Uneasy Listening Volume 1
by DJ Z-Trip and DJ P: It’s hard for me to fathom that DJ AM passed away three months ago! It seems like yesterday I wrote a post after his passing professing my favor for his mixtapes with Travis Barker. One of my readers, aa, made a comment stating that I should listen to this mixtape because it was similar to DJ AM’s mixtapes that mix different genres. The stories behind the DJ Z-Trip and this mixtape are pretty cool. DJ Z-Trip is a founder of the mashup movement, which literally transformed the way people mixed and blended music. There were only 1000 copies of the mixtape released, but it spread like wildfire online. This was around 2001 so I can imagine it was right around the peak of Napster and Limewire. The timing also explains why I’m just now finding out about this. In 2001, I was too busy singing “Pop” by N Sync to worry about anybody else. You remember…Sick and tired of hearing all these people talk about what’s the deal with this pop life and when is it gonna fade out. You don’t remember??? Nevermind.
Back to the mixtape. I’ve listened to Uneasy Listening twice today and it’s ok. There is undeniable talent there that mixed every genre of music you can imagine and you can never tell when a song starts and when it ends. Yet, it was created in the late 90s and there are songs that included that I’ve never heard before. I think the inclusion of songs that I’m familiar with is what I liked most about AM’s mashups. I’m interested to hear more from DJ Z-Trip. On his website, he has a whole page dedicated to his work that you can download. I’ll be downloading some of this over the next few days, as well as Neil Armstrong’s Bittersweet, which was another suggestion from aa.
First of all Uneasy Listening was done on vinyl, and created in a weeks time. Then they played it all over the country for like a year. This makes it unique it is also the first “digital album” to go platinum via downloads.
I am not sure how old you are but the environment I grew up in Hip-Hop and Turntablism was out and rock was in so for me hearing songs that not everyone else had was the best part. There are many people out there that can remix pop tunes it takes a master to pull out music that is slammin that you have never heard of and throw down.
Also no offense to DJ Am but I have got a phrase for you “Blink 182″ which is unforgivable.
Comment by Paul Thomas — December 30, 2009 @ 11:38 am
Thanks Paul for your feedback. I’m happy that you found my blog and left a comment!
I appreciate you educating me, as well as my audience, about the specifics of UL. I’m only 22 so all of the info. I could find on the mashup came from the internet, not my own personal experiences which you have. I appreciate your statement about hearing songs that not everyone else heard and that being a benefit of this album. I like to be the first to hear new music too, but I’m positive that before listening I’ve heard less than ten songs on this mixtape. Part of the joy of a mixtape is being able to decipher the songs you hear and being excited that the DJ mixed a track that you wouldn’t expect. To be honest, part of that is missing for me when listening to UL.
Comment by musicfan214 — December 30, 2009 @ 12:31 pm