'Piracy' That Creates Amazing New Music

from the here-we-go-again dept

Fri, Sep 19th 2014 12:28pm — Mike Masnick

More than five years ago we first wrote about Kutiman, an Israeli musician who created an album of incredible new music simply by editing together a bunch of unrelated YouTube clips. The end result is... astounding. I still listen to it frequently. In some ways this is a "mashup" or a "remix" but it's unlike most that you've heard. Many remixes take a known recorded song and change it around or take a few different recorded songs and mix them all together. Those can be amazing too. I've found that by artists like Girl Talk or D.VELOPED often create music that I, personally, find to be more enjoyable than the originals. But Kutiman is different, and takes it to a new level by taking totally random bits of music -- often amateurs messing around -- on YouTube, and converting them into astoundingly complex and beautiful songs.

We've highlighted some of the examples in the past, but here are two examples from that first album, of taking a random video that most wouldn't consider to be anything all that special and turning into a part of an amazing project. We'll start with taking a simple kid playing a scale on a trumpet which becomes integral to an entire (great) funk song. Here's the trumpet bit: And here's the full song: Or how about this basic trombone solo becoming such a haunting and compelling part of this dub reggae song (trombone comes in at 42 seconds). Here's the trombone: And here's the full song: Kutiman is back again with a new track from a follow up album of songs clipped together from YouTube (the full album is expected to be released soon), and once again, it's quite amazing: And yet, some might argue that this is all nothing more than "piracy" or "infringement." Others may argue that this is not "real" music because it's just "remixing." I have a hard time taking any of those arguments seriously. Here is someone using those pieces as instruments to create a beautiful new work. It takes nothing away from the old work.

Unfortunately, however, there's already been some (now resolved) controversy with this new work. One of the cello players, Deryn Cullen, featured in this work apparently complained to Kutiman. It's this video in which she plays Bach's Prelude from Cello Suite no 2 in d minor. She apparently was initially upset and felt that Kutiman should have first asked permission to use her performance. After they talked it over, and she understood the nature of the project (and, perhaps, because she saw how much positive attention it was getting), she agreed that she was happy to be a part of it. It's good that they were able to have a discussion on this and come to a mutual appreciation -- but it's yet another unfortunate situation that one comes to when we live in a world of "permission culture," where some people feel that you should always get permission first. And to sort of prove how silly this is, one need only ask whether or not Cullen received permission from the estate of Johann Sebastian Bach before performing his piece.

I'm happy it worked out in the end, but imagine if every time someone wanted to create new music they had to get permission from everyone up and down the chain whose work played a part? What's happening here, with Kutiman, is so blatantly obviously brilliantly creative, new and original -- and yet, under our broken copyright laws it might be deemed "infringing" by some, "derivative" by others, and illegal by many. Isn't that a problem? Isn't the idea behind copyright law to encourage new and beautiful works like these? Adding the friction and tollbooth of "permission culture" to the process would make this kind of artwork impossible, and that would be a loss to everyone.

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Filed Under: creation, creativity, culture, kutiman, mashup, music, piracy, remix, youtube

16 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2014 @ 12:48pm

This is some amazing work.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2014 @ 12:57pm

I've never heard of Kutiman but this kind of reminds me of old DJs.
Taking a part from one song, adding a "wuush" or an "nz" then putting a part of another song on top of that and let it repeat while adding yet another song/effect.

I definitly see why people would cry COPYRIGHT!!! but the work it takes to create the new song might be as much or even more in some cases as the original pieces. Finding them, fitting them together in a way that doesnt make your ears bleed seems like a lot of work.
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jupiterkansas (profile), 19 Sep 2014 @ 1:01pm

People who say remixing isn't an art are insulting an awful lot of professional sound engineers and sound designers.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2014 @ 1:05pm

so has he been threatened yet, or sent a 'C&D'? the industries must have been having lunch! wont be long now!!
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John Fenderson (profile), 19 Sep 2014 @ 1:06pm

Re:
People who say remixing isn't art don't understand what art actually is.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2014 @ 1:12pm

Would love if he would organize a concert with all the people in the songs.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2014 @ 1:15pm

Re: Re:
Sure they do! "Art" is just a fancy word for a marketable cultural product for which you can charge insane amounts of money, even (or especially) if you didn't actually create it yourself! You just have to make sure you turn infinitely reproducible cultural artifacts into artificially limited commodities, usually via unnatural and absurd legislation. Also, don't forget to market yourself as a poor humanist businessman who's just trying to help artists create work and bring it to the huddled masses yearning to give you their money. Then, hire some shills to throw up their vitriol all over the internet in support of your cause, using clever pseudonyms like Whatever and Antidirt and Bob!
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2014 @ 1:47pm

Meanwhile, "Permission Culture" has brought us such "great" works as a Hot Pockets themed cover of "Hot Blooded" and "Son of the Mask."
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2014 @ 1:51pm

This is Art...
You may not have a taste for it, but it is art.

Anyone who says otherwise needs to be drinking and eating from a bottle.
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FauxReal (profile), 19 Sep 2014 @ 2:04pm

My favorite sample based album
One of my all time favorite albums was the first 100% sample based album released on a label (as far as people know). DJ Shadow - "Endtroducing" Do yourself a favor and check it out! Though I believe he has had to change a few samples because of lawsuits.

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpCVdBe5uJo
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FauxReal (profile), 19 Sep 2014 @ 2:11pm

Been re-listening to all these YT clips... I forgot about how awesome Kutiman is. I need to incorporate some of his stuff into a DJ set. Thru You would be awesome in a downtempo set.
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art guerrilla (profile), 19 Sep 2014 @ 2:22pm

holy crap, this is the ultimate in 'found art'...
1. r u kidding me ? this is fantastic: taking otherwise basically pedestrian (or 'worse') clips and mashing into a new coherent work ? ? ?
da-yam ! ! !

2. i would bet that he puts in 100 times the amount of time/effort in any one of his compositions, than a 'regular' musician devotes to any particular song...

3. like the lady who figured exposure in such a form was better than nothing, but even better if she realized that beforehand... c'mon, how many of us are chomping at the bit to hit up that new cello clip on utube ? ? ?
yeah, no one...

very cool...
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That One Guy (profile), 19 Sep 2014 @ 3:07pm

For GoT fans
Though it only involves the combination of two videos, the end result is pretty epic, all the more so because something like it, a 'two man concert' between two people who have never, and likely will never meet, would have been all but impossible just a few years back:

http://youtu.be/0OWQXQgHgq8
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jupiterkansas (profile), 19 Sep 2014 @ 6:24pm

Re: Re:
Some seem to think art is whatever makes the most money.
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2014 @ 11:47pm

plunderphonics has been done for decades, but has become well known w/ the avalanches and dj shadow
100% sample based stuff isnt new, but still not fully explored
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Dec 2014 @ 3:16pm

100% Samples since 1998
This Kutiman stuff is amazing! One of my favourite sample/plunderphonics artists is Buttress O'Kneel, been making 100% sample-based stuff since last century! Most of her stuff is much more experimental/noisier than Kutiman, but it always goes places you don't expect. And it's all for free!

https://buttressokneel.bandcamp.com/
http://aliasfrequencies.org/releases/buttress-okneel/
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