Everything is derivative.

If you've been following me for the past few years or so, you'll have probably figured out that this is an annual event. Congrats to you. However, if not, let me recap: since 2020 I've been releasing annual remix EPs in the tradition of 26 Mixes For Cash, covering a diverse array of artists from Perfume Advert to Daft Punk. These short compilations allow me to jump around the Electronic Music spectrum, demonstrate proficiency in several areas and to put my own spin on pretty much anyone I feel like remixing at the time. But this time, I put out some of my best remix work yet. Are you still here? Good, then I shall elaborate.

Each of these is divided into sub sections which would cover a single side on a vinyl record. Each section is as follows:

Section A - Ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃ　Ｚｏｎｅ:

The internet is a broad place where pretty much every type of genre can be stumbled upon and listened to. Furthermore, people tend to get nostalgic towards things, and in particular stuff from the 80's and 90's. Vaporwave is very much a result of music accessibility, nostalgia and more. It's more of a technique than a true genre, but it can lead to some interesting results (or you can just slow the track right down). Tracks here are both Vaporwave and Vaporwave adjacent with a twist.

The remix which opens this album tips the hat to the "traditional" Vaporwave techniques, Nmesh and a bunch of jazz-funk/R&B people from Manchester, the closest city to where I am. What prompted this to exist is that Nmesh released the “VAPORWAVE: Not Quite Dead Yet” mix on April Fools Day 2022, which composed of many lazy renditions of "Tell Me (How It Feels)" by 52nd Street where people just slowed the tempo of the song down and cut off a few minutes of it, or sometimes they layered an extra beat on top of it. So I decided to use actual creative techniques to create a slow folding, but eventually euphoric (and psychedelic) Vaporwave banger.

The second track of this section directly plunges into Nmesh territory. "Unclimbing the Uncorporate Unladder" was a submission to the "Climbing the Corporate Ladder" remix competition earlier in 2022, with a thumbs up given by the Vaporwave legend himself towards this 9 minute Industrial Strength Dub Techno rendition (however, this remix did not make it onto the final tracklist for "DRESSED FOR EXCESS: A COLLECTION OF CORPORATE BANGERS". I'm still proud of the work I put in here however.). Comparisons have been made to Basic Channel and Amber/Tri Repetae era Autechre, and I would say those are pretty valid. In any case, it's a hard to define beast that throws in samples from a beloved animated Superhero movie as well as a nod to my home town of Glossop. No more bland Business Techno, just stick this one on and you'll be working at maximum efficiency, guaranteed!


Section B - Meme Hell

A video game character once said "Memes. The DNA of the soul. They shape our will. They are the culture, they are everything we pass on." Sure, they often tend to go out of fashion quickly to the deterrent of old people who catch on to them way too late, but they're novel when they're still fresh at least. Is this section a mistake? Probably. Large rabbits and spooky ghosts can be found here.

If you like old cartoons about a mischievous rabbit, then this one will be sure to catch your eye. Originally featured on the Triple-Q "CHUNGUSCORE" compilation, I've decided to release a new, expanded and bigger version specifically for this release. The original 3 minute version was created in about an hour and instantly submitted a day before the deadline, while this new version is (probably) more polished and manages to provide more Hardcore Chungus madness if you didn't think 3 minutes was enough. Having made two versions of Endigo's big internet hit, I am contributing to the lifespan of this meme. Thank me later.

The impact of Ghostbusters on pop culture back in the 80's can't be overstated, and a big part of it is thanks to that iconic theme song. But what happens when people make shitposts out of it? That gets great results. So basically, this is a mashup of stems from the original theme song (some of those stems cut up in a nod to internet hit "Bustin"), the very first track off Vargskelethor's acclaimed album "Super Ghostbusters" and a corrupted version of the NES rendition of the song via CHIP FURNACE, a YouTube channel which specialises in corrupting video game music. They all come together to form the ultimate Ghostbusters meme experience. Suitable listing for busting those pesky Ghosts out of your house.


Section C - Cone Mann and Cone Lad Gaming

It can't be denied that video games have become a huge part of human culture throughout the last few decades. Super Mario is a common household name and one of many franchises I was exposed to as a kid, for example. The two remixes here gesture towards my occasional steps into the world of gaming, making nods towards the visual novel and JRPG genres respectively.

The first remix of this section is dedicated to the talents of two people from Calgary, Canada, who make visual novels under the name "90% Studios". After 4 years of development they finally managed to release the first season of "Cool Kid Cody" over several weeks, a colourful visual novel/point and click game which beats the generic anime styled visual novels into the dirt. I've remixed a track Denny made before back in 2020, but this time I decide to give their track "Beyond Haven" the lush 90's Deep House/Trance treatment. The resulting remix gives off hands in the air vibes, the kind that might not sound out of place in Ibiza nightclubs, but it drifts off sleep by the end. It's also over 6 minutes longer than the minute long loop from the first cutscene of the game the original tune soundtracks. Listening to this will give you a hint of what it's like in Haven (disclaimer: you can't actually become a God via listening to this song, because I want to be more honest with you than those YouTube videos which promise to turn you into a Gorilla via binaural beats).

Recently, I've been getting back into playing Pokémon Showdown again after years of not playing it since they have a nifty National Dex format which merges features from previous gens with mechanics introduced in Gen 8. This arrangement suits me nicely since my impressions of newer titles were lukewarm at best, although NGL it does get tedious at times. Once again CHIP FURNACE comes through with the source for my second of two remixes of music from that channel, via a corruption of an iconic track from the Black and White games. "IDM/Glitch with a Grime Bassline" is the result. The Driftveil City streets will never be the same after this.

Section D - Media Madness

It turns out that even whole movies/TV Shows/etc. are ripe for audio remix purposes too. The likes of Big Beat Mario prove this. Making rhythm out of stuff that wasn't originally intended to have a musical purpose is fun, and that's largely because sound is well, sound. To meet the arbitrary goals for this section, I sampled from two very different animated movies, one good, the other... well, terrible.

"Techno Trousers" utilises the quirky sound design of hit stop motion short "The Wrong Trousers" for an eclectic Plunderphonics based IDM track with plenty of Incunabula era Autechre influence. Samples were mostly sourced from a sample pack which I automatically generated with a plugin someone made. Said samples were directly generated from what subtitles mentioned, with some additional material thrown in from actually snipping stuff from the movie that the program didn't detect. Probably one of my more fun tracks and hopefully people have as much fun listening to it as much as I had putting it together (production of the track started back in 2021 as it happens).

For the very last track on this album, I take the Clicks & Cuts attitude towards samples from the notorious Ratatoing, a Mockbuster of Ratatouille that became the subject of internet memes and one of those "U.N. Owen Was Her?" YTPMVs. This is because snippets of the movie do not deserve more than a second at best. Thus, I have merged two 2000's throwbacks into one for an over 7 minute minimalist journey of barely recognisable snippets. In short, it's the perfect track to listen to at a marvellous city/land of sunshine and heat. You might regret watching the movie but you certainly won't regret listening to this.


So that's about it for the writeup. This was a pretty fun project for me to make, and probably my favourite out of the three "Boot Leg Remix Works" projects so far. Feel free to listen and maybe you'll feel the same way too.

By the way, if you download this release you get a free PDF with some "special" artworks I created just for the release which are just as colourful as the music they accompany.