Re: Chris Bowden sampling Sun Ra (Was: Fujees sampling ABBA)

Kurt Iveson (kiveson@coombs.anu.edu.au)
Tue, 11 Feb 1997 10:06:10 +1100

Hi all. Elson wrote some time yesterday....
>
>I guess what it goes down to is not what you sample, but how you use that
>sample. Both Us3's "Cantaloop" and
>The Quiet Boys' "Let It Go" use Hancock's "Cantaloupe Island" riff, but the
>difference is that Us3 loops 8 bars of the figure with the same bassline as
>the original while the Quiet Boys sample one bar of the figure and add a
>totally different bassline on top of that.
>
>Similarly, to use an extreme example, while the legendary Vanilla Ice
>sampled 2 bars of Queen's "Under Pressure",
>one can use different parts of that tune (i.e. the piano 5ths notes at the
>end of the figure only), use an original bassline and still come up with
>something cool.
>
>Thus, perhaps the problem with pop R&B/hip-hop tunes sampling things is
>that they sample _large, obviously recognizeable sections_ of it outright,
>relying on the original's chord progression, groove or bassline, rather
>than using it as *inspiration* for a new tune. And as for things that are
>"more obscure," it's probably easier to get away with that since not as
>many ears know its an outright sample (case in point, the Fugees sampling
>Enya).

I'm not a DJ, so forgive me if this sounds dumb... . But back in the day
when turntables were used and before samplers were readily available, you
would have had to use a break at least eight bars long if you were gonna be
able to re-cue the other slab of vinyl in time to repeat it, wouldn't you?
So isn't sampling an eight bar break now simply carrying on this kind of
tradition? Particularly in hip hop, constructing a tune over a longer loop
might allow a DJ to do something live with turntables, rather than MCs
just rapping over a cleverly constructed dat-track full of really short
samples... I guess I still get just as much of a kick out of a good
extended loop as I do out of recognizing a short horn stab or something,
both seem pretty creative to me.

>
>As for sampling wack artists and making them sound cool, has anyone sampled
>a Yanni tune and made something dope out of it? Just wondering. :)

Hey man, leave it out! I'm very sensitive about my Yanni collection,
a'ight?! :)

Kurt