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

Scan every time you see this symbol to listen along. Go to page 25 to see how. IT’S WINTER IN LOS ANGELES, 2006, AND THE MOST TALENTED HIP-HOP PRODUCER OF HIS GENERATION FOR EXAMPLE, THE ESCORTS’ 1974 SONG “I CAN’T STAND (TO SEE YOU CRY)” IS IS NEAR THE END OF A FOUR-YEAR BATTLE WITH LUPUS, A RARE AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE. 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.

DESPITE HIS DETERIORATING CONDITION J DILLA IS DETERMINED TO COMPLETE WHAT WILL BE HIS DONUTS – A NAME INSPIRED BY FINAL ALBUM, DONUTS. 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.

IN DONUTS, DILLA TOOK LOOP- BASED SAMPLING TO ITS HEIGHT. AFTER THAT WE WERE ALL LIKE, “WHAT IS THERE LEFT TODAY DILLA’S INSTRUMENTS TO DO?” * ARE KEPT IN THE SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE.

HE MADE MUSIC BY SAMPLING FUNK, SOUL AND JAZZ RECORDS AND REARRANGING THEM INTO COMPLEX NEW FORMS. *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 SCHAEFFER DIVORCED SOUND RECORDINGS FROM THEIR BEEN CREATING ART. IN T.S. ELIOT’S FAMOUS FORMULATION: “IMMATURE REFERENT, ALLOWING THE LISTENER TO APPRECIATE POETS IMITATE; MATURE POETS STEAL.” BUT TO UNDERSTAND SAMPLING AS A TEXTURES AND MELODIES IN NON-MUSICAL SOURCES. IT’S SPECIFIC TECHNIQUE, WE TURN TO PARIS DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR. FOR THIS THAT JEAN-MICHEL JARRE, A STUDENT OF HIS, SAID THAT SCHAEFFER “INVENTED THE SAMPLE”.

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”. *

THE APPROPRIATION OF OTHER *STÉPHANE BONNEFOI, FRANCECULTURE PEOPLE’S MUSIC – AS OPPOSED TO ORIGINAL RECORDINGS AND PUBLIC- LIBRARY SOUNDS – WAS JUMPSTARTED AFTER LIBERATION, AND FURNISHED WITH BY SCHAEFFER’S COLLEAGUE BERNARD WARTIME TECHNOLOGY, SCHAEFFER PARMEGIANI IN THE 1960s. AND OTHERS ENGAGED IN “CREATIVE MISUSE”, PLAYING WITH TAPES AND RECORDING EQUIPMENT TO DEVELOP A NEW GENRE, MUSIQUE CONCRÈTE.

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

WE HAD LIBERATED OURSELVES POLITICALLY [FROM THE NAZIS], BUT MUSIC WAS STILL UNDER AN OCCUPYING POWER, THE MUSIC OF THE VIENNA SCHOOL. NEW MEANS CHANGE THE METHOD; NEW METHODS CHANGE THE EXPERIENCE, AND NEW EXPERIENCES CHANGE MAN. ONE OF STOCKHAUSEN’S WHEREAS TRADITIONAL MUSIC DERIVED FROM WRITTEN ANNOTATION, MUSIQUE CONCRÈTE STUDENTS, WAS BASED ON “FOUND SOUNDS”. SCHAEFFER AND HIS COLLEAGUE PIERRE HENRY MADE HOLGER CZUKAY, CHAOTIC AND SCANDALOUS SYMPHONIES BY SAMPLING THE SOUNDS OF EVERYDAY WAS DETERMINED LIFE – A CREAKING DOOR, A CAR HORN, A BABY CRYING – AND STRUCTURING THEM INTO TO EXPERIMENT RECOGNISABLE FORMS. IT WAS A SONIC FORM OF CULTURAL CRITICISM. FURTHER... IN THE 1960S, WHILE US IMPERIALISM WAS “BOAT WOMAN SONG” IS A HAUNTING PROTEST, MEANWHILE, HIP-HOP WAS A BLACK WORKING-CLASS ART FORM LAYING WASTE TO SOUTH EAST ASIA, COMBINING VIETNAMESE VOCALS WITH FRENCH JON APPLETON DEVELOPED IN THE BRONX AFTER DISCO RECORDS HOLGER CZUKAY HAD BEEN GIVEN THE MEDIEVAL MUSIC. SAMPLING WAS THE SOUND AND OTHER ART- HAD MADE THEIR WAY UP FROM MANHATTAN. KEYS TO STOCKHAUSEN’S STUDIO. OF A GLOBALISED WORLD IN WHICH TIME AND SCHOOL KIDS GRANDMASTER FLASH RELEASED THE FIRST SPACE WERE STARTING TO BLUR. ACROSS AMERICA LIVE DJ-MIX HIP-HOP SINGLE IN 1981, CREATING WERE SAMPLING A NEW SONG FROM OTHER PEOPLE’S RECORDS. TELEVISION COMMERCIALS, EXPERIMENTING WITH PLAYBACK ERRORS AND CREATING NEW SOUNDS.

