Sanguine Sunday - The Sample Edition

In store for you this episode on Sanguine Radio we dropped a full fledged show dedicated to the sample. What many don't realize outside the fairly insular Hiphop community is that the layering of samples cut from previously recorded tracks is a highly refined aesthetic formula. Taking bits and pieces from old grooves, the Hiphop beatsmith arranges and manipulates a montage of sounds to cast an entirely fresh composition. The art of sampling is no simple theft.

The emcee flows over these beats, letting their ink spill over the multi-tiered archeology. In a sense, the lyricist spits over history, rejuvenating the past with a new horizon of meaning, and informing the present with the soul sonic flavor of the ancestors. In fact, we could call this craftwork musical montage in line with Eisenstein's montage theories on film. I like to think that this sample episode is a continuation of the Sound Lesson series, just a lot of back and forth dialogue between the originals and the new songs which reference them.

For the past couple decades legal battles have entangled the sample aesthetic intrinsic to this unique craft of beat production. And in recent years, the laws become stricter and more intensified, casting a hazy gloom over the future of this musical style. We turn to our legal expert, Danielle Furman from Art Venture Law, to drop into the studio and shed some light on the copyright issues relevant to the recording industry. What she tells us is certainly alarming yet at the same time hopeful for the future of sample production. Tune in and tell us what you think about the current state of sampling laws--whether they restrict the proliferation of new forms of art or protect the recording industry and the artists it represents!

Sound Lesson: Soupy Jenifa

De La Soul - Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge)


Maggie Thrett - Soupy


Wow, it's been nearly a year since my last sound lesson. I need some crate digger out there in the internet waves to help me out with this feat. Let's kick it off again.

The idea behind these sound lessons is to dig out the dusty history sampled by classic Hiphop tracks. It is always fascinating to hear an old drum break or vocal cut completely reworked into a new sonic landscape. The montage made out of old pieces not only rejuvenates the energy of those aged works, but it also constructs a fresh and new perspective on the musical resonance.

Although accomplishing such innovation with production skills is not an easy task. And many beat conductas have failed along the way to actually construct something blazing new out of the old. But then you got the geniuses like Prince Paul of De La Soul acclaim, an innovator and true taste maker of stylized sound and theatrical Hiphop (the originator of the album skit). Their highly original and brilliant 1989 album, 3 Feet High and Rising, bumps 24 fresh joints patch worked together by literally hundreds of songs from America's pastime. You can even get a taste of the breadth of the samples at sample lesson grandmaster, Kevin Nottingham's, archive.

There are a couple glaring oversights, but for me the most important one gives the life to "Jenifa Taught Me". What happened to stunner Maggie Thrett's anthem, Soupy, released in 1965 off DynoVoice Records? Soupy is a brilliant jam, just that raw uncut funky soul for yo ear. Not to mention that Thrett was also an actress, crooning that futuristic spirit on the mothership.

It makes me understand all the more clearly why De La got their minds all worked up for this girl named Jenifa, oh Jenny. But who the hell is Derwin? Just a virgin? There's got to be more.

Also, Maggie Thrett was an actress who elegantly displayed her futuristic beauty on Star Trek among other cult hits. That's her on the left up her. A sparkly mothership crooner.

Sound Lesson: Pilooski the Sonic Editor

The art of re-editing songs comes with many dangers. The craft demands not only enough skill to conjure up an innovative song that pushes music forward but also the mastery to match if not surpass the quality of the original track. The re-editor must breathe life into dusty bones. He faces the challenge to make the old sound new.

Paris based DJ, Pilooski, who also is known by his Polish name Cedric Marszewskihas, achieveds just this pinnacle style of re-editing shelved classics into body rocking dance party jams. Last year Pilooski gained international recognition in nerdy DJ / blog communities for his re-edit of "Beggin'," a pop hit dating back to New Jersey's legendary Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.



Pilooski cleanly cuts up the guitars of ESG's "UFO" (does any ESG sample not sound amazing?) with a boom bap drum break that propels the vocals into hyperspeed and defy sonic laws by sounding damn smooth if not James Brown soulful. "Beggin' " is one of those tracks that reaches toward the sweaty, adrenaline rushed climax of the party when everyone is wildly dripping the music.

The flipped up video of Beggin' succeeds just as well in resurrecting the dead with some new superpowers.



Part of Pilooski's genius is that he reaps forgotten or neglected elements out of older joints that were never gilded the status as classics. These songs have not been dogmatically hardened into our collective minds by their incessant replay on nostalgiac compilation albums seen on late night infomercials or kitschy diners or oldies radio stations.

Pilooski's proud defiance of codified genres and exceptional digging powers opens up an overflowing reservoir of history to inform his ever growing taste. Listen to how Pilooski transforms the powerful croons of Nina Simone into a slammin' dance thumper in his newly released remix of "Take Care of Business" on the 4th Verve remixed compilation.

