The Don Music Sound-I Stole This! (2012)

Here it is: my second digital album review!

For starters, Negativland is one of the best-known sound collage/Plunderphonics groups in the world. But, if Survivor was a clone of Journey, and if Hampton Grease Band was a clone of Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, then The Don Music Sound is definitely a clone of Negativland!

The Don Music Sound is a solo project of Madison, Wisconsin-based musician Don Music, whose music is constructed entirely of samples from movies, music, TV shows, and radio broadcasts that are spliced together, according to the man himself, “with the passion and whimsy of a mad scientist”.

This album, entitled I Stole This!, was released in March 2012 on SoundCloud, Bandcamp, and Reverb Nation, making it a digital-only album in the process. I listened to the full album on Bandcamp earlier today, and I thought that it was one of the best sample-based albums of all time.

I’m going to give you a description of each of the album’s tracks (remember: this was all done with samples):

“Creatures of the Future”-The opening track begins with samples of a guy starting up a film projector, with a countdown coming after. A sampled electro house jam appears with a scientist giving a speech about biological mutations. A pop tune also shows up, filled with acoustic guitars, later developing a dance music beat. You can also hear samples of an evil laugh in the background, too.

“One Trek Beyond”-This track is filled with Star Trek samples (the one from the classic 1960’s TV show), and the Madness song “One Step Beyond…” playing simultaneously with the original Star Trek theme.

“Moby Beatnik”-A documentary-style ambient collage featuring jazzy drums and bongos, nature and space sound effects, and a sampled spoken narration, appearing to come from a British guy if the accent is any indication. It also has a chopped-up hard rock jam at the end, sounding like it came from a Led Zeppelin song.

“Up From the Ashes”-Beginning with seagull sounds and a spoken voice about a phoenix, this track is full of a jazzy melody with bongos and electric bass, accompanied by voice samples about the phoenix mentioned at the beginning of the track. It also has some barnyard samples.

“Raspberry Jam”-This is the most catchiest piece on the whole album. It is a Plundereggae tune (as I call it) featuring samples from the Bob Marley classic “Jammin'”, scientists talking about computer jamming, Spaceballs (still a great Star Wars parody) and samples of various electronic noises.

“Strange Game”-This has creepy robot samples backed by a hip-hop drum machine rhythm. Various telephone recordings also appear.

“I Stole This!”-Constructed almost entirely of looped hip-hop samples, featuring what sounds like a nuclear air raid siren.

“Some Kind of Mobius”-This consists of samples of a 1940’s couple talking, accompanied only by faint electronic drones.

“I’m Deconstructive”-This has chopped-up hip-hop samples with a guy’s voice talking about destruction and creation. Later on, it has a distorted voice that gets butchered to the rhythm.

“A New Arrangement”-Kitschy old-school (but also looped and chopped-up) radio broadcasts of rhythm & blues music goes throughout this track, accompanied later on by monkey sound effects.

“Music of the Spheres”-An ambient-sounding number featuring spacey synthesizer effects. A tribal-sounding percussion beat develops along with electronic noises and samples of people talking about music from outer space.

“Does That Star-Spangled Banner Yet Rave?”-The highly-dramatic closing track has a rave/club music jam played simultaneously with Jimi Hendrix’s experimental-guitar-solo-performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock in 1968. It also ends with some distorted voice samples (with a droning synth bass), sounding like they came from outer space. For me, this is the only track I like from music that is considered “rave”, mostly because of the Jimi Hendrix accompaniment, and the voice samples at the end.

I Stole This! is the work of a man who uses samples in various ways to construct strange and most-often humorous messages. My personal favorites on the album are “One Trek Beyond”, “Moby Beatnik”, “Up From the Ashes”, “Raspberry Jam”, and “Music of the Spheres”. I can easily recommend this for regular listening (if you like sample-based music), but this would also be great for nerdy science conventions, fans of cheesiness in pop culture, and especially those who like Plunderphonics, but can’t stand Vaporwave most of the time.