You Stay Classy, One Piece Mash-Ups

To piggy-back on yesterday’s DJ Earworm post, I wanted to draw some attention to another form of Mash-Up – the type that takes a single work (rather than multiple works) and splices and dices it until it’s a new song. We’ll call it the one piece mash-up, a classier and generally more impressive alternative to the meretricious and hussy-like bikini mash-up. It’s not quite a remix, since little remains of the original song by the end – it’s more like cutting a painted canvas into lots of little pieces, and then reassembling those pieces into another good work of art.

Two examples of one piece mash-ups, one new and one old, have had my ear as of late.

I first posted about Pogo’s “Upular” a week or so ago, but it deserves a second look. It’s a pretty sweet track put together by Pogo, a YouTube celebrity probably best known for his Alice in Wonderland mashes. I think you’ll dig it. The song features sound bites pulled from Pixar’s wonderful Up, and is impressive in its cohesion.

An older example of the one piece comes from Oh Astro’s Champions of Wonder, a quirkily entrancing album released a couple years ago on Illegal Art, the same label that is home to Girl Talk. The entire album is worth checking out, but “Snow Queen” is particularly interesting. It takes some Ratatat riffs, chops them up, layers on some vocals, and makes a damn good track.

Finally, a bit of a mixture of mash-up styles from another YouTube phenomenon, Steve Porter. The track, titled “Press Hop” centers on Allen Iverson’s famous “Practice” riff, and is pretty damn catchy. The video is below - it's a fun watch, and the song is worth putting on repeat. I’ll get back to talking about “real” songs soon, and put these mash-ups to rest after today, but I thought these were just too fun not to share.



Pogo – Upular (YSI) (filesavr)

Oh Astro – Snow Queen (YSI) (filesavr)

Allen Iverson – Press Hop (YSI) (filesavr)