Songs based on sampling

In which we discuss music in which samples are vital to the songs, etc.

Really, I just created this because I just listened to will.i.am's "Impatient", which, it seems like, the entire track was sampled in Estelle ft. Kanye West's "American Boy", but I much prefer the latter song to the original, even if it's not exactly a very creative use of sampling.

ANYWAY

What are some songs using samples you really like? Personally, I've really gotten into Big Beat music lately, and most of all I love The Wiseguys' "Start the Commotion":

Others I really like include Fatboy Slim and much of the Jet Set Radio soundtracks.

edited 20th Apr '13 6:35:51 PM by 0dd1

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When it comes to creative sampling, look no further than Todd Edwards.

This guy manages to take minuscule samples from a whole bunch of songs and put them all together to make new melodies. It's genius.

Also I'll take this time to predictably mention The Avalanches. Here are some examples.

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

Pretty Lights' EPs Making Up a Changing Mind, Spilling Over Every Side, and Glowing in the Darkest Night are all good stuff.

I didn't write any of that.

Paul's Boutique

"I could eat a knob at night" - Karl Pilkington

Shardrach, Meshach, Abednego...

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

Negativland, y'all:

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THIS SONG IS AWESOME.

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

DJ Shadow. Or, how to make an album only out of samples and put many to shame.

edited 21st Apr '13 8:52:20 AM by Quag15

Eh, I could never get into DJ Shadow. His stuff just doesn't do it for me.

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

I’ve never liked songs based on samples from other songs. It always struck me as the ultimate in lazy songwriting.

Songs based on samples of actual ambient sounds, though...now that is cool:

Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883!

I'd argue it's the same or a similar principle as traditional music, where you have to rearrange the same notes and chords that every other song uses to make something original. Some people just crib other songs, while others really know how to transform it into something truly amazing and new.

From our Sampled Up page on this specific song:

edited 21st Apr '13 12:35:42 PM by 0dd1

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I've always thought the notion of "sampling other songs is lazy" as rather ignorant and generalizing sampling as a whole, as if there's only one way to sample things.

The Prodigy is good at mixing samples with their own material. Take "No Good (Start the Dance)" and "World's On Fire", for example. Both songs are about equal parts sampled and original.

There's also that Todd Edwards video I posted up there.

On the Hip-Hop side of things, you have DJ Premier, a respected producer (and one-half of the Hip-Hop duo Gang Starr known for flipping samples in his own way. Listen to the beat he did for "Part of My Life" by Freddie Foxx. It's a far cry from generic looping of Soul records. Oh, we can't forget "When I B On Tha Mic" by Rakim, in which teh sample is given a totally different feel than the original. Finally, there's "The ? Remainz" by Gang Starr, which takes half of a bar from a Bob James song and, again, gives it a completely different feel.

Not every song that samples an older song is like P. Diddy's "Missing You" where he uses the entire intro of "Every Breath You Take" as the basis for the song and just changes a few words in the chorus. It's much more diverse than people realize.

edited 21st Apr '13 12:41:13 PM by PhysicalStamina

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

I think it can be done right if you actually re-play the parts you're sampling. Like, Brad Paisley and his band actually played the parts of Alabama's "Mountain Music" that he interlaced in "Old Alabama", instead of just cut and pasting them from the original song.

I believe that's called interpolation.

I didn't write any of that.

You're right. I accidentally my vocabulary.

Kid Rock also interpolated on "All Summer Long", which I really enjoy.

Interpolation is just another form of sampling; you're taking part of an older song, and putting it in your song. The only difference is you're actually playing that part.

I think "All Summer Long" was just straight-up sampling.

edited 21st Apr '13 4:02:51 PM by PhysicalStamina

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts by Brian Eno and David Byrne comes to mind as an album that prominently uses samples, but not ones of other songs (or at least not pop songs - a couple of the songs incorporate traditional chants). A lot of the tracks are spoken word clips recorded off radio talk shows or religious programs and set to music, in a way that brings out the inherent musicality of language, especially passionate speech.

Earth is the only planet inhabitable by Nicolas Cage.

I think this is a nice use of sampling.It makes for a nice blend of Rock, Blues, and Soul.

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

The early '80s were a great time for experimental sample-based music. Consider what groups like The Art Of Noise, Coil and the aforementioned Negativland were doing with found sound and musical cutups, or how hip-hop was really beginning to come into its own as a genre.

To single out a less obvious genre, early industrial music made extensive use of sampling and sound collage as a musical technique, going back to Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle's tape experiments and NON's turntable curios in the mid 1970s. Current 93's early output is particularly interesting to me in that it uses some very modern approaches to sample-based musical construction to create works that have nothing to do with the kind of rhythmically focused sample-based music that predominates in the wake of hip-hop.

Please note that I have nothing against hip-hop or rap at all; to the contrary, I think that the kind of person that would discount such music out of hand is not worth the time of day. But it is still refreshing to see something a bit more outré...

...which is not to say that hip-hop cannot be outré. But I will get to that a bit later.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

A couple years back, I was really into "turntablism" which is basically hip hop that's made entirely from samples. DJ Shadow is probably the most famous example, but I really like Kid Koala as well. The entire Ninja Tune label in general has a lot of sample-based music since it's mostly instrumental hip hop stuff.

edited 22nd Apr '13 8:18:23 AM by FingerPuppet

Don't forget Grandmaster Flash.

Or The X-Ecutioners.

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

If one is to speak of turntablism, one should be remiss to not mention Christian Marclay's special madness:

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

What even was that?

To pity someone is to tell them "I feel bad about being better than you."

That, my friend, was motherfucking Christian Marclay. Accept no substitutes.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.