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Radio Tank: progress and plagiarism in the story of sampling. Art by José Luis Pescador, words by Yohann Koshy

80 / TA N K

IN DONUTS,

DILLA TOOK LOOP-BASED SAMPLING TO

ITS HEIGHT. AFTER THAT WE WERE ALL LIKE,

“WHAT IS THERE LEFT TO DO?” *

IT’S WINTER IN LOS ANGELES, 2006, AND THE MOST TALENTED HIP-HOP PRODUCER OF HIS GENERATION IS NEAR THE END OF A FOUR-YEAR BATTLE WITH LUPUS, A RARE AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE.

DESPITE HIS DETERIORATING CONDITION J DILLA IS DETERMINED TO COMPLETE WHAT WILL BE HIS FINAL ALBUM, DONUTS.

HE MADE MUSIC BY SAMPLING FUNK, SOUL AND JAZZ RECORDS AND REARRANGING THEM INTO COMPLEX NEW FORMS.

DONUTS – A NAME INSPIRED BY THE SHAPE OF A VINYL RECORD – IS AN IMPRESSIONISTIC WORK OF SAMPLES. IT IS RELEASED THREE DAYS BEFORE DILLA DIES AND IS WIDELY CONSIDERED A MASTERPIECE.

FOR EXAMPLE, THE ESCORTS’ 1974 SONG “I CAN’T STAND (TO SEE YOU CRY)” IS CHOPPED INTO ITS CONSTITUENT PARTS AND TRANSFORMED INTO “DON’T CRY”, A TWO-MINUTE SONG NEAR THE END OF DONUTS. DILLA’S PRODUCTION ENDOWS NEW MEANING IN THE SAMPLED MATERIAL; THE SONG IS A MOVING MEDITATION ON GRIEF.

TODAY DILLA’S INSTRUMENTS ARE KEPT IN THE SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE.

*EGON, A FRIEND OF DILLA AND GENERAL MANAGER OF HIS LABEL, STONES THROW RECORDS

SAMPLING AS BORROWING HAS EXISTED FOR AS LONG AS HUMANS HAVE BEEN CREATING ART. IN T.S. ELIOT’S FAMOUS FORMULATION: “IMMATURE POETS IMITATE; MATURE POETS STEAL.” BUT TO UNDERSTAND SAMPLING AS A SPECIFIC TECHNIQUE, WE TURN TO PARIS DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR.

AFTER LIBERATION, AND FURNISHED WITH WARTIME TECHNOLOGY, SCHAEFFER AND OTHERS ENGAGED IN “CREATIVE MISUSE”, PLAYING WITH TAPES AND RECORDING EQUIPMENT TO DEVELOP A NEW GENRE, MUSIQUE CONCRÈTE.

WHEREAS TRADITIONAL MUSIC DERIVED FROM WRITTEN ANNOTATION, MUSIQUE CONCRÈTE WAS BASED ON “FOUND SOUNDS”. SCHAEFFER AND HIS COLLEAGUE PIERRE HENRY MADE CHAOTIC AND SCANDALOUS SYMPHONIES BY SAMPLING THE SOUNDS OF EVERYDAY LIFE – A CREAKING DOOR, A CAR HORN, A BABY CRYING – AND STRUCTURING THEM INTO RECOGNISABLE FORMS. IT WAS A SONIC FORM OF CULTURAL CRITICISM.

EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO ENGINEER PIERRE SCHAEFFER WAS IN CHARGE OF THE STUDIO D’ESSAI DE LA RADIODIFFUSION NATIONALE. IN 1943 HE STARTED WORKING FOR THE RESISTANCE, BROADCASTING MESSAGES FROM THE “POETS OF THE RESISTANCE” LIKE ALBERT CAMUS AND PAUL ÉLUARD. LE STUDIO D’ESSAI BECAME “ONE OF THE MAJOR VOICES OF THE LIBERATION”. *

SCHAEFFER DIVORCED SOUND RECORDINGS FROM THEIR REFERENT, ALLOWING THE LISTENER TO APPRECIATE TEXTURES AND MELODIES IN NON-MUSICAL SOURCES. IT’S FOR THIS THAT JEAN-MICHEL JARRE, A STUDENT OF HIS, SAID THAT SCHAEFFER “INVENTED THE SAMPLE”.