Many of Pilooski's edits (and he has many) can be found on the rare and highly sought after limited vinyl releases by Dirty Sound System. Dirty is a group of Parisian selectors that pride themselves on comin' up with the dusty diamonds that inspire and break expectations. These tracks are released with some edits (by the likes of Pilooski) on compilations that fittingly go by the name "Dirty Diamonds." From ominous space disco to thumping krautrock drum breaks, cruising past the euphoric Balearic islands to the syncopated gardens of Northern Soul, dirty does not fear geographical or psychological walls.

Following the numerous "Dirty Diamonds" EPs came a full length Pilooski compilation, dirty edits vol. 1. It also includes a couple surprising covers that will bend your ears backwards.


01 . Mono Puff - Pretty Fly
02 . 99 Frames For Prince - 1999
03 . Alan Parsons Project, The - I Robot (Pilooski edit)
04 . Edwin Starr - Get Up (Pilooski edit)
05 . Pointer Sisters - Send Him Back (Pilooski edit)
06 . Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme - Black Hole Sun (Dirty Reissue)
07 . Unknown - Untitled
08 . Ari Boulogne - Le Petit Chevalier
09 . Can - Mothersky (Pilooski edit)
10 . The Human Beinz - Nobody But Me (Pilooski edit)
11 . Pipilotti Rist - I'm A Victim Of This Song (Wicked Game)

Download part 1.
Download part 2.

Sound Lesson 4: Dilla's Donuts

I've been noticing more and more Hiphop artists playing with the concept of art taking on its own life independent from the life of the artist. While Vaughn Bode constructed a self-sustaining world of mystical wizards, lizards, and bodacious women that enchanted bombers worldwide, J Dilla (born James Yancey) produced a resonant universe crafted out of disparate musical histories that aggressively calls the listener to fall deep into his own sonic world.

While struggling to survive in a hospital bed in '05 and '06 with the debilitating immune condition, lupus, J Dilla gathered the courage to leave behind his best album, Donuts. Dilla worked bedside with musical equipment brought by his mother. Each of the 31 tracks he completed do not last much longer than a minute reflecting Dilla's failing endurance yet resilient devotion to tie together his final aesthetic vision.

While listening more carefully to Donuts and unraveling some of its layered mysteries, I realized that Dilla was trying to come to terms with his own death on the approaching horizon. Some of the cryptic code offers itself to us listeners.

As if peacefully saying goodbye to the terrestrial and firmly implanting himself into the everlasting through his art, Donuts begins with the 'outro' and ends with the "Donuts (Intro.)" Adding to the spiritual quality of the album, the finale 'intro' aims towards Dilla's own apotheosis by employing a sample of one-hit wonder Motherlode's 1969 pop hit, "When I die."

The heartfelt soul jam addressed to a distant lover is propelled by serene percussion that drives Motherlode to chant in harmony during the chorus, "When I die / I hope I'll be / The kind of man that you thought I'd be." In the concluding 'intro' Dilla strategically chops up Motherlode's chorus to elevate the self-proclaiming "be," intertwined only twice with the parallel concept "die," which is manipulated into near incomprehension, as Dilla deconstructs the notions of being and death into their pure sonic elements of feeling.

Facing death head on, Dilla elongates Motherlode's vocals into a celestial proclamation, emphasizing not only the beauty of life but even his own oncoming second life, as he dissipates into becoming, and finally being, the music itself. As a last memory, Dilla aligns himself with a long lasting history of musicians who have passed but continue to live on in the hearts of all who remember.

Intro J Dilla.

Sound Lesson 3: ESG

Before we get on to the very important lesson of the week, I'd like to welcome to Crooks and Grannies a new addition to the team, Cyrus the Humble, but as far as I'm concerned, I'll call him Cyrus the Magnificent... Humble the Magnificent? I think Edan already beat me to that. So, it seems that the trinity is complete, Cyrus will be taking care of writing imagery and recording some sounds, and that will hopefully turn into a cohesive exploratory project of San Francisco.

And yo, Granny Wesson where you at? Besides that, if D-Rock ever gets his act together, then he can join the team for an occasional punch to the face. Get off your turntables and start writing! Or at least throw me a mix, son. Enough of that, let's get to the program.


The saga of the art-funk ensemble ESG (Emerald Sapphire Gold) begins with a healthy dose of South Bronx mythology that necessarily gives birth to anything seminal in the world of Hiphop. So the story goes, streetwise Mother Scroggins figured that she could keep her four daughters out of the mean BX streets by hooking them up with some instruments to jam with. Does this not sound like an Afrika Bambaataa remedy for street violence? Maria took the congas and negotiated the vocals, Renee handled the guitar, Valerie beat on the drums, and their friend Leroy Grover strummed the bass until the youngest sister Deborah took over.

The Scroggins sisters swooped into the downtown NY scene where they found a medley of influences in Hiphop, post-punk, new wave, and house during a time in music history when the boundaries of the genres weren't so cemented into place. Inspired by the evolving sonic zeitgeist the band developed an enigmatic sound boasting complex poly-rhythms laced together with pop guitar hooks that waft breezily over a resounding bass line.