HOW WAS THIS NEW APPROACH BEING ...BUT BY THE FREDRIC JAMESON DIAGNOSED THEORISED? IN THE 1930S, WALTER 1960S, HIS PASTICHE AS ONE OF THE SYMPTOMS OF BENJAMIN MOURNED THE LOSS MODERNIST POSTMODERNISM. IN THE CULTURAL LOGIC OF AN AUTHENTIC AURA WHEN ART FAITH HAD BEEN OF LATE CAPITALISM THE PAST APPEARS WAS MECHANICALLY REPRODUCED… DISPLACED. THE AS COMMODIFIED NOSTALGIA. SITUATIONIST GUY DEBORD WROTE, “PLAGIARISM IS NECESSARY, PROGRESS IMPLIES IT.”

THE TECHNIQUE OF REPRODUCTION DETACHES THE REPRODUCED OBJECT FROM THE DOMAIN OF TRADITION.

EARLY HIP- ...BUT SOON A HOP SINGLES, YOUNG INTERN

LIKE SUGAR AT A RECORDING CAN YOU REPLAY HILL GANG’S STUDIO NAMED THAT VOCAL LINE? “RAPPER’S MARLEY DELIGHT”, WERE MARL MADE A PRODUCED DISCOVERY. HIGHFALUTIN, EXPERIMENTAL BANDS LIKE ART …BUT IF SAMPLING HAD SO FAR BEEN THE WITH BANDS OF NOISE WOULD QUOTE THEODOR ADORNO PRESERVE OF MIDDLE-AGED WHITE MEN REPLAYING THE ON THEIR ALBUMS’ LINER NOTES… AND ART-SCHOOL STUDENTS, A RUPTURE SAMPLED MUSIC WOULD SOON GIVE IT UTOPIAN PURPOSE. IN A STUDIO...

SURE – SORRY THE SNARE DRUM’S CAUGHT IN THE LOOP.

MARL RECOGNISED ALL OF A SUDDEN, THE ENTIRE BACK CATALOGUE THAT THE LOOPING OF ALL RECORDED MUSIC OPENED UP TO HIM. SNARE DRUM SOUNDED LIKE A NEW BEAT IN ITSELF.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE JUST DID!? IN 1991, BIZ MARKIE AND JAZZ HAD ALWAYS MADE USE OF “QUOTATIONS”, WARNER BROS. WERE THE USE OF OTHER PEOPLE’S RIFFS AND MELODIES. I COULD USE SUED BY THE SINGER- JAMES BROWN’S SONGWRITER GILBERT DRUMMERS… ISAAC O’SULLIVAN FOR AN HAYES’ STRINGS… UNCLEARED SAMPLE. THE JUDGE SIDED WITH O’SULLIVAN, BEGINNING THE RULING WITH THE WORDS...

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL!

THAT’S A QUOTATION FROM GERSHWIN.

BY THE MID-1980s, COMPANIES LIKE AKAI AND E-MU NOTICED WE HATED THERE WAS AN APPETITE FOR PROFESSIONAL CONSTRUCTING RHYTHMS OUT MUSICIANS WHO OF SAMPLES; THE TECHNOLOGY “PLAYED CORRECTLY”. BECAME SMALLER AND MORE AFFORDABLE. BUT THE LEGAL SYSTEM DETERMINED UNCLEARED SAMPLES WERE SIMPLY STOLEN GOODS. CDs LIKE ULTIMATE BREAKS AND BEATS COMPILATION COMPILED THE BEST DRUM BEATS FOR PRODUCERS TO USE IN ORDER TO MAKE HIP-HOP BEATS. THE PROBLEM WAS ALSO GENERATIONAL... MUSICIANS WERE FINDING OUT THAT THEY’D BEEN SAMPLED ON SOMEONE’S SO BEGAN THE GOLDEN AGE OF NEW TRACK. HIP-HOP, WHEN GROUPS LIKE THESE DE LA SOUL AND PUBLIC ENEMY KIDS DON’T CREATED VAST POP-MONTAGE MAKE REAL MUSIC ALBUMS THAT SOUNDED LIKE ANYMORE. NOTHING ELSE BEFORE THEM.

GRANDPA, YOU’RE ON THE NEW DE LA PUBLIC ENEMY’S PRODUCERS, THE BOMB THIS WALL-OF-SOUND, MAXIMALIST HIP- SOUL ALBUM! SQUAD, USED THEIR “COLLAGE” TO BRING HOP REFERENCED THE PAST, BUT IT WASN’T MALCOLM X AND BLACK RADICALISM TO A EMPTY NOSTALGIA. IN BENJAMIN’S TERMS, NEW GENERATION. SAMPLING BECAME A IT “REACTIVATED” THE LOST OBJECT, THEY’RE POLITICISED CONVERSATION, OR CALL-AND- CREATING SOMETHING NEW. BUT JUST STEALING RESPONSE, ACROSS TIME AND SPACE. NOT EVERYONE SAW IT THAT WAY. WHAT WE DID! GODAMMIT!