THE APPROPRIATION OF OTHER PEOPLE’S MUSIC – AS OPPOSED TO ORIGINAL RECORDINGS AND PUBLIC-LIBRARY SOUNDS – WAS JUMPSTARTED BY SCHAEFFER’S COLLEAGUE BERNARD PARMEGIANI IN THE 1960s.

ONE OF STOCKHAUSEN’S STUDENTS, HOLGER CZUKAY, WAS DETERMINED TO EXPERIMENT FURTHER...

THE GERMAN PIONEER KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN STUDIED MUSIQUE CONCRÈTE IN PARIS, SOMETIMES PLAYING A SINGLE LOOP IN THE STUDIO FOR DAYS ON END.

NEW MEANS

CHANGE THE METHOD; NEW METHODS CHANGE THE EXPERIENCE, AND NEW EXPERIENCES

CHANGE MAN.

WE HAD LIBERATED

OURSELVES POLITICALLY [FROM THE NAZIS], BUT MUSIC

WAS STILL UNDER AN OCCUPYING POWER, THE MUSIC OF THE VIENNA SCHOOL.

*STÉPHANE BONNEFOI, FRANCECULTURE

IN THE 1960S, WHILE US IMPERIALISM WAS LAYING WASTE TO SOUTH EAST ASIA, HOLGER CZUKAY HAD BEEN GIVEN THE KEYS TO STOCKHAUSEN’S STUDIO.

“BOAT WOMAN SONG” IS A HAUNTING PROTEST, COMBINING VIETNAMESE VOCALS WITH FRENCH MEDIEVAL MUSIC. SAMPLING WAS THE SOUND OF A GLOBALISED WORLD IN WHICH TIME AND SPACE WERE STARTING TO BLUR.

HIP-HOP WAS A BLACK WORKING-CLASS ART FORM DEVELOPED IN THE BRONX AFTER DISCO RECORDS HAD MADE THEIR WAY UP FROM MANHATTAN. GRANDMASTER FLASH RELEASED THE FIRST LIVE DJ-MIX HIP-HOP SINGLE IN 1981, CREATING A NEW SONG FROM OTHER PEOPLE’S RECORDS.

EARLY HIP-HOP SINGLES, LIKE SUGAR HILL GANG’S “RAPPER’S DELIGHT”, WERE PRODUCED WITH BANDS REPLAYING THE SAMPLED MUSIC IN A STUDIO...

...BUT SOON A YOUNG INTERN AT A RECORDING STUDIO NAMED MARLEY MARL MADE A DISCOVERY.

ALL OF A SUDDEN, THE ENTIRE BACK CATALOGUE OF ALL RECORDED MUSIC OPENED UP TO HIM.

MARL RECOGNISED THAT THE LOOPING SNARE DRUM SOUNDED LIKE A NEW BEAT IN ITSELF.

MEANWHILE, JON APPLETON AND OTHER ART-SCHOOL KIDS ACROSS AMERICA WERE SAMPLING TELEVISION COMMERCIALS, EXPERIMENTING WITH PLAYBACK ERRORS AND CREATING NEW SOUNDS.

HOW WAS THIS NEW APPROACH BEING THEORISED? IN THE 1930S, WALTER BENJAMIN MOURNED THE LOSS OF AN AUTHENTIC AURA WHEN ART WAS MECHANICALLY REPRODUCED…

...BUT BY THE 1960S, HIS MODERNIST FAITH HAD BEEN DISPLACED. THE SITUATIONIST GUY DEBORD WROTE, “PLAGIARISM IS NECESSARY, PROGRESS IMPLIES IT.”

FREDRIC JAMESON DIAGNOSED PASTICHE AS ONE OF THE SYMPTOMS OF POSTMODERNISM. IN THE CULTURAL LOGIC OF LATE CAPITALISM THE PAST APPEARS AS COMMODIFIED NOSTALGIA.

