in search of the monster riff

Tags

audacity, audio collage, monster riff, mp3, music, samples

These three audio collages are comprised of song samples chopped up, layered, and re-arranged using only the free software Audacity. They were inspired by an old friend who made mix tapes in the 1980s (and more recently, mix CDs) by stringing together only the most awesome few seconds of each of 99 songs.

My versions of that idea are relentless assaults of drum fills, guitar riffs, screams, beats, memorable lines, and other madness arranged in a way that might only make sense to me but which you might also find kind of groovy.

Click the titles to listen to the mp3 files. Download them if you like.

In Search of the Monster Riff #1

In Search of the Monster Riff #2

In Search of the Monster Riff #3

99 Mega Mix

Tags

99 megamix, audio collage, cards, collage, comic book collage

Brian used to tell me about these mix tapes his older brother Michael made. He would take tiny snippets of songs and fill a cassette tape with them. Brian described his brother’s selections as only the part of a song that totally kicked ass. This was in the late 1980s when the relatively new combination of “tape decks” with record players and CD players made music-loving teenagers into DJs all across the nation.

For some reason, I never heard these tapes. I only heard about them. So, when I found Michael on Facebook a few years ago, I asked about those legendary mixes! Coincidentally, Michael replied that he had just completed his first set of new mixes in many years. He called them 99 MegaMixes: 99 songs in 20 minutes! He kindly sent me a 3-disc set with these custom-collaged comic-themed inserts.