Their first single was produced by the legendary Martin Hannett of Joy Division allure in 1981, the self-titled debut EP released in America on 99 Records (the same label as Liquid Liquid) and Factory Records in England. Hannett's keen ear for body wrenching rhythms emphasized by steady abysmal voids informed ESG's distinctive sound for the rest of their 30 year career.

So who sampled ESG? Their original Hannett produced single "UFO", a sweaty groove fitting its name due to the works of an ominous fast pasted guitar pluck that sounds like an extraterrestrial police siren cut over a clamoring drum break, reaches toward Funky Drummer notoriety in the sample game. Big Daddy Kane, The Beastie Boys, EPMD, Madlib, 3rd Bass, Pete Rock, Public Enemy, even indie rockers The Liars - and in fact, any list that claims to cover the definitive archive eventually admits defeat by adding a new track that escaped everyone's aural grasp. So I won't even try it.

This one resonating cut may serve as the defining element of the brand of aggressive, strong headed Hiphop that slices your eardrums into pieces. Just peep the recent additions of Dilla's "Geek Down" off the Donuts LP or Edan's "The Science of the Two" with Insight off Beauty and the Beat.

So why does ESG not get the James Brown love, you know that credited and compensated love, that they deserve? The group addressed this issue with their 1992 EP Sample Credits Don't Pay Our Bills. They recently called it quits while Renee Scroggins hopes to take more seriously her production of other artists.


Soul Jazz's Universal Sound revisited the band's illustrious career with the release of the powerhouse compilation, ESG: A South Bronx Story. Don't forget to help pay ESG's bills by copping the second chapter of the Story, Rarities, released in Nov. 2007.

Sound Lesson: 2

Pharcyde dropped their second critically acclaimed album in 1995, Labcabincalifornia, celebrating a uniquely West Coast sound that that continues to be unrivaled. Pharcyde managed to drop playful, compassionately driven joint after joint during a tense period of Los Angeles history where the homicide rate rose to over 400 per year. The group found solace in school yard crushes, failed love stories, and the growing pains of post high school life rather than the aggressive pulp fiction of LA's gangsta' rap.


Most notably, Pharcyde released the infinitely nostalgic, Runnin', a motivational anthem that seems to never grow old even though you've heard it over five hundred times. One might owe this replay value to Pharcyde's smooth soul crooning interlaced with captivating tales of trying to find some self respect after being bullied on the basketball courts. Everyone can connect with the sentiment of "can't keep runnin' away" from something or other. Although it's hard to imagine the real potency of this track without the hypnotic drums, the chopped up echo "Run," and rhythmic saxophone brought to you by the mesmerizing production of the late J Dilla.

Dilla found the perfect instrumental combinations to match the cadence of Pharcyde's melodic flow - Stan Getz's saxophone and Luiz Bonfa's guitar. Aided by the strings and compositions of Bonfa, Getz released the Bossa Nova classic, Jazz Samba Encore! in 1963. While listening to Saudade Vem Correndo, one feels the serene vigor of Getz's sax channeling the oceanic Brazilian breeze and then the throbbing sax right before the soothing vocals of Maria Toledo. Bonfa draws the sweaty equanimity of the track together with his wistful guitar plucking, reaching towards its rising zenith between 2:04 - 2:09.


I am absolutely amazed at Dilla's ability to take such small musical elements and turn them into the most memorable sounds (that blood rushing beginning!) as well as the entrancing momentum of Runnin'. Jdilla shows once again why sampling is a serious art form that both layers history and reconfigures new music.

Sound Lesson: 1

I decided to start a weekly thread that traces the original samples of classic Hiphop / Electronic /Nu-Soul / 'whatever genre I want' joints. At first I wanted to limit myself to finding the most obscure shit around, but that constraint really is silly. Instead, I'm just going to post up the illest shit no matter it's popularity.

Let's get to the program then. Remember young Jay-Z when he used to kick with The Jaz as part of The Originators in the late 80s and early 90s? Rumors abound that the Jaz gave Jay-Z his name, or even his original style from which he gained the name Jay-Z, having something to do with his bullet paced, saxophone swaying flow.

In the end, who the hell knows since their egos get too thickly in the way for any simple answers. Even though the two have the funny beef that always haunts people who want to define themselves uniquely from their closest influences, they used to rock it like no one else, leaving for our politically minded bodyrocking pleasure the funky Nation of Islam slam "The Originators."





Oddly enough, I never hear DJs bumping this track even though Jay-Z drops a heated verse with more tongue-twisting technique than Das EFX. Apparently all of Brooklyn got down with the skibbidy hibbop yabbadoo steez.

Considering the track is entitled the Originators, it's only fitting to go back into history to find the source of that inspiration. For the production, Jaz sliced up the aggressive saxophone and resonant drum break of The Last Word's "Keep on Bumpin'." The Last Word was actually a tiny side project of the J.B.'s in the mid 70's that tended to more of an upbeat sound friendly to the hip grinding moves of the bump fad. The sax melody is layered with some sharp keyboard effects that raise into an alarming doppler style blast in the middle of the track. This shit is fresh.