IN 1988, STETASONIC RELEASED “TALKIN’ ALL THAT JAZZ” IN WHICH THEY CLARIFIED THIS I NEVER EVEN GET ME CULTURAL RECEIVED A “THANKS” MY LAWYER! DIFFERENCE. FROM ANY ARTIST EVEN YOU THOUGH I WAS SAMPLED CRITICISE THOUSANDS OF TIMES… OUR METHOD LET ALONE A PENNY. * OF HOW WE MAKE RECORDS / YOU SAID IT WASN’T ART, SO NOW WE’RE GONNA TO TELL YOU RIP YOU THE TRUTH, JAMES BROWN APART. WAS OLD / ’TIL ERIC B. AND RAKIM CAME OUT WITH “I GOT SOUL”.

*JAMES BROWN’S DRUMMER, CLYDE STUBBLEFIELD LEAVING ASIDE THE IMPLICIT RACISM OF STIFLING THE MOST A BLACK ART FORM BECAUSE IT WAS PREMISED RECOGNISABLE ON “STEALING”, THE THREAT OF LAWSUITS MADE RHYTHM IS THE HIP-HOP FINANCIALLY IMPOSSIBLE. IT BECAME FAMOUS “AMEN COST PROHIBITIVE TO CREATE A PUBLIC ENEMY BREAK”, AN EIGHT- SONG, SO THE MUSIC HAD TO CHANGE AGAIN. SECOND DRUM SOLO FROM THE 1960s.

JUNGLE PRODUCERS TOOK THE “AMEN BREAK” AND SPED IT UP TO ALMOST TWICE ITS SPEED, EDITED, WE FORGED OURSELVES PITCH SHIFTED AN ALLIANCE WITH THE DRES AND MANIPULATED I USED SINGLE AND SNOOPS AND ICE CUBES THE SOLO SAMPLES WHICH WE AND ALL OF THEM. * BEYOND SURFACE COULD AFFORD TO CLEAR. RECOGNITION. EITHER THAT OR FUNKADELIC – THEY WERE HAPPY FOR US TO SAMPLE THEM.

* GEORGE CLINTON FROM FUNKADELIC

AS HIP-HOP BECAME IT WAS AN URBAN, MORE BUSINESS- PAN-RACIAL AND FRIENDLY AND WORKING-CLASS MAINSTREAM IN THE PHENOMENON, US, OLD-SCHOOL BROADCAST JUNGLE EMERGED FROM PIRATE- IN THE UK, IN PART RADIO STATIONS SAMPLING WAS ESSENTIAL TO WHAT THE MUSIC FROM WHAT THE IN CITIES LIKE WRITER SIMON REYNOLDS CALLS THE “HARDCORE MUSIC WRITER MARK LONDON AND CONTINUUM” OF BLACK BRITISH MUSIC. FISHER CALLED THE COVENTRY. THROUGH ALL ITS MUTATIONS, ELEMENTS LIKE “RURAL ARCADIA” OF CHOPPED-UP VOCALS AND MELODIES FROM OLD THE ACID-HOUSE SOUL AND FUNK SONGS NEVER DISAPPEARED. RAVES OF THE EARLY 1990s.

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.

HIP-HOP’S FINGERPRINTS ARE ALL OVER JUNGLE. “GLORY BOX” – FROM THE 1995 EARLY JUNGLE OFTEN MADE USE OF SAMPLES FROM FILMS, ESPECIALLY SCIENCE FICTION INSTEAD OF USING RAVE’S FOUR-TO-THE- MERCURY PRIZE-WINNING LIKE ALIEN, BLADE RUNNER AND TERMINATOR. WHILE THE 1990s SIGNALLED FOR SOME A FLOOR RHYTHM – THE REPEATING BASS DRUM ALBUM DUMMY – WAS BUILT SHINY WORLD OF LIBERAL FREEDOM, PRODUCERS LIKE GOLDIE AND ROB PLYFORD WERE ASSOCIATED WITH HOUSE MUSIC – THE PRODUCERS AROUND AN ORCHESTRAL FORGING A POST-APOCALYPTIC AESTHETIC OF URBAN DECAY AND “CYBER-GOTHIC FICTION”. USED BREAK-BEATS THAT HAD BEEN SPED-UP. SAMPLE BY ISAAC HAYES. DILLA’S BEATS WERE TECHNICALLY SAMPLING CHALLENGES THE BOURGEOIS CONCEPTION MAGNIFICENT, TRANSFIGURING SAMPLES INTO OF HOW ART IS CREATED. IT IS NOT THE PRODUCT OF A UNRECOGNISABLE BUT DISTINCTIVE RHYTHMS. SINGLE MIND, BUT THE COLLECTIVE AND APPROPRIATIVE HIS INSISTENCE ON INTENSIVE LABOUR AND EXPRESSION OF SOCIAL GROUPS. PHYSICAL HARDWARE FEELS ANACHRONISTIC TODAY, WITH YOUTUBE AND MUSIC PRODUCTION SOFTWARE MAKING SAMPLING SO EASY. 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…

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. 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. 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. *

*EGON

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.

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