Droplift, the Sequel?

While doing some much-needed dead link-weeding recently I checked in at the home base of The Droplift Project. The top of the page reads, “Droplift II is in the works! Coming soon!” It would be great to know more: a quickie search turned up this web site whose links produce nothing but blank pages and a variety of error messages. More probing brought this artist-listing, along with the observation that Droplift II will be a combo audio-video extravaganza.
The forthcoming work is arguably the third in the Droplift series, the second being Free Speech for Sale. However, this has apparently been a controversial perspective among the collagists that conspire on this stuff – as they do not want the actual eye and ear candy to be overshadowed by its method of delivery.

A/V Miscellany

Passed along recently was a link to Immortal Technique’s “The Fourth Branch” set to a slideshow of war imagery. If you’re of the queasy sort, viewer discretion is advised. In a related vein, Skidmark Bob’s most recent episode of Pop Defect Radio, “A Day in the Life 2006,” lives up to its tagline in an especially metal flavor. Fellow talented splicer rx lays down faint funk around Martin Luther King, Jr’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech, resulting inRise Again” (9:56, 9.2 MB), making a piece first spoken 39 years ago (as of yesterday) sound like it’s talking about today.
Just for kicks, I looked up this site’s own top 10 music chart, based on the number of hits in March: Continue reading “A/V Miscellany”

Copyright Criminals Remix Contest Extended; PoP dEFECT's Digital Dangers

The killer sampling documentary Copyright Criminals is nearing the final cut (view a 10-minute trailer). In the run-up to its release there’s been a remix contest utilizing samples from the documentary as well as from the musicians featured in it. The deadline for submissions has been extended to March 14.
The winning remix will be used in the final release of the documentary and 11 runners-up will be featured on a companion compilation CD. Kembrew McLeod, scholar/prankster extraordinaire, is one of Copyright Criminals’ producers – anyone working as hard as him to put the “ass” back into assistant professor is okay by me. Continue reading “Copyright Criminals Remix Contest Extended; PoP dEFECT's Digital Dangers”

Slice and Dice the State of the Union

Audio-hacker extraordinaire Scooter offers up a clean copy of the 2006 State of the Union speech as raw collage fodder for anyone who’s interested:
Part 1 (24:49, 11.4 MB)
Part 2 (26:22, 12.1 MB)
Better yet, Scooter’s transcribed and time-stamped the entire text of the speech. This makes dicing Bush easier (and less painful) than ever.
Copy and paste Scooter’s transcript into a text file and save it. Then simply use your word processor’s “find” function to focus on the words and phrases you’re interested in. VoilĂ : you are taken directly to the portion of the speech where these words exist, and Scooter’s handy stamps tell you where in the audio file to find them.
The last GWB SOTU to be translated in such fashion was his 2003 spiel.

Truthful Translations: 400 and Counting

There’s more in the hopper, too. The collection‘s closing in on a gigabyte and a half; I haven’t bothered recently to add up the cumulative listening/viewing time. Many thanks to all the artists who help make sense of political speech and are willing to share the sanity.
Culture jamming in the brave new world is alive and well, thanks for asking. So as long as sentiments like those expressed recently by Milton Rand Kalman of the Billboard Liberation Front continue to exist there should be little worry.
“It’s really fun to be like a paramilitary art squad,” he said. “Have you ever broken the law? I mean, not just like jaywalking…really broken the law, like, stepped way over? It’s awesome.” Amen.

Truthful Translators: Where Are They Now?

Some interesting developments in the lives of a few of the talented collagists that have taken political rhetoric to new levels:
Norton Scooter made a pilgrimage to Crawford, Texas during the president’s vacation and spent time at the spontaneous peace camp that grew up outside the ranch. It ended in his arrest. As is his penchant, the story is told in audio – a priceless 30 minutes’ worth (29:55, 24 MB). Scooter is one of the most talented long-form storytellers working in the medium of sound today. Continue reading “Truthful Translators: Where Are They Now?”

Skidmark Bob Remixes Outfoxed; Making Waves Premieres in NY

Skidmark Bob’s Mega Media Illusion Mix (6:56, 6.4 MB) takes the doc’s theme song, blends it with Beale, Byrne, Chomsky, and McChesney, and sprinkles that mix with infotainment detritus. Takes the critiques leveled by KGB-TV and Scott Walmsley to the next level.
For those in New York on Wednesday, you’d be crazy to miss the premiere of Michael Lahey’s excellent microradio documentary Making Waves. It happens at 8pm at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue (at Second Street). free103point9 will be on hand to conduct a Radio 4×4 performance, which should most definitely set the mood.

More Audio Online

As the Truthful Translations counter up top shows, there’s now one cut online for every day of the year. Central to this particular update is the prolific Scott Walmsley, who’s also done up a Celebrity Speech collage on everybody’s favorite TV blowhard, Bill O’Reilly (described by Walmsley as “a major f*ck head”).
There’s also new free media-themed music online: Brooklyn-based Gun Street Radio pays homage to Radio Caroline while SD punks Cheap Sex screams foul about the FCC’s ongoing anti-indecency crusade.