downloads


download: The Black Fives CD Release
07 mar 2004

The Black Fives released the Solid Phase EP in March 2004, and to celebrate the occasion held a cd release party at Mullane’s in downtown Cincinnati.

This half hour recording holds the very short (~7 minute) set of noise from The Black Fives, with DJ Empirical adding beats, samples, and scratching. After that, DJ Empirical continues to play for a time, interrupted by a weird keyboard/vocal piece by John Caldwell. Near the end of the mp3 appear the members of the Rhyme Swing Embassy.

As a point of note, this set predates the involvement of schädel in The Black Fives, as it was still a solo project at the time.


download: The Black Fives, “Less Than Three (@}–,–‘– mix by schädel)”
mar 2004

This is a track from the very limited (23 copies!) e.p. by The Black Fives, released in 2004 with a handmade cover. At the time, The Black Fives was still a solo project, with schädel (a.k.a. Donald Spivak, a.k.a. DJ Empirical) still some time away from becoming a member.

The spoken samples come from the audio part of an adult education filmstrip. Scratches by DJ Empirical.

download: DJ Empirical, “Push This Party Started (Salt n Pepa vs. Pink)”
DJ Empirical, “Lick Up (Missy vs. Cameo)”
DJ Empirical, “Good to Be a Maneater (Hall & Oates vs. DJ Rap & Ganja Kru)”
circa 2002

Mashups were all the rage in the UK in 2001, right before I got turntables. However, I got wind of the whole thing through Snuggles, an audio-collage email list. Needless to say, not long after I got decks in early 2002, I had to try my hand at it.

These tracks were the most successful vinyl mashups I recorded.

download: Quahogs, Beavis and Butthead, Volume 1
Part 1 2 3 4 5 6
circa 2001

Beavis and Butthead, Volume 1 was a glitch album executed live in one take, using a VHS tape of the show with the sound running through Audiomulch’s granulation, with periodic adjustment of the controls.

I would love for someone to marry this up with the video, as it really is quite interesting.

download: John Frusciante, “As Can Be (Quahogs’ Vowelized mix)”
circa 2000

My theory here was that since melody is carried in vowels (as opposed to consonants), if one were to edit out the consonants, all that would be left would be a sort of “concentrated” version of the song. The results were pretty interesting.

(You can check the original here.)