davidbowie.de

LONDON (AP) - David Bowie has invited fans to bootleg his music _ and
he's offering prizes for the most creative theft.

The musician's Web site urges fans to mix classic Bowie songs with
material from his latest album, "Reality," to create a "mash-up" _ a
track that uses vocals from one song superimposed over the backing
tracks of another.

Developments in music software has made the technique long employed
by record producers easily accessible to thousands of "bedroom DJs" _
a fact that has alarmed record companies battling for control of
Internet music distribution.

But Bowie, 57, was quoted as saying in Monday's editions of The Times
newspaper that mash-ups were "a great appropriation idea waiting to
happen."

"Being a hybrid maker off and on over the years, I'm very comfortable
with the idea and have been the subject of quite a few pretty good
mash-ups myself," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

The music software needed for the task can be downloaded from Bowie's
Web site (www.davidbowie.com), along with tracks from his new album.

Following the end of the contest on May 17, Bowie will choose the
winning track, and it will be released as an MP3 single. The winner
will also get a new car.

The mash-up technique gained prominence with "The Gray Album," a
blend of The Beatles and Jay-Z by an American DJ known as Danger
Mouse.

A reported 1 million copies were downloaded from the Internet before
it was blocked by record company EMI in February.

Mash ups were a great appropriation idea just waiting to happen. I first heard of them when 2 many dj's put out their album a year or so ago and have been following the evolution avidly ever since. Being a hybrid-maker off and on over the years, I'm very comfortable with the idea and have been the subject of quite a few pretty good mash-ups myself.

Visconti and I had an unintentionally Luddite fantasy in the seventies revolving around a plan to write songs in the style of several different artists, The Doors or Mark Bolan etc., and then record some backing tracks in the style of, say Hendrix or the Stones and then I would record the vocal tracks imitating Cliff, Lennon or the Supremes even (with slightly speeded up tape). Shame we never got on with it but you know how those rainy Tuesday afternoon brainstorms go. Nowhere, generally.

Well, it's never too late, David.

There is a mash up contest going on at the moment presented by Audi, the car manufacturer. You have to create a mash up of two David Bowie recordings, but one must be from Reality, his new CD (which yours truly co-produced). I am ineligible to enter but that didn't stop me from entering the spirit. I mashed together two of my fave Bowie cuts, "Win" from Young Americans and "The Loneliest Guy" from Reality. This was created entire in Logic 6, my favorite audio/midi program, on my Apple laptop. To tell you the truth, I was so bored not having a studio to work in during the refitting, I had to do something! I did this mash up with just the two commercially available recordings, I did not use the vocal tracks only, that would've been cheating. I had to drop the key of "Win" by one semitone and, of course, I had to diddle with the tempos to make it all mash. Mash ups are real fun to do.

hübsch gemacht...schööön ruhig und reduziert...
"Win" überwiegt...aber das ist absolut i.O. so 


Tony V's mash-up (download mit rechtsklick)

Tony V made me cream my pants

beiden mashup-versuche von DJ Lope