Talk to me about bootlegs why don't you.

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Ok so these bootlegs (Aguilera vs. Strokes, Girls On Top, Freelance Hellraiser, etc etc) are going to be interesting for a few more minutes. Before everyone gets eye-rollingly bored with them, I have a query or two.

First, how the hell are they made? Like, where do the creators get the separate tracks from? Is there some corrupt studio archive chap out there ready to hand over the keys to his collection for a few pence, or can anyone get hold of them?

And secondly, what's the most interesting one you've heard? The Adina Howard vs Gary Numan track by Girls On Top is strutting-down-the-street lovely - this has recently been rerecorded by the Sugababes, who beautifully don't have a clue who Gary Numan is... Also, the D12 vs Depeche Mode track works stupidly well. But peoples, what do YOU think?

― Ian, Wednesday, 6 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think all the Girls On Top ones (that I've heard) are quite marvellous - "Being Scrubbed", "Dancing With Numbers" etc. But I think what really separates Girls On Top stuff from most bootlegs is that it's not a so much a soundclash as a timeclash. The idea that R&B vocals might go well with synth and electro sounds should surprise nobody; what does surprise is just how close to modern stuff it sounds, even when the music's over twenty years old - and note that now proper R&B artists and producers are getting in on the act (see the Pink "bootleg" remix, while Brandy's "What About Us" could easily be a Girls On Top production). Which leads me to think that there's some sort of aesthetic point that the person behind these mixes is trying to make.

Meanwhile, the bootleg putting the vocals of "Get Ur Freak On" over George Michael's "Faith" has so many moments of absolute *rightness* that it's quite easy to overlook the ickyness factor of it all.

― Tim, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

who beautifully don't have a clue who Gary Numan is...
I am interested to know where you got this information?

― helenfordsdale, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

separate tracks = instrumental + acapella, usually available on the promo vinyl sent out to radio stations and DJ shops. i made a slamming slamming thing of Missy doing GURFON over the instrumental to "Bakardi Slang". If anyone feels like they can stomach another "version" of this song I'll post it.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

They're generally very poorly done, and more "clever" than good, but there's a moment on "A Stroke of Genie-ous" where a Christina melisma that's pretty pro forma on the original comes off like Jane Freakin' Siberry, so that one, at least, is a keeper.

― Colin Meeder, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"who beautifully don't have a clue who Gary Numan is..." I am interested to know where you got this information?

it was on NME news (and other music news around the world...)...

― richelleux, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Richard X of Girls on Top said so in the mini-interview which I assume came in the press release.

Meanwhile bootlegs num num. I like them a lot.

― Tom, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Overload" with "Forgot About Dre" over the top is so good that it made me search out the original Sugababes song which turns out to be AWFUL. Oh that lovely backing track ruined by such pinched nasal whines!

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tom I'll take your "num num" as a yes on my homebrew bootleg. I've put the kardinal/missy/timbaland megamix on Filepile cause I can't figure out any other diskspace anywhere. It'll be up for a week, and you have to have already be registered with filepile, which is like next to useless I guess, so if anybody has any disk space anywhere I'd be happy to post it elsewhere.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That Sugababes/GOT/Howard/Numan thing is surely a contender for best track of the last year or so. I've only got a 2.5 minute snippet but I can't stop playing it.

― RickyT, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

to make em' you can seperate vocals (or any sound for that matter) with any fourier analysis software. some software litterally allows you to take a pencil tool to plots of amplitude as a function of frequency and time. ( a pretty cool way to encript messages into music) anyways you can bassically 'perfectly' filter out vocals etc...

― ddd, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Avalanches' DJs make a number of impromptu bootlegs live that always work really well - the Madonna + Bob Dylan one *of course*, but also a surprisingly astonishing (as in, it shouldn't be astonishing but it is) combination of the vocals from "Give It 2 Me (I Just Wanna Love U)" and the music from "The Next Episode".

― Tim, Thursday, 7 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Went to a bootlegs night last night. Really really fun, and very interesting too. Classic! Expect lots of stuff on FT about them.

― Tom, Friday, 8 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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