HIGHFALUTIN, EXPERIMENTAL BANDS LIKE ART OF NOISE WOULD QUOTE THEODOR ADORNO ON THEIR ALBUMS’ LINER NOTES…

…BUT IF SAMPLING HAD SO FAR BEEN THE PRESERVE OF MIDDLE-AGED WHITE MEN AND ART-SCHOOL STUDENTS, A RUPTURE WOULD SOON GIVE IT UTOPIAN PURPOSE.

THE TECHNIQUE

OF REPRODUCTION DETACHES THE

REPRODUCED OBJECT FROM THE DOMAIN

OF TRADITION.

CAN YOU REPLAY THAT VOCAL LINE?

SURE – SORRY

THE SNARE DRUM’S CAUGHT IN THE LOOP.

DO YOU KNOW

WHAT WE JUST DID!?

BY THE MID-1980s, COMPANIES LIKE AKAI AND E-MU NOTICED THERE WAS AN APPETITE FOR CONSTRUCTING RHYTHMS OUT OF SAMPLES; THE TECHNOLOGY BECAME SMALLER AND MORE AFFORDABLE.

CDs LIKE ULTIMATE BREAKS AND BEATS COMPILATION COMPILED THE BEST DRUM BEATS FOR PRODUCERS TO USE IN ORDER TO MAKE HIP-HOP BEATS.

SO BEGAN THE GOLDEN AGE OF HIP-HOP, WHEN GROUPS LIKE DE LA SOUL AND PUBLIC ENEMY CREATED VAST POP-MONTAGE ALBUMS THAT SOUNDED LIKE NOTHING ELSE BEFORE THEM.

PUBLIC ENEMY’S PRODUCERS, THE BOMB SQUAD, USED THEIR “COLLAGE” TO BRING MALCOLM X AND BLACK RADICALISM TO A NEW GENERATION. SAMPLING BECAME A POLITICISED CONVERSATION, OR CALL-AND-RESPONSE, ACROSS TIME AND SPACE.

THIS WALL-OF-SOUND, MAXIMALIST HIP-HOP REFERENCED THE PAST, BUT IT WASN’T EMPTY NOSTALGIA. IN BENJAMIN’S TERMS, IT “REACTIVATED” THE LOST OBJECT, CREATING SOMETHING NEW. BUT NOT EVERYONE SAW IT THAT WAY.

IN 1991, BIZ MARKIE AND WARNER BROS. WERE SUED BY THE SINGER-SONGWRITER GILBERT O’SULLIVAN FOR AN UNCLEARED SAMPLE. THE JUDGE SIDED WITH O’SULLIVAN, BEGINNING THE RULING WITH THE WORDS...

JAZZ HAD ALWAYS MADE USE OF “QUOTATIONS”, THE USE OF OTHER PEOPLE’S RIFFS AND MELODIES.

BUT THE LEGAL SYSTEM DETERMINED UNCLEARED SAMPLES WERE SIMPLY STOLEN GOODS.

IN 1988, STETASONIC RELEASED “TALKIN’ ALL THAT JAZZ” IN WHICH THEY CLARIFIED THIS CULTURAL DIFFERENCE.

MUSICIANS WERE FINDING OUT THAT THEY’D BEEN SAMPLED ON SOMEONE’S NEW TRACK.

THE PROBLEM WAS ALSO GENERATIONAL...

I NEVER EVEN RECEIVED A “THANKS”

FROM ANY ARTIST EVEN THOUGH I WAS SAMPLED THOUSANDS OF TIMES…

LET ALONE A PENNY. *

THAT’S A QUOTATION

FROM GERSHWIN.

WE HATED PROFESSIONAL

MUSICIANS WHO “PLAYED CORRECTLY”.

GODAMMIT!

*JAMES BROWN’S DRUMMER, CLYDE STUBBLEFIELD

I COULD USE JAMES BROWN’S

DRUMMERS… ISAAC HAYES’ STRINGS…

YOU CRITICISE

OUR METHOD OF HOW WE MAKE RECORDS / YOU SAID IT WASN’T ART, SO NOW WE’RE GONNA

RIP YOU APART.

