Music Discussions

Recently while doing my monthly check through coworkers’ iTunes shares looking for music that I haven’t been exposed to yet, I stumbled across a fantastic series of mash-up albums. A+D has released a "Best of Bootie" album each year since 2005 containing the best tunes played at their mash-up parties during that year.

What’s even better is that while searching for more information on the Internet about these albums, I found that they are being given away free on Bootie‘s website. Several of the years had so many mash-ups that were considered the best that they would not all fit on a CD. Because of this, there are also bonus tracks that may be downloaded.

I have found that it does not matter if you are unfamiliar with the tracks being mixed in most cases as many of the songs do not need a frame of reference. Before encountering these albums, I was familiar with the concept of mash-ups, but had not really been exposed to this phenomena; I am truly impressed by how such disparate songs can be blended so seamlessly. Also, many of the the tracks are quite humorous such as "Its Fun to Smoke Dust".

A few of my favorite mixes are "Funky Goes to Hollywood", "It’s Fun to Smoke Dust", and "Tricky Sandman". The first is a combinations of "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and "Play that Funky Music" by Wild Cherry. The second is Queen’s "Another One Bites the Dust" mixed with a minister trying to convince people that this same song is trying to lead people to smoke marijuana. Last is "It’s Tricky" by Run-D.M.C. – which, as it is one of my favorite songs I have written a video analysis of it ? combined with Metalica’s "Enter Sandman". I am really amazed by how well these last two songs can be blended together while still staying true to and not detracting from the original music.

I hope to have time in the near future to write full reviews of each of the albums on Music Reviews. Until then, happy listening.