Kate sampled--again

["Brian J. Dillard" <dillardb@pilot.msu.edu>]

Hey all,

Kate has been sampled again--and this time by an electronic musician
with a lot more imagination than the Utah Saints!

The new album by the Aphex Twin (a British bedsit techno composer by the
name of Richard James) is called "Richard D. James," and it finally came
out in the U.S. last week. The first track, "4," features a sample of
the string intro to the 12" of "Experiment IV"; the string part is
actually in the regular version of "Experiment IV," too--but I'm sure he
sampled it from the 12" since it's isolated there.

Amidst a barrage of chopped-up breakbeats, other (presumably sampled)
string parts and Moog keyboard chords, the violin refrain emerges as the
chief melody--then it gets distorted, turned inside-out and threaded
through the rest of the track. The whole thing is instrumental--no Kate
vocals at all.

I highly recommend the album to one and all, not just for the Kate
Konnection but as an example of the kind of musically rich electronic
dance music I was championing on this list a few months ago. Aphex Twin
is a bit of a dabbler in all sorts of electronica, and this album is the
closest he's come yet to full-out jungle/drum-n-bass (not that he is a
purist in any sense).

I've always thought that the whip percussion from "Mother Stands for
Comfort" would make a WICKED breakbeat (breaks are individual drum
sounds sampled and electronically processed into new shapes in jungle
music) but it's equally interesting to hear a Kate string chord used in
place of the typical jungle "synth wash."

Brian Dillard
dillardb@pilot.msu.edu