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Link to iTunes

Parov Stelar is an Austrian Electroswing DJ. I have the albums Coco, Pt. 1&2, and these two songs are just examples of how great the entire collection is. He has slow tracks too, but I tend to be drawn more towards danceable music. Speaking of which, here’s a sick video of a guy dancing to Catgroove.

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Another mashup, but this one deserves a category of its own. The focus of the song is actually a recording of a 1982 lecture given by Pastor Gary Greenwald. Greenwald was a fundamentalist Christian who tried to raise a scare around backmasking, claiming that Satan had placed hidden messages into popular songs. His belief was that our subconscious mind hears these messages, but that they remain undiscovered because they are only audible when the song is played backwards. Mix this recording into the very song that he condemns, and you have a wonderful piece of social commentary.

In Queen’s Another One Bites the Dust, the chorus when played backwards sounds like “It’s fun to smoke marijuana.” I was skeptical, but confirmed that what Greenwald plays is actually a true reversal of the chorus. Amusing for sure, but it doesn’t mean much, as the human brain is wired to find patterns in random sequences. This is what leads to things like the face on mars, or fake subtitles for foreign songs.

Satan aside, this mashup is excellently crafted. The lecture is seamlessly integrated into the song, and Lobsterdust has managed to make the speech sound almost musical. The song stays interesting from beginning to end because it follows the lecture, which has a logical progression. I don’t know Midfield General enough to recognize what’s being sampled, but it’s definitely what’s adding the extra kick. The song is catchy enough to listen superficially, and contains enough interesting content to keep you engaged for the entire 4 minutes.

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The Police vs. The Bee Gees

I love mashups, and think they’re an excellent way to enjoy and appreciate music. This track comes from Bootie SF’s 2008 soundtrack, which unfortunately is sub-par overall. But this song is great.

The beginning of the track has a great mix of both songs in the instrumentation and immediately sets the mood for the rest of the song. It’s pretty rare to find a mix that uses both songs equally, but this is a fine example. The vocals use The Police primarily, but The Bee Gees are interwoven well and add plenty of flavor. I love the way the climaxes of the two songs match up, and I don’t mind too much that Roxanne seems to drop out afterwards, because the song is just so exciting. There isn’t anything jaw-dropping about this song, but it’s certainly solid. That’s a welcome change from other DJs who mix together popular songs for the shock factor with little regard for its final sound.