Mashups are nothing new. Danger Mouse first made a name for himself with the release of The Grey Album in 2004. Bill McClintock’s audio and video mashups on YouTube are legendary; I admit I’m a huge fan of his work.
Yet there are questions about the legality of such work. The source materials are naturally copyrighted, but when works are combined with the audio equivalent of a Mixmaster to create new, unique songs – even if there is no plan for financial gain by the creators – the lawyers for the original artists start slobbering like starving dogs, ready to leap upon the creators of such work.
One such artist is The Ajjancy, who released …To Be Arranged on YouTube as the only avenue to get their creations out to the public. (Reviewers such as myself were entrusted with physical CDs.) The listener is given seven tracks, released without the original artists’ consent, that happen to create fresh takes on the material. And, if the vocals were a little bit stronger, this would be an amazing disc.
The opening track, “Baba’s Bizarre,” shows the skill this collective of musicians to make a song like OMC’s “How Bizarre” – a song I absolutely despise – actually interesting. Interspersed with snippets of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” there are enough features of each original song to be recognizable, but presented as a brand new, unique offering – and, dammit, it works! (For the record: there do not appear to be any portions of the original recordings in any of these tracks.)
The thing that strikes me about …To Be Arranged is that there is an underlying respect for the original works covered by The Ajjancy – even if they’ve been cut and pasted nine ways to Sunday. If anything, these works show how well these songs worked together. Had the late Frank Zappa done this, he more than likely would have called this an extension of “conceptual continuity”.
Not every mashup is a home run – I’ll admit I give less than a damn about anything Kanye West-related, so “25 Or 6 To Stronger” fell kinda flat to me (though it’s fairly solid musically). But for the occasional misstep, there are tracks like “Babe, You Belong” – honestly, who ever considered combining Glenn Frey with Led Zeppelin? But it works on all levels. Similarly, Metallica paired with the Moody Blues on “Nothing Else In White Satin” is a stroke of genius.
The one downfall is in the strength of the vocals. “Roundabout Thriller” showcases this. What should have had a vocal performance that solidified the Yes/Michael Jackson combination and kicked it into the stratosphere… well, the vocals just sit there. If they were to ever try such an album again – and, honestly, I hope they do – that would be the area I’d encourage them to work on.
The Ajjancy recognizes that …To Be Arranged is an EP that potentially treads some dangerous legal grounds. But, if representatives for the included artists (except for the aforementioned West, who has zero chill) were to step back and really listen to these works, they would see that there never was an intention to pass these off as originals, but rather respectfully crafted (if unintentional on the artists’ part) collaborations.
Just like I eagerly await new YouTube releases from McClintock, The Ajjancy is another artist from whom I’ll be waiting to hear what they’ve come up with next. With a little more muscle in the vocals, they could even challenge McClintock for the mashup throne.
