Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. BTLS
2. Power
3. O'Hell
4. 2net
5. Anon
6. Vane
7. Mother
8. Z
9. Angle
10. Way
11. Sfield
12. Ebb
13. Madmod
14. Brazillianaires Theme
15. Bday
16. Philosophy
17. Cuss
18. Explo
19. Sonic Euthanasia
20. Cyfer
21. Pretender
22. Don't
23. White
24. Black
25. Brown
26. Dab
27. Case of Death
28. Fabulous

Disc 2:

1. Case of Death, Pt. 2, Chapter 1-6
2. Andy [Dang Fishy Rift]
3. X24
4. Net
5. Birth1
6. Mist
7. Barely
8. Birth2
9. Prelude
10. Mach
11. Barelys
12. Barelys
13. Barelys
14. Barelys
15. Birth3
16. Rose
17. Ten4gv
18. Debizet
19. Pocket
20. Tune
21. Fold
22. Mirror
23. Dwig
24. 7th
25. Lune
26. Aria
27. Spring
28. Discorite
29. Lovedrops
30. Vand
31. Preliu
32. Para D
33. Rainbow
34. 1001

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80189 in Music
• Released on: 2004-08-10
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Best of

Chronique amazon.fr
S'il a été difficile de faire admettre que la musique pouvait utiliser des sons qui lui préexistent (ce fut là une des contributions essentielles des pionniers de la musique concrète, Pierre Henry et Pierre Schaeffer), il est encore plus difficile, pour beaucoup, de se faire à l'idée que la composition musicale puisse utiliser des enregistrements existants, sans compter les problèmes générés par le copyright. Pour le compositeur canadien John Oswald, utiliser les enregistrements des autres pour en faire quelque chose de créatif est comme de jouer d'un instrument : échantillonneurs et magnétophones ou piano, même combat ! Sa théorie, il l'a conceptualisée sous le nom de "plunderphonics" qui consiste en la réutilisation de musiques familières. En fait, à l'écoute de ses œuvres réalisées, entre autres, à partir d'emprunts à Michael Jackson ou au Grateful Dead, on écoute quelque chose que l'on a déjà entendu auparavant, et quelque chose de nouveau en même temps. Son premier disque, gratuit, avait même été retiré de la vente en raison de pressions émanant de Michael Jackson qui ne l'entendait pas de cette oreille ! Ici, l'essentiel du travail de ce pirateur plein d'humour est compilé sous forme d'un luxueux ouvrage accompagné d'un CD en tirage limité. Tous les genres qui firent l'histoire musicale du XXe siècle se télescopent. Ce dont la pochette qui montre Elvis et Michael Jackson en membres du Club du Sergent Poivre rend bien compte. --Philippe Robert

Customer Reviews

Absolutely essential
69/96 is perhaps the definitive set of John Oswald's experimental Plunderphonics, a two-disc retrospective covering most of his most famous and often brilliant work, from the entireity of the ultra rare Electrax (or Rubiyat, as Electra renamed it) EP to selections from Plexure, Grayfolded, the original (and highly illegal) Plunderphonics CD, and Discosphere.

For the uninformed, Plunderphonics is sampling taken to the next level, songs manipulated, sometimes beyond recognition and often to completely alter their meaning. Just to briefly list some of the tracks on this album would be difficult. There's Chuck Berry songs compressed down to 10 seconds or less (the Barely tracks), Dolly Parton singing a duet with a slowed-down version of herself (Pretender), the Kronos Quartet compared and contrasted with a generic heavy metal band (Mach), a mashup of the Carly Simon and Faster Pussycat renditions of "Vain" (Vane), a marathon of different singers and their renditions of the Phil Spector song "Ebb Tide" (Ebb), and many many more. It's extremely hard to describe half of these songs without making them sound like less than they are. It's popular music completely mutated into something completely above and beyond most anything pop music has to offer, and some of the tracks showcased were even ahead of their time (such as "Power," a combination of Led Zeppelin riffs and televangical ranting that could almost count as one of the first rap songs).