TO TELL YOU

THE TRUTH, JAMES BROWN WAS OLD / ’TIL ERIC B. AND RAKIM

CAME OUT WITH “I GOT SOUL”.

THESE KIDS DON’T

MAKE REAL MUSIC ANYMORE.

THEY’RE JUST STEALING WHAT WE DID!

GRANDPA, YOU’RE ON

THE NEW DE LA SOUL ALBUM!

THOU SHALT NOT

STEAL!

GET ME MY LAWYER!

LEAVING ASIDE THE IMPLICIT RACISM OF STIFLING A BLACK ART FORM BECAUSE IT WAS PREMISED ON “STEALING”, THE THREAT OF LAWSUITS MADE HIP-HOP FINANCIALLY IMPOSSIBLE. IT BECAME COST PROHIBITIVE TO CREATE A PUBLIC ENEMY SONG, SO THE MUSIC HAD TO CHANGE AGAIN.

THE MOST RECOGNISABLE RHYTHM IS THE FAMOUS “AMEN BREAK”, AN EIGHT-SECOND DRUM SOLO FROM THE 1960s.

JUNGLE PRODUCERS TOOK THE “AMEN BREAK” AND SPED IT UP TO ALMOST TWICE ITS SPEED, EDITED, PITCH SHIFTED AND MANIPULATED THE SOLO BEYOND SURFACE RECOGNITION.

SAMPLING WAS ESSENTIAL TO WHAT THE MUSIC WRITER SIMON REYNOLDS CALLS THE “HARDCORE CONTINUUM” OF BLACK BRITISH MUSIC. THROUGH ALL ITS MUTATIONS, ELEMENTS LIKE CHOPPED-UP VOCALS AND MELODIES FROM OLD SOUL AND FUNK SONGS NEVER DISAPPEARED.

SAMPLING MOVED TOWARDS MAINSTREAM GENRES. BRISTOL’S TRIP-HOP SCENE, WHICH PRODUCED ALL-CONQUERING ACTS INCLUDING PORTISHEAD AND MASSIVE ATTACK, COMBINED SAMPLING AND LIVE DJs WITH A MORE “CONVENTIONAL” SET-UP OF VOCALISTS, GUITARS, BASS AND PERCUSSION.

“GLORY BOX” – FROM THE 1995 MERCURY PRIZE-WINNING ALBUM DUMMY – WAS BUILT AROUND AN ORCHESTRAL SAMPLE BY ISAAC HAYES.

AS HIP-HOP BECAME MORE BUSINESS-FRIENDLY AND MAINSTREAM IN THE US, OLD-SCHOOL JUNGLE EMERGED IN THE UK, IN PART FROM WHAT THE MUSIC WRITER MARK FISHER CALLED THE “RURAL ARCADIA” OF THE ACID-HOUSE RAVES OF THE EARLY 1990s.

IT WAS AN URBAN, PAN-RACIAL AND WORKING-CLASS PHENOMENON, BROADCAST FROM PIRATE-RADIO STATIONS IN CITIES LIKE LONDON AND COVENTRY.

EARLY JUNGLE OFTEN MADE USE OF SAMPLES FROM FILMS, ESPECIALLY SCIENCE FICTION LIKE ALIEN, BLADE RUNNER AND TERMINATOR. WHILE THE 1990s SIGNALLED FOR SOME A SHINY WORLD OF LIBERAL FREEDOM, PRODUCERS LIKE GOLDIE AND ROB PLYFORD WERE FORGING A POST-APOCALYPTIC AESTHETIC OF URBAN DECAY AND “CYBER-GOTHIC FICTION”.

HIP-HOP’S FINGERPRINTS ARE ALL OVER JUNGLE. INSTEAD OF USING RAVE’S FOUR-TO-THE-FLOOR RHYTHM – THE REPEATING BASS DRUM ASSOCIATED WITH HOUSE MUSIC – THE PRODUCERS USED BREAK-BEATS THAT HAD BEEN SPED-UP.

