tENTATIVELY, A CONVENIENCE -
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“Tex-Mix (Giddyup Americana)” & “Tex(Re-)Mix (Giddyup Canadiana)” explained (sortof)
- tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - November 17, 2016EV
{AN} Eel’s initial proposal for this Band Camp release was as follows:
“I would like you to contribute two ( 2 ) tracks - One will be a solo peice, and the other - ( Which will be a totally different track ) Will be a collabroative track with myself“
Rather than submit a solo piece that had nothing to do w/ the proposed collaborative track, I decided to give {AN} Eel the raw materials for a sampling piece that I’d made a year earlier & to then submit a realization of that sampling piece as my solo track. That way, {AN} Eel’s re-mix & my original would be available for comparative audition by (M)Usic geeks.
My original piece was called “Tex-Mix (Giddyup Americana)” & was made primarily from samples taken from 6 Tex Ritter movies + samples of my playing coconut halves (as simulated horse’s hooves), 2 types of guitar, mandolin, accordion, autoharp (more correctly called autozither), & harmonica. The project was created in the spirit of an updating of the post-WWII notion of Americana that presented American values as essentially anti-nazi (even when not explicitly stated). As such, I acknowledge the lineage of Antheil, Copland, Foss, Hiller, Siegmeister, & others.
The 61 samples were given to {AN} Eel with their minimally descriptive file names but without any sampling processing such as looping. I didn’t give {AN} Eel any other explanation & asked him to not listen to my realization until after he was done his. In a frenzy of creative activity he finished his version quickly & informed me of the following:
“It was a lot of fun working on, perhaps what contributed to it's rapid completion - You may find it of interest that I didn't listen to the samples before I used them, although in all fairness the titles did give clues.”
I’ve declared, with {AN} Eel’s apparent approval, his re-mix to be “Tex-(Re-)Mix (Giddyup Canadiana)”. I don’t think it’s necessary for me to rework his version because his own spontaneity served its purpose. The 2 versions are enough alike to show a narrative commonality & just different enough to justify their being part of the same release. No piece of mine is intended to be performed the same way twice & I’m glad to be able to highlight this as a part of {AN} Eel’s project. Thank you.