From 1998 to 2012, Matthew S ran Illegal Art — a record label that “push[ed] the limits of sample based music” — under the pseudonym Philo T. Farnsworth. Now, Matthew is rebooting the label under his own name and releasing his debut EP as Myth Math, Tongues. To mark the occasion, Matthew put together a playlist of his favorite tracks from the Illegal Art archive. Stream it below, and be sure to check out Tongues, which is out today on Illegal Art.
— Annie Fell, Editor-in-chief, Talkhouse Music
Many of the descriptions below are sampled from the artists themselves as I quote liberally and paraphrase.
—Matthew S
Økapi & Aldo Kapi Orchestra — “Everything Must Change p.2”
Lester Bowie vs. Count Basie! Økapi says, “This is probably the simplest piece I have ever made. I took the introduction from ‘From Russia With Love,’ performed by the Count Basie Orchestra in 1966, and simply laid Lester Bowie's ‘Deb Deb's Face,’ from All The Magic! (1983), on top of it. No complex editing, no elaborate cutting, none of the almost obsessive constructions that often characterize the way I work with samples.”
The Bran Flakes — “What It’s All About”
Positive messaging from the progressive Pastor John Rydgren. If you enjoy the sample woven into this Bran Flakes track it’s worth checking out the two-CD compilation of the Lutheran minister released by Omni. Other samples used on this song include Pea Hix, The Lang-Worth Radio Hucksters, Faron Young for Mary Carter Paint Company, The Links’ song “Have You Ever Seen The Rain”’ and Doris Dee's Aerobic Dancing.
Yea Big — “This We Must Do”
Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Ensemble’s Dreams is one of Yea Big’s favorite albums ever. Done as “a sign of respect and admiration," he says, "the thing about that sample that is so fun for me is the simple juxtaposition of 3 over 4 that I did with it. Yoshihide's piece in 3 over the beat in 4 is a simple pleasure to me. It sounds so nice. Simple pleasures are important in this life.”
Double Dee & Steinski — Lesson 3: The History Of Hip Hop
Removed from distribution in the ‘80s, this legendary mix was only available on bootlegs until we released Steinki’s What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective. This track alone contains countless breaks and pop cultural excerpts. Steinski asserts, "The legality of this doesn't really make any difference to me. I mean, I'm gonna make the records no matter what.”
Girl Talk — ”Oh No”
So many samples on the iconic opening track from All Day. Black Sabbath, 2Pac, Jay Z, Ludacris, Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band, Eminem, Cali Swag District, Jane's Addiction, T.I., M.I.A., St. Lunatics, Dorrough, The Brothers Johnson, Slick Rick, The Doors, Ramones, Trina, Missy Elliott, and possibly others!
Junk Culture — ”Be Good”
From the Wild Quiet album, Junk Culture describes this track as “built entirely from field recordings I made on a trip abroad, and unlike most of my other sampled work, they're presented as a pretty unprocessed, layered collage rather than being mangled beyond recognition.”
Realistic — “Eyebeam Pounding”
This hypnotic track has an array of sounds, and Realistic highlights the comical vocal sample he took from an OMD interview record from the 1980’s. It comes in at the very end with: “We just love to be able to sit in our studio, and just close ourselves off from the rest of the world, and just hit microphones, and have a lot of fun.” Indeed.
Wobbly — “(digital country)” & “Clawing Your Eyes Out Down To Your Throat”
The 11 short musical tracks on Playlist EP were surrounded by even shorter spoken excerpts from a marketing CD called Music Programming Solutions For The New Radio. Wobbly observes that the company that made the CD, Broadcast Programming, is “still going — somehow — and they'd like to thank you for your interest in their company.”
People Like Us — ”Wonderful Wonderful”
Digging back to a 1952 movie for this sample of Danny Kaye singing “Wonderful Copenhagen.” PLU’s Vicki Bennett says she loves it because “it's saying how wonderful everything is but at the same time sounds really deranged when repeated.” She spins it into a surrealistic collage with other bits of audio.