Augmenting the 62 tracks found in this collection is a comprehensive interview with John Oswald that gives key insight into most of the tracks on the discs: how they were made, what they were made for, the history of Plunderphonics, and much much more. Almost no stone is unturned, and some of the songs he mentions in passing that didn't make the cut for this set also serve to pique one's interest. Maybe another Plunderphonics box set will eventually see the light of day if we're lucky.

All told, this is an extremely well done and exceptionally brilliant package, and should be essential for fans of experimental music or to those who would like to know exactly what sort of possibilities sampling can hold as a medium in and of itself. I'd recommend getting this as soon as you can. While the copyright lawyers haven't made a fuss over this album yet, who knows when they might.

diverging opinions
I've found that, every time I find something that I personally find to be absolutely wonderful, some other people will agree with me, but there are quite likely just as many people who have exactly the opposite opinion. When Smooth Earl (whose opinion you will find immediately below) says "I was doing stuff like that on my tape recorder back in '83 when I was in 4th grade, and I did a better job than this guy", it reminds me all those people who say their dog could make a better painting than Jackson Pollock (or Pablo Picasso).
In some cases these people really can't see the difference between a smudge and a Pollock. That's OK. Perhaps to Smooth Earl the entire oeuvre of John Oswald really does sound like something he did in the 4th grade (when are you going to release your album Earl, so we can compare?).
Poor hearing-deprived man, but still, everyone is entitled to have their opinion.
What I object to is Earl saying, "You will be severely disappointed just like me." What a stupid, narrow-minded statement. I obviously don't share your opinion Earl, and there others who don't think like you do - please check out the reviews at the bottom of the page.
I wish that there were listening samples for each of the 60 tracks in this box set, because, like it or not, there is undeniably more variety in this package than in any other musical offering I can think of. Sure there probably is something here for everyone to dislike, but for anyone with open ears, and a desire for surprises, this is a cornucopia of all kinds of music; each kind presented in a new way, sometimes subtly and sometimes brutally.
I suspect that neither Smooth Earl or "a music fan" listened any further than the first couple of tracks, because when they make their analogies to changing radio stations every two seconds they obviously haven't listened to Rainbow, which is an elegiac, glistening shifting of perfectly consonant chords played by the 101 String Orchestra like one big wave; or PreLieu where a live string quartet plays a sinuous, sensual variation of one of Beethoven's prettiest tunes; or Anon which is a chorus of the beautiful voice of Tim Buckley.
And then there is the fast-paced stuff. Perhaps Smooth Earl could edit in the 4th grade as well as Oswald, but I've never heard anyone who can dice and splice as intricately and precisely as can be found in any number of the cuts on Plunderphonic.
In addition to getting a lot of music in this box set, one will also discover a treasure chest of detailed notes (in the 40,000 word interview Oswald sometimes speaks as acrobatically as he composes) and a lot of often very funny visuals which are another way to get an idea of what the music is like. For example, look at the cover collage above: a group photo of U2 has been transformed into a band of Frankensteins, in which David Bowie and Barbra Streisand, or Boy George and Billy Gibbons get grafted into one person.
Oswald suggests that Power (composed in 1975) is perhaps the first Rap song. It was created independent of the concurrent experiments of Afrika Bambaataa and crew, predates Byrne and Eno's similar experiments by 5 years, and in its use of Led Zepplin riffs it predates the Beastie Boys by a decade. One of the reasons some of this music sounds so unusual is that it was created so much ahead of its time. It's kind of like the case of Trout Mask Replica (which also gets transformed by Oswald).
Unlike other commentators I won't presume to say whether you should get this set or not. But I think that any listener whose range of listening interests can go from Stravinsky to Metallica to Public Enemy might be intrigued. Or any one who wants to hear an Agatha Christie story as if it was transformed by James Joyce... or Dolly Parton slowly turn into a man... or Bill Frisell playing with Elvis Presley... Debussy sung by a bird... an almost brand new Doors song ... Anton Webern and the Beach Boys ... Fine Young Cannibals with Annie Lennox (ten years before mash-ups)... a cubist Count Basie... Madonna granulated... it's all here.