* GEORGE CLINTON FROM FUNKADELIC

I USED SINGLE

SAMPLES WHICH WE COULD AFFORD TO CLEAR.

EITHER THAT OR FUNKADELIC – THEY WERE HAPPY FOR US

TO SAMPLE THEM.

WE FORGED OURSELVES

AN ALLIANCE WITH THE DRES AND SNOOPS AND ICE CUBES

AND ALL OF THEM. *

BACK IN THE US, PRODUCERS LIKE J DILLA AND MADLIB WERE ABSORBING ARCHIVES AND EXPANDING HIP-HOP’S GLOBAL TEXTURE, SAMPLING MUSIC FROM WEST AFRICA, INDIA AND BRAZIL.

IN THE 2000s, LAWYERS BECAME MORE UNDERSTANDING WHEN IT CAME TO SAMPLES, AND LICENSEES BECAME LESS PUNITIVE WITH THEIR ROYALTY DEMANDS. HOWEVER, AS THE CULTURE INDUSTRY BECAME MORE COMFORTABLE WITH SAMPLING, IT LOST ITS BITE.

INSPIRED BY THE OMNIPRESENCE OF SAMPLING AND ENCOURAGED BY OPEN-SOURCE MODES OF PRODUCTION ON THE INTERNET, INITIATIVES LIKE COPYLEFT ARE ENCOURAGING ARTISTS TO LET OTHERS FREELY USE THEIR WORK.

KANYE WEST AND JAY Z’S SONG “OTIS” USES A 45-SECOND SAMPLE FROM OTIS REDDING. THE SAMPLE WOULD HAVE BEEN SO EXPENSIVE TO LICENSE THAT IT’S A LUXURY COMMODITY IN ITSELF. FOR MILLIONAIRE RAPPERS, SAMPLING IS NOW A TYPE OF BLING, ALLOWING HIP-HOP TO EXPRESS ITS OBSESSION WITH MONEY NOT THROUGH LYRICAL CONTENT BUT THROUGH MUSICAL FORM.

SAMPLING CHALLENGES THE BOURGEOIS CONCEPTION OF HOW ART IS CREATED. IT IS NOT THE PRODUCT OF A SINGLE MIND, BUT THE COLLECTIVE AND APPROPRIATIVE EXPRESSION OF SOCIAL GROUPS.

OUR STORY TELLS US THE FUTURE OF SAMPLING IS HARD TO PREDICT: THE END OF A WORLD WAR GAVE ITS PIONEERS THE INSPIRATION AND THE MEANS; TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM WAS SUBVERTED BY A FEW UNDEREMPLOYED DJs IN THE BRONX; A FRINGE, CONTROVERSIAL METHOD WAS ACCEPTED BY THE INSTITUTIONS THAT PUNISHED IT.

WHERE WILL SAMPLING GO NEXT? A JOLT IS NEEDED, FROM MUSICIANS, TECHNOLOGY OR SOCIETY ITSELF, TO MAKE SURE IT IS MORE THAN THE 21st CENTURY’S BACKGROUND NOISE…

THE END

DILLA’S BEATS WERE TECHNICALLY MAGNIFICENT, TRANSFIGURING SAMPLES INTO UNRECOGNISABLE BUT DISTINCTIVE RHYTHMS. HIS INSISTENCE ON INTENSIVE LABOUR AND PHYSICAL HARDWARE FEELS ANACHRONISTIC TODAY, WITH YOUTUBE AND MUSIC PRODUCTION SOFTWARE MAKING SAMPLING SO EASY.

WE’VE BEEN

RECYCLING TOO MUCH. IT’S BECOME TOO COMFORTABLE. WE NEED A NEW SEA CHANGE

IN THE RHYTHM OF POPULAR MUSIC, LIKE WHEN SWING GAVE WAY

TO FUNK. *

FOR MORE ON SAMPLING JON LEIDECKER’S RADIO SERIES “VARIATIONS” ON RÀDIO WEB MACBA IS AN EXCELLENT SOURCE.

*EGON