Graduation: Samples

I think there's a general consensus about town, that Kanye West's latest album, Graduation, is consistent with the high caliber of previous efforts, College Dropout and Late Registration. Although, (in my humble opinion of course) it sags a little in the middle, I am in overall agreement with the prevailing reaction. But look, we all know that Kanye's work relies heavily on samples (not that I'm complaining like), so here's a comprehensive list of tracks used to make Graduation. Please note the ironic lyrics of Labi Siffre's My Song: "This is my song and no one can take it away"...'cept Kanye mate.

MP3: Elton John - Someone Saved My Life Tonight DOWNLOAD
Used In: Good Morning
MP3: Steely Dan - Kid Charlemagne DOWNLOAD
Used In: Champion
MP3: Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger DOWNLOAD
Used In: Stronger
MP3: Labi Siffre - My Song DOWNLOAD
Used In: I Wonder
MP3: Michael Jackson - PYT (Pretty Young Thing DOWNLOAD
Used In: Good Life
MP3: Mountain - Long Red DOWNLOAD
Used In: Barry Bonds and The Glory
MP3: Can - Sin Swan Song DOWNLOAD
Used In: Drunk And Hot Girls
MP3: Public Enemy - Bring The Noise DOWNLOAD
Used In: Everything I Am
MP3: Prince Phillip Mitchell - If We Can't Be Lovers DOWNLOAD
Used In: Everything I Am
MP3 Laura Nyro - Save The Country DOWNLOAD
Used In: The Glory
MP3: U-Roy - Wake The Town DOWNLOAD
Used In: Good Night
MP3: Super Cat - Nuff Man A Dead DOWNLOAD
Used In: Good Night

BONUS: MP3: DJ Rut - Diamonds 4 Life DOWNLOAD

Big thanks to Milk Crate Breaks for providing me with these tunes. Get yourself over there and give them a holla.
.

Gutted

Imagine my excitement when scrolling through the Hype Machine's Popular list I came across a blog post containing a Justice remix of When The Sun Goes Down by little known indie band, the Arctic Monkeys. Alas, we (I say we as a hell of a lot of folks checked this track out) were collectively duped by the offending blog, Pretty Much Amazing, as the initial excitement quickly faded after the first 30 seconds of listening revealed the remix to be nothing more than a disappointing mash-up bearing little resemblance to the Frenchies trademark sound. Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining as they say as I thought it'd be a worthwhile exercise to breakdown the track, revealing some great music of old. Here goes:

MP3: The Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down DOWNLOAD/Zshare
MP3: Urban Shakedown - Some Justice DOWNLOAD/Zshare
MP3: Liquid - Sweet Harmony DOWNLOAD/Zshare
MP3: Beastie Boys - Ch-Check It Out DOWNLOAD/Zshare

The Urban Shakedown and Liquid tracks themselves contain samples from this CeCe Rogers track from 1987:

MP3: CeCe Rogers - Someday DOWNLOAD/Zshare

...aaaand in case you missed the original track posted on Pretty Much Amazing:

MP3: Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down ('Justice' Remix) DOWNLOAD/Zshare

Electroma

Call me old fashioned, but wasn't there a time when musicians stuck to what they knew? Come to think of it, that era has long past. I mean we've had the joy of watching Bon Jovi and Madonna display themselves on the big screen so it shouldn't really come as a surprise that Daft Punk have jumped on the celluloid bandwagon with previous effort Interstella5555 and now Electroma, the latter of which I saw yesterday.

I'm no fan of 'arty' films and being frank if this movie wasn't associated with Daft Punk I wouldn't have payed the £7.00 to go see it. Maybe it was the placebic affect of watching Daft Punk on screen or possibly my preoccupation with the impressive choice of soundtrack or maybe even it was just the beer I was drinking, but I rather enjoyed it. With a running time of only 74 minutes, a chronological storyline and of course the presence of the famous robot masks, Electroma successfully allowed me to access the notoriously inaccessible world of 'art house' cinema without leaving my infantile mind baffled by unfathomable plot lines and conceited cinematography. Here's a selection of the aforemention soundtrack:

MP3: Brian Eno - In Dark Trees DONWLOAD/Zshare
MP3: Curtis Mayfield - Billy Jack DOWNLOAD/Zshare
MP3: Todd Rundgren - International Feel DOWNLOAD/Zshare
Bonus: MP3: Daft Punk - Digital Love (Boris Dlugosh Remix) DONWLOAD/Zshare

Daft Punk. Human After All?

I'm pretty sure that some blog, somewhere will have already done this one. It's kind of obvious I guess, bringing to light some of the samples that the now legendary Daft Punk used to create their celebrated dance sound. Some may be shocked, as even I have to admit, on first listen some do seem like direct "quotes" if you will. Does it make Daft Punk less credible? I don't believe it does. Let's not lose sight of the fact that dance music has always prided itself on taking old concepts and manipulating them to make them fresh and relevant to a particular era. I'm pretty sure there's a whole load more out there. If anyone wants to link to them please feel free to do so.

MP3: Edwin Birdsong - Cola Bottle Baby (Harder, Better...) DOWNLOAD/Zshare
MP3: Breakwater - Splashdown (Robot Rock) DOWNLOAD/Zshare
MP3: The Imperials - Can You Imagine (Crescendolls) DOWNLOAD/Zshare
MP3: Eddie Johns - More Spell On You (One More Time) DOWNLOAD/Zshare
MP3: George Duke - I Love You More (Digital Love) DOWNLOAD/Zshare
BONUS: MP3: Chaka Khan - Fate (Music Sounds Better With You) DOWNLOAD/Zshare

....Bit Brief

OK, this is going to be a rapid post, simply because...I can't really be bothered. It's late, and I've had a hard day at work. Theres a time and a place for long, drawn out blog posts. This is not it!

The track posted, Billy Paul's, 'Its Critical', is a little unusual for this blog. To be honest, I sorta stumbled across it myself. Its not the kind of music I go looking for. That said, it is a truly great track, and is certainly worth your time to download and listen.

K

MP3: Billy Paul - Its Critical MP3 DOWNLOAD