The Slack Album

DJ N-Wee: What More Can I Sing and In the Mouth, An Encore"
From The Slack Album [Independent Release, 2004]

Pavement: No Life Singed Her and In the Mouth a Desert
From Slanted and Enchanted [Matador, 1992]

Dangermouse's highly controversial, but rather groundbreaking The Grey Album in which the producer remixed Jay Z's entire Black Album utilizing samples solely from the Beatles' White Album, sparked a flurry of debate on the legality of sampling and ownership of intellectual property despite the fact that it was never meant to be officially released. Not only that, but it sparked a number of copycats trying to ride the mash-up wave, releasing similarly constructed Jay Z albums using samples from Weezer and Metallica albums. It's been over a year since that craze, and I thought I was in the clear from hearing such forced creations, but during a recent perusing through Soulseek I found myself staring at what looked to be another Black Album remix, this time using Slanted and Enchanted by indie rockers Pavement, a band that I happen to be quite fond of. Immediately intrigued I proceeded to download it and discovered that a DJ that goes by N-Wee produced the album, seeing it as an opportunity to prove that Pavement fans are not slackers as he explains here. Coincidentally, both albums are 14 tracks, each track on The Slack Album corresponding to samples from the same track on Slanted and Enchanted, and even more coincidentally, the last track on both are the only ones in 6/8 time. It's amazing to me that each track managed to work out.

Just like The White Album, N-Wee's version can often sound awkward and forced at times, with brief moments of brilliance and cohesion. In fact "What More Can I Sing" is pretty hot and actually sounds like a legitimate radio mainstay. It uses Pavement's "No Life Singed Her" and I honestly can't hear any source material listening to it. Take a listen to both and let me know if you hear anything.

"Encore" uses "In the Mouth a Desert" and is much more straightforward than its predecessor. Despite mixing down Stephen Malkmus' vocals which are clearly audible in the background, Jigga rides the wailing indie rock cadence about as well as anybody could hope for. You'll have to visit your favorite p2p file sharing network to download the rest, as N-Wee encourages. I know a lot of people are going to hate so let's hear it.