Aria in the area

[muffinman]

watched shawshank again recently and was once again rapt when andy plays the opera music over the prison p.a.
I find myself really enjoying arias (i believe that's what they are called) in general, whereas opera in general leaves me cold, irritated even!
I want to make it clear that i'm not interested at all in getting into opera - just the aria bits.
Does anyone know of an essential selection available?

Also, is there a rolling/current selection of drum and bass/mash up music that is released on CD on a regular basis?
i picked up a d&b double lp recently and really enjoyed it. Id rather spend vinyl money on 'bands' though

[Beechwoods]

Drum and bass or mash up - to me they're different things. I'm not into d+b but like the kind of mash-up / bastard pop sort of thing. Are you talking Goldie or Soulwax / 2 Many DJs

Either way I have no idea about recent compilations. I'm still working through the stuff I bought 5 years ago!

[muffinman]

[QUOTE=Beechwoods;23049]Drum and bass or mash up - to me they're different things. I'm not into d+b but like the kind of mash-up / bastard pop sort of thing. Are you talking Goldie or Soulwax / 2 Many DJs

ta for reminding me just how far out of my depth i am

i just checked my collection and the lp i recently got is Darklight by dj banky swift (its d+b with versions). i found that i've got anyminute now by soulwax on dlp - bought on the back of the single, i remember not really liking the lp but will give it another look.
I used to listen to mary ann hobbs and she had a lot of stuff on which i took to be 'mash ups' or is that just breakbeat or are they the same?!?
It's a tricky one but i'll happily take a reccomendation from you on some of your faves

[Beechwoods]

Mary Ann Hobbs did a lot of mash-up / bootleg / bastard pop stuff. Breakbeat is a kind of offshot of drum and bass IIRC. But Breakcore is sometimes used to refer to the hybrid 'drill and bass' f---ed up end of mash-up with loads of distorted drum and bass beats, often sped up, chewed up and mangled samples etc.

Sadly, a lot of the best stuff never got properly released, surviving through peer-to-peer sharing, radio play and clubs.

Here are a few of my favourites in that area...

Cassetteboy - Check out The Parker Tapes, it's a classic. They steal samples from everywhere, TV, Radio, music, and rearrange them into very funny, very clever, new things. They come from the same sort of school as John Oswald, Negativland, People Like Us. Sound collage using appropriated samples.

Kid606 - the granddaddy of the glitchy end of mash-up. His best work was a track called 'Attitude' on a compilation of the same name. It's the most extreme remix of NWA's 'Straight Outta Compton' that you'll ever hear. Now out of print. His recent stuff isn't so good if you ask me.

Speedranch + Venetian Snares - their 'Making Orange Things' album will take your breath away if you're into the breakcore thing. Drum and bass beats, but distorted to hell and shoved through a sound grinder. I love this album. Also check out Parasite and dKAT.

Shitmat - Full English Breakfest. Shitmat has been a major force in breakcore for a long while. He's done some great mixes.

frenchbloke - frenchboke is one of those that never released anything officially. he shared all his mixes online, and featured on XFM a lot. He did some amazing 'bootleg' type mashups, mixing two obvious tracks (or not so obvious) to create something new and clever. One of my favourites of his was an ambient version of No Scrubs by TLC.

Osymyso - very prolific bootleg / mashup producer. Friend of Chris Morris (Brass Eye, Blue Jam etc). Very clever stuff like 'Pat N Peg' - remixing the Eastenders theme in a very clever way, that actually ended up rewriting the main melody - and 'John's Not Mad' which made a star of a boy featured on a BBC documentary about tourettes. Very clever dialogue editing. He did an album called 'Welcome To The Palindrome' where every title was, um, the same forwards as backwards (eg - 'A Dog A Panic In A Pagoda' )

One of my big faves is Picasio, but he only ever released 2 singles and a mix on XFM. The first single was a mashup of Axel F versus 'Do You Really Like It' by DJ Pied Piper. His second was Craig David 7 Days versus Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor. Both are just superb.

There are stacks more but I'll stop there. Good luck seeking this stuff out. Boomkat is always a really good place to find this sort of stuff.