Samples & Trainspotting

Well I suppose I could just sign up to WhoSampled but I don't know if I wanna go full nerd.
I do like a good "trainspot"- by others as well as me. It's not just about being a smug cleverclogs, it's about appreciating the interconnectedness of music, or something.

Anyway, more of a question than an answer on this occasion. I was listening to Uranium by Kraftwerk recently. We all know it was sampled in Blue Monday but listen to the opening four seconds of it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePW52C5YBbA

Have they been sampled in the opening seconds of Come Together (and f&cked around with), or am I mistaken? Can't decide.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3vvn2qOh58

Well I suppose I could just sign up to WhoSampled but I don't know if I wanna go full nerd.
I do like a good "trainspot"- by others as well as me. It's not just about being a smug cleverclogs, it's about appreciating the interconnectedness of music, or something.

Anyway, more of a question than an answer on this occasion. I was listening to Uranium by Kraftwerk recently. We all know it was sampled in Blue Monday but listen to the opening four seconds of it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePW52C5YBbA

Have they been sampled in the opening seconds of Come Together (and f&cked around with), or am I mistaken? Can't decide.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3vvn2qOh58

It's a fairly easy sound effect to do so it's hard to tell if it's a sample or not

I was digging in the realm of obscurity (read: artist with < 20,000 plays) on Spotify, when I came across this gem. Recognize it on first listen? If not, just up the pitch from C->E and time stretch:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6-V6UJTiOs

Blue Train?

came across this gem. Recognize it on first listen?

Ooh, Good spot! Blatantly nicked, and seemingly no writing/sample credit given to them.

The fact that the band didn't get a record contract in the 60's and their music didn't get released 'til 2003 may have made it easier not to credit them. And, as pointed out in the YT comments the song is based on a live-only Doors song.

ps: Fascinating fact time: The colourful bus you can see at around 5.44 in Biff's video above is I believe, Ken Kesey & his Merry Prankster's bus. The Bus was known as Further(!) and inspired The Beatles' (much loved by the Chems) Magical Mystery Tour. Ken Kesey incidentally was the author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (worth reading even if you've already seen the Jack Nicholson film). The money he got for that book allowed him to buy/maintain the bus and look after the people who joined him (i.e The Merry Pranksters) on his um, magical mystery tour. They drank a lot of Kool Aid with LSD/Acid in it, and had "Acid Tests". Read more about it on wikipedia, where you will notice a flyer asking "Can you pass the acid test?"

There's a book about all this called The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test (1968) by Tom Wolfe. Although it's not technically fiction, it kinda reads like fiction and I recommend it! And yes that is the same Tom Wolfe who would release his first fiction book 19 years later in 1987: The Bonfire Of The Vanities. I also recommend this book despite the fact that the Tom Hanks film adaptation of it was a complete disaster.

So that's three book recommendations from me, and a new question for Tom should the opportunity arise. I.e: Tom did you name your 2010 album after Ken Kesey's bus, and how much acid was in your kool aid during the recording process?

There's a book about all this called The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test (1968) by Tom Wolfe. Although it's not technically fiction, it kinda reads like fiction and I recommend it!

Have that in my shelf and can recommend it too.

Ok, Chemical Hive Mind, a question re BRB.

The bass at the mark you mentioned bears some resemblance with the BRB sample, but I'm not sure if it's really it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQADXqHKmEQ

I have little doubt that the Chems were 'inspired' by the bassline from the above track. But did they directly sample it? According to WhoSampled, they sampled the bassline from the intro of this track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6F8yUdg6ls

So did they take inspiration from one track but actually use another track to create the bassline?

Ha, I forgot about the Crusaders' sample. This does sound like the actual sample for BRB. I might have jumped the gun and think you're right here!

I've argued the point at disclosing samples so freely, so I suppose this kinda makes me a hypocrite for sharing... But things are slow and I figured I share before I forget that I came across this...

In some of my late night "innocent" internet searches ( ), I go down these worm holes where I search for a relatively simple thing, but I find myself somewhere that I end up discovering something strange and forget what I was searching for in the first place. Well, this is one of those occurrences. Not too long ago, I somehow came across the soundtrack for the film 'Forbidden Planet'. I sampled some of the soundtrack and it's an early form of experimental electronic music that would be easily referenced as old space sci-fi film music. It seems like a treasure trove of work that would be easily sampled or "borrowed" from. Actually some of it sounds pretty awesome, and I would say it's worth checking out in full. Here are some tracks that I found similarities in:

exhibit A:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuyd_i488Fg

exhibit B:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyyrgORcsHU


I'll let you guys connect the dots.

To me those snippets just sound like Synthi, rather than stuff the Chems directly sampled.

I have been enjoying reversing parts of their tracks to discover what's been backmasked. Always thought Let Forever Be was backmasked guitar samples, but it seems to be a mixture of regular and backmasked strings!

You're probably right. Although, I never thought it was directly sampled either. But listening to 'Base 6' and 'Flashback' there is a lot of similarity there.

I know Tom and Ed are known to dredge through some of these older sci-fi soundtracks and have an appreciation for the early forms of electronic music. This particular score to this film was made via magnetic tape manipulation. This is basically where "Alien" type sound and sound effects derived from. I have to imagine they came across this in some format.


On very semi-related note to magnetic tape manipulation. I was exposed to this in heavy doses during my childhood, and think I finally realized why I never passed the the acid test:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt87rvCPViQ


I still have this on VHS! Oh god!

When I mentioned in the Favourite Compilations & Mixes thread that "A Boy's Own Odyssey (Acid House Scrapes & Capers) JBOD04CD" was worth getting for Weatherall's remix of James' Come Home, I must admit it didn't ocurr to me that Come Home may have been sampled in The Private Psychedelic Reel. Am I a bit slow to this one?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfGixhoiegI
4.59 onwards


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWLj3etXL64
6.32 onwards. Or indeed the opening three minutes. And elsewhere.

The sitar sound from PSR is sampled from The Beatles Norwegian Wood.

The sitar sound from PSR is sampled from The Beatles Norwegian Wood.

I knew I wasn't the only one that thought that. you can even hear the guitar in the background of each cut.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_V6y1ZCg_8

my mum told me like 20 years ago that the sitar in tppr is a beatles song =P

It was supposedly disproved to avoid The Chems having to pay for the sample, but yeah, I'm pretty convinced it comes from there

I thought it was already established that Jonathan Donahue from Mercury Rev played it for the TPPR. It should be in the credit notes.

Also, yes The Beatles wouldn't let them use it. Tom and Ed were accused of sampling Tomorrow Never Knows for Setting Sun but they were just good enough to fool the lawyers and didn't use it.

It's 100% Norwegian Wood. I recreated it in Ableton a few years ago and it was absolutely spot on. Will try and post a link at some point.

It's 100% Norwegian Wood. I recreated it in Ableton a few years ago and it was absolutely spot on. Will try and post a link at some point.

Gotta hear this

It's 100% Norwegian Wood. I recreated it in Ableton a few years ago and it was absolutely spot on. Will try and post a link at some point.

please do