! THOUGTMA00    .WAV

This is my forty-fourth entry in The Producers Corner "sample challenge", where everyone is given the same source music from which to sample, and the results are diverse and entertaining. The source this week was a playlist of four songs: "New Religion" by Trifle, "Life, Dreams, Death" by Brothers Unlimited, "Revenge" by Kirth Morrison, and something entitled simply "和田アキ子 初秋". Honestly I didn't have a lot of time or energy to devote to this one, but since it's the 200th challenge, and considering the sad news last night, I decided to whip this up at the last minute. I hope you enjoy the final product, and please everyone stay safe and healthy out there!!!

* This came in 2nd place.

4 Feet High And Rhyming

Biz-Centennial

Biz-Centennial (TPC Sample Challenge #200)

Brand-new remix of CZARFACE's song "Bizarro", from their 2019 vinyl release "The Odd Czar Against Us".

Vocals by Esoteric & Inspectah Deck.
feat. 7L, Tom Segura & Christina P.
Production by Matt Reyes of TYPE 4.

Original version here: https://youtu.be/DmKY9mg6Fl8
https://czarface.com
https://www.type4music.com

Make sure to hit your local record shop on Saturday April 23rd 2022 for Record Store Day and pick up your copy of the brand-new CZARFACE vinyl LP "CZARMAGEDDON!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADkCXsP8C_Q

Bizarro

Bizarro (Molecular Mass remix by Matt Reyes of TYPE 4)

Original version here!

CZARFACE - "Bizarro" (Molecular Mass Remix By Matt Reyes Of TYPE 4)

Instrumental version for "Mine Benda" by The Blitz.

Vocal version here: https://youtu.be/6w68NYYygzs

Mine Benda

Buy on iTunes!

The Blitz - Mine Benda (instrumental)

If Only

A melody and some chords I was messing with that ended up sounding like an eastern action movie soundtrack from the 70's kinda

Blade of the Master (Strength in Grief remix)

Distress Signal Pt.2

Mhz - "The Remedy" - Flu Kat & Camu Tao - MHz 96 Demo

This is my twentieth entry in The Producers Corner "sample challenge", where everyone is given the same source song from which to sample, and the results are diverse and entertaining. The source this week was the album "Goëtia - Dark Magic Music", by Peter Gundry; a gothic treasure trove of chorus, piano, and strings. It took me a while to settle on a catchy hook, but once I re-timed a swingy section of low woodwinds, I had my foundation and was able to sprinkle on about eight other loops and snippets. I then added my standard layers of breakbeats, drum programming, keyboards, and scratching, trying to keep things a bit simpler and head-bobbing this week. I hope you enjoy the result, and please everyone be careful and stay healthy!!!

PS - Upon completing this piece, I tossed an Imani Coppola acapella (acoppola?) on top, time-stretched to fit, and it turned out to be precisely in key and aligned to the same arrangement. I extended the music, added and changed a few things, and this is the result:

https://soundcloud.com/type4/imani-coppola-dont-touch-that-microphone-caterpillar-snacks-remix-by-matt-reyes-of-type-4

Instrumental version (essentially an extended version of this beat) here: https://soundcloud.com/type4/dont-touch-that-microphone-instrumental

Let me know what you think!

Caterpillar Snacks

Caterpillar Snacks (TPC Sample Challenge #135)

This is my twenty-fourth entry in The Producers Corner "sample challenge", where everyone is given the same source song from which to sample, and the results are diverse and entertaining. The source this week was a YouTube track called "Orchestral Groove (French Connection)", a mix of cool French instrumental songs compiled by The Soulparanos Show. It runs the gamut from smoky lounge to film soundtrack to disco pop, and at first nothing was jumping out at me. I think my problem was the way the whole thing was mixed together as if it's one long song, making it more difficult to pick out beginnings or endings where there might be some cool samples. It didn't help matters that Soulparanos peppered the mix with their own voiceover namedrops, so finally I just ended up Shazaming some of the tracks I was curious about, and downloaded those individual songs to work with. I kept things fairly simple this time, building around one loop with a nice descending bassline, layering in a few other heavily-edited samples from the source material and elsewhere, and then finishing it with lots of my own drum programming. I chose not to add keyboards or scratching this week, as I thought it might just muddy the whole thing up. I hope you enjoy the result, and please everyone be careful and stay healthy!!!

PS - after completing this instrumental, I used an altered version of the music on a remix for Imani Coppola's song, "One Of These Days": https://soundcloud.com/type4/imani-coppola-one-of-these-days-eufouria-remix

* This came in 2nd place.

The French Confection

The French Confection (TPC Sample Challenge #139)

This is my entry for Round One of The Producers Corner "Head2Head" sample challenge, where forty producers are given the same source from which to sample, and send their results in to be randomly matched up against another producer in an elimination round with possible cash prize rewards. The source for this first week was a YouTube medley of Ennio Morricone's soundtrack work for Sergio Leone's films, entitled "The Spaghetti Western Trio" (https://youtu.be/mfRFET2UZok). The rules were to use ONLY samples from this source, NO additional musical samples or instrumentation, apart from drums and bassline. No piano, no synth, no organ, no chorus, no movie dialogue, no scratching; none of the extra seasoning I usually use to finish off the stew. But hey, that's why they call it a challenge! When I first saw that the source would be Morricone I wasn't that inspired, as that music has been sampled to death by artists over the years, including me starting back in 1988. But I decided to wade in anyway and see what I could come up with. Twenty-five hours later, and twenty-five samples later, I was done. I didn't even add any additional bassline; everything you hear is a sample from the YouTube source, with my own drum programming supporting and complementing the loops. With twenty-five samples used, there are often four or five different snippets interacting with each other at any given time, but I hope I arranged and mixed it well enough where everything meshes well while still remaining audible. I was most pleasantly surprised by how well the chopped and re-assembled whistles came out at the end; I wouldn't be surprised if no one even notices that's not what the whistles do at all in the original song. I'm not sure what the next challenge will be, but if this is good enough to move on to round two, I might (?) spend more than a day on my next beat. I hope you enjoy what you hear, and that you're all staying safe and healthy!

* This was, in fact, good enough to advance to the next round.

Apollo Brown, in expressing his opinion about my beat, wondered if perhaps I could have taken an approach of "less is more", especially since he liked my opening sample that no one else really utilized. To be fair, the sample he liked doesn't really exist on the source album in the state he heard it; I took a loop, re-timed it from a swing time signature, separated out the guitar plucks at the snares, doubled the bass notes and shifted one down an octave, and combined it with low piano notes and some slowed-down strings from elsewhere on the album. But absolutely I take his point; less IS often more, especially when it comes to hip-hop.

But I have this incessant irrepressible instinct to fill up empty space in my production, especially when it is an instrumental. If it's designed to be a beat that will end up with vocals all over it, then there is far less need for me to keep the listener entertained. But if I know it's going to hit a listener with nothing but music, my natural reaction is to build that instrumental up into a little mini-symphony to hopefully hold the interest and imbue enjoyment in listeners for whom often a song simply is not an actual song unless there's a human voice saying something on top of it.

But still, I should take into account my target audience, and remember that these will be fellow producers listening and judging, and tailor my beats accordingly. I guess overall I misinterpreted the judging criteria "does it work for a song" (meaning is it good for a rapper to write and record on) as "does it work AS a song" (meaning it's a completed presentable instrumental). Thanks to Apollo Brown and all my fellow producers for competing and participating, and props to Blox Beats who seriously came close to kicking my ass. I'll see all of you next time... most likely with another slice of "more is less". 😀

If Only

Insomniak

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