango del Pecado

Hate That I Love Mr Brown - (James Brown vs Rihanna & Ne-Yo)

Rihanna united with another spouse basher in a funky mashup.

This mashup I started for the Sound-Unsound birthday challenge but I got stuck and never finished it until now.

(edit 16-03-2009 new tweaked version)

Hate That I love Mr Brown

James Brown - The Chicken (instrumental)
Rihanna and Ne-Yo - Hate That I Love You (vocal)




(click on the divshare logo to download)

other links:
mediafire
fileden (direct link)

Shotgun in NYC (Blue Stahli vs Genesis)

Another mashup featuring Genesis during the Peter Gabriel era.
The screaming vocals of Peter Gabriel I matched with the electronic rock of Blue Stahli which I had discovered through some excellent mashups of one of the best mashup artists around, Aggro1
Check out his site, especially if you like DnB.

Shotgun in NYC
Genesis - Back in NYC (vocals)
Blue Stahli - Shotgun Senorita (instrumental)



(click on the divshare logo to download)

other links:
mediafire
fileden (direct link)

Ruled By Crawlers (Genesis vs Muse)

Genesis had a rich musical history before it became hitmachine headed by Phil Collins.
Songs from these era have rarely or never been mashed and with the recent release of the first albums in a 5.1 format,with Peter Gabriel as leadsinger, opportunities arose to try to get a clear vocal.
Here is my first try with one of my favourite songs, Carpet Crawlers.
I mashed this with Ruled By Secrecy by Muse, which is in 6/8 where Carpet Crawlers is in 4/4 creating quite a few obstacles which I hope I overcame.
To get the placement right I first sung the melody myself and then started to arrange everything.
I hope I did right.

Ruled By Crawlers:
Carpet Crawlers - Genesis (vocal)
Ruled By Secrecy - Muse (instrumental)



(click on the divshare logo to download)

other links:
mediafire
fileden (direct link)

Sean Paul's Sing-A-Long (Sean Paul vs The Mini Sloths from Ice Age 2)

I am not very active with mashups at the moment but when recently I saw Ice Age 2 I knew I had to do something with the hilarious songs by Sid the Sloth and The Mini Sloths.

There's nothing ambitious about this one, just a little funny piece (I hope)

Sean Paul's Sing-A-Long:

Sean Paul - Get Busy
John Powell - Mini Sloths Sing-A-Long and bits of Sid's Sing-A-Long (from the Ice Age 2 soundtrack)



(click on the divshare logo to download)


mediafire link
divshare link
fileden link (direct download)

Give My Tears Some Shelter (Rolling Stones vs Amy Winehouse)

Another mashup using an Amy Winehouse instrumental, though it could have been named a Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrel instrumental as well, because the music from Tears Dry On Their Own is actually Ain't No Mountain High Enough, written by Ashford & Simpson.

Give My Tears Some Shelter

Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter (vocals and guitars)
Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry On Their Own (instrumental)





(click on the divshare logo to download)

other links

mediafire
fileden

edit 04/12: put a new resynched version online

Back To Roxanne (The Police vs Amy Winehouse)

After fixing my broken computer, my first mashup since quite a while.

Back To Roxanne

The Police - Roxanne (vocals)
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black (instrumental)



(click on the divshare logo to download the mp3)

other links:

mediafire
fileden (direct link)

Suspicious Minds On A Dancefloor (Elvis Presley vs Sophie Ellis Bextor)

A more lighthearted mashup from me than usual:

Suspicious Minds On A Dancefloor

Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley (vocal)
Murder On The Dancefloor - Sophie Ellis Bextor (music)

This is the new and IMPROVED version made by Voicedude





(click on the divshare logo to download)


EDIT 17/10 Well, after writing this still some timing issues were not completely resolved, but my computer broke down. Fortunately Voicedude who was a tremendous help in tweaking earlier versions offered to rebuild and retweak it so here is the link to his improved version:



For archival or comparison purposes here are links to the older version.
other links (click on them)
filebam
fileden (direct link)

WAR OF CONFUSION (video)

In March I released a mashup made with music of germany's 80's popgroup
Propaganda and vocals of The Temptations, Edwin Starr and Nas, which
was well received.

The lyrics of the song Ball of Confusion, by The Temptations,
though more than 30 years old seem as relevant today as they were
then and conjured up a lot of imagery when listening to it.

After viewing Godfrey Reggio's Naqoyqatsi, loosely translated as 'Life

as War' an idea started to form that his use of imagery and editing

and the subject matter would well fit with this audiomashup of mine.

To get the idea was easy, to execute it was a different matter.
I had no experience with video editing except the very basics and
what I wanted to achieve would definitely need more than that.

It took countless hours of experimenting and searching for
materials, watching hours and hours of documentaries of which some
were really gruesome to see and for about 3 months I was solely
dedicated to bring this project to fruition.

Do I have a political agenda with this video?
No, but like any sane person I am disgusted by the atrocities and
accompanying cynicism that occurs on our planet. And we grow indifferent to many of the news about it. I hope this video shows that wars, neglect, famine, etc are no trivial matters at all and definitely not glamorous.

A lot of the material used is from the USA, my video is not
specifically targeted against the USA, it's simply that there is lot
more media coverage from there to be found.

At the end of the video a creditroll with all sources is listed.


Special thanks to DJ Not-I for kindly previewing the video and
giving helpful suggestions and my wife who had to endure viewing
this over and over again.


WARNING THIS VIDEO CONTAINS STRONG GRAPHICAL IMAGES OF VIOLENCE AND
IS NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVICED


youtubelink

War of Confusion from Virtual DJ on Vimeo.

link to the downloadable mp3 (15MB 256bitrate) (through divshare)

link to the downloadable video (mp4 format (640x480)(through divshare), the widescreen version will follow soon 111MB



edit 10 oct: The video received great reviews and has been featured (among others) on Audioporncentral, mashupfacts, Bartcop Entertainment, and was voted for Video Of The Month at Sound-Unsound.com.