The sample source syndrome

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That's the best name I can think of for this series of events:

1) You hear and fall in love with a club/hip-hop/jungle track, mostly on the basis of a dope sample.
2) You then run across and listen to the song said track samples. It turns out to be amazing.
3) Going back to the club/hip-hop/jungle track in question, it sounds a lot weaker in comparison to the original sample source.

For me, I thought West Street Mob's "Breakdance Electric Boogie" was pretty cool. Then I heard the Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache" and now the WSM track sounds like nothing special.

― Nate Patrin, Thursday, 5 September 2002 16:29 (twenty-three years ago)

And hey I like KRS but All The People's "Cramp Your Style" SMOKES "I'm Still #1".

― Nate Patrin, Thursday, 5 September 2002 16:31 (twenty-three years ago)

but that has more to do with "Apache" being the greatest record ever made than any kind of syndrome

― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 5 September 2002 22:51 (twenty-three years ago)

OK, you got me there. But there's other examples I'm sure.

― Nate Patrin, Thursday, 5 September 2002 22:54 (twenty-three years ago)

cramp your style is a grate grate song!! i think your syndrome is actually less common than you think. more often i find that the originals are only good for those 5 seconds they sampled.

but other examples of what yr getting at, or at least bonafide great originals-

RAMP - daylight (atcq - bonita applebum) not that bonita isn't a good song or anything, but 'daylight' is sooper groovy

also tribe sample - billy brooks '40 days' haha, conveniently these are on one 12" record on alpha/omega. the ramp record was reissued recently too.

cymande 'bra' is solid (de la - 'change in speak')

ah, these are probably nothing new to many folx, but i don't really explore this realm too much anymore so all i have are old examples

this makes me think of when my band got our set of ultimate breaks records. it really does let the air out of the tires in some ways to hear all the originals. not necessarily because of how great the originals are, but because of how little some songs offer beyond a looped sample. i remember being really let down when i heard the song that 'fortified live' comes from. (u-roy 'tom drunk')

eek we are talking about some old records. it would be cool if someone could illuminate some current samples

― ron (ron), Friday, 6 September 2002 03:36 (twenty-three years ago)

I recently heard the song DJ Shadow sampled for the unutterably wonderful "Midnight In A Perfect World" on an extremely cool radio station here in Sydney - it sounded gorgeous in itself, but a. it didn't diminish my enjoyment of Shadow's tune at all and b. the friggin' useless DJ didn't tell us what it was! Ideas?

― Charlie, Friday, 6 September 2002 05:10 (twenty-three years ago)

As a huge fan of jazz, funk and soul I often find myself more favourably disposed to the original, especially where the sampling artist has done very little with it.

I get the impression that older records lend themselves to sampling as they were generally made in days of less multi channel studios and therefore there was less going on, thus the improved chances of finding a clean break. But I may well be wrong on this. Sometimes I look at the sample credits on albums (which are usually in tiny, tiny writing) and its' often from hip hop records. At least it seemed to be on Tricky's "Pre Millenium Tension", the booklet of which I was reading a few days ago.

― tigerclawskank, Friday, 6 September 2002 08:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Pekka Pehjola's "The Madness Subsides." I like the way it dwindles into this bizarre, aimless bass rumble.

― Andy K (Andy K), Friday, 6 September 2002 11:01 (twenty-three years ago)

how does 'sower of seeds' work in to midnight IAPW and what does that song sound like? i had always assumed that that was the track with that electric piano loop because of the fact that 'sowing the seeds of love' by tears for fears has almost the same chord progression - i thought there was a connection.

― ron (ron), Friday, 6 September 2002 13:01 (twenty-three years ago)

also people like to sample older records because that's where all the good instruments are, although there has been somewhat of a revival for some of these inst. probably due in no small part to folks sampling them all the time.

when i was lamenting talking about older records, i meant old hip hop records, that a lot of people know the samples from already.

― ron (ron), Friday, 6 September 2002 13:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Melvin Bliss - "(Synthetic) Substitution" vs any & everything that sampled it

― Paul (scifisoul), Friday, 6 September 2002 15:06 (twenty-three years ago)

There's some doofy little interlude somewhere in Fantastic Damage that I swear to god samples Orbital's "The Box". There's a sample I wish El-P woulda done more with.

― Nate Patrin, Friday, 6 September 2002 19:59 (twenty-three years ago)

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