Decomposure is Caleb Mueller, a 22-year-old Canadian who grew up on the barren prairies of Saskatchewan. Working with mostly found sound and ephemeral life sound, he constructs complex percussive soundscapes. His first album, 'Taking Things Apart' was released in 2004 and spent 10 weeks on the CMJ RPM Top 40, garnering surprised but ultimately appreciative reviews. His latest album, 'At Home and Unaffected' is built mostly from sound gathered from around his apartment, and will be released June 2005. He currently works full-time as a graphic artist in Elmira, Ontario, but spends whatever is left of his days chipping away at his own music and art. He lives with his wife, Nicole, and their bunny, Bunny.

Websites:
http://www.decomposure.com
http://www.unschooled.com


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mp3 archive:
May 2005
December 2004
September 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003

july mp3 compilation

This collection of songs has been compiled generally under a 'music i like to listen to' theme. They don't all relate to sampling, or ideology, or to any genre range, they're overall just songs i think would be a shame to miss out on. i'm sorry, i'm not very good at being cutting edge and indie and picking rare things from obscure musicians; i always feel like my choices seem childishly obvious compared to the next guy. But i've tried my best, and even if you have heard a bunch of them, hopefully there's still a few artists or songs you haven't heard of. And yes, it all fits on one CD, except for the bonus track.
01. Paza: Tiutiu 8-bit music gets pushed around a lot. It's been dismissed as bad nerd nostalgia, tagged as uniform and predictable, and lamented as being responsible for the destruction of the very fabric of music. But if there's one artist that really understands and captures the whole aesthetic, it's Paza. His 'Ninjani Diskus' EP is full of those pure harmonies, grainy percussion and concise production that define 8-Bit music, and he manages to keep the frame squarely on the form's strengths.
02. Donna Summer: Paintball Wizard Jason Forrest dishes out some anthemic lo-res breakcore. He was part of a panel on sampling at Mutek04 that i attended; very funny, honest guy.
03. Bikini Machine: Who's Gonna Make It? They're French, they lifted their name from 'Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine,' a campy 60s movie, and compile vaguely sardonic big-beat-retro tunes. i'm still a sucker for that Big Beat aesthetic: i was first introduced to electronic music through Fatboy Slim, and while his music has since migrated to blander lands, 'You've Come a Long Way, Baby' still holds a special place in my heart.
04. Los Sampler's: Mambo Brilliante (HD Mambo) Gritty digital mambo from Uwe Schmidt, the German guy that lives in Chile with about a thousand aliases.
05. Stephen Fearing: Like the Way That You Said Not especially experimental or controversial, just a great straight-up folk rock song.
06. Christoph de Babalon: Appetite4Destruction Yes, from the (in)famous Tigerbeat6 NWA Remix EP. Kid 606's remix got a lot of the attention (deservedly), but Christoph de Babalon's 1:27 contribution is still my favorite. Go go go...
07. Archie Bell and the Drells: Tighten Up i should preface this by saying i love and support sample-based music. But if there was ever a reason to outlaw sampling, it would be for the sake of this song. i know there's some marginally talented rapper out there itching to deface this song with another stinking pile of insincere cliches, and this song is just too perfect to allow that. If you can crank this up, hear that beautiful bassline in the breakdown and not feel protective of this song, you have no soul.
08. Skeeter: Bloodclot Gangsta Youth Club Skeeter is Canadian (7 in this compilation, for those of you keeping score), so while the premise of the song makes complete sense to him, you non-Canadians deserve a little extra explanation. The cheesy workout music sample in this song is ripped from a series of commercials that air on Canadian TV, liåtle 2-5 minute segments titled 'BodyBreak!' BodyBreaks are little healthy infomercials hosted by perennially perky hosts Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod, who walk around smiling in bright mid-90s fitnesswear, singing the praises of vegetables and positivity. i haven't seen one in awhile, but then again, i only remember seeing them during Saturday morning cartoons, and since i currently skip right ahead to Saturday afternoons, they might still be going on. So now you know what you're missing out on when someone says 'Canadian Culture.'
09. David Holmes: Head Rush on Lafayette i'm not much of a David Holmes fan, but i found this CD ('Let's Get Killed') for a dollar in a bargain bin. While everything else is, you know, okay, this track stands out, with Deflon Sallahr rapping over what sounds like an answering machine and gritty live-ish drums. The liner notes list the drummer as 'unknown', which sounds like a gimmick, but who knows.
10. MC Chris: DQ Blizzard Besides just being a good song (Mmm... tasty breakdown), this song is notable in that it samples Aphex Twin's 'Bucephalus Bouncing Ball.' Doesn't that seem funny somehow? That must be how old James Brown fans feel.
11. 0=0: 88 Fun project: turn up this song while waiting at a stop light next to a guy pumping the latest Ja Rule single. Note the confused look you get.
12. Ashley MacIsaac: Sleepy Maggie Fiddling and Gaelic Vocals vs. Trip-Hop. Could almost come across as cheesy if it didn't work so darn well...
13. Plunderphonics: Angle Yes, it's John Oswald. If you're visiting this site, you've heard of him already, so i won't bother explaining. What's notable about the song is the jungle-y flavor, which wouldn't be anything special were it not constructed 10 years before the first signs of Junglism...
14. Treacherous Three: New Rap Language A reminder of how good rap used to be. One of the Treacherous Three's first singles, released in 1980. Live instrumentation and percussion, non-stop rapid-fire rapping, infectiously groovy...what happened?
15. Venetian Snares: Make Ronnie Rocket Somehow, i managed to overlook Venetian Snares for years; i found him last year and have since been catching up on what i missed. This track is from 'Higgins Ultra Low Track Glue Funk Hits 1972-2006.'
16. Buck 65: Keep Your Hand Off My Girl Back before Buck 65 was flogging his grizzled old man shtick, making music videos with backup dancers and opining about the stupidity of people who sample, he was an underground rapper with a knack for layering dense observations over obscure, chunky samples. Ground control to lost soul, come in lost soul...
17. !!!: The Step Some raw !!! funk from their self-titled album.
18. Citizen King: Jalopy Style You might remember Citizen King's 'Better Days' from their 'Mobile Estates' LP getting a bit of radio attention back during the late 90s. They got a lot of criticism for being derivative of Beck and Smashmouth, and broke up after the release of the album, and so they were quickly forgotten. But i love this song, and think the whole project in general deserves a re-evaluation: it's a smart, eclectic multi-genre effort that has aged well, even as its contemporaries have worn.
19. Decomposure: Overprotected A little crass self-promotion here. This is from my first self-released EP, 'uodsn'; it can't be released because my label has a strict no-illegal-sample policy (lawsuits cost money). It's an evisceration of 'Overprotected' by Britney Spears, a song that was played endlessly by a neighboring student while i was in college. i stole her CD, ripped the track, and put together this song to play in protest. i think it worked, too.
20. Jon Brion: Row From the 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' Soundtrack. Simple and understated; i could listen to this for days.
Bonus Track. DJ Toby: Wither (Subconscious Mix) An older track of mine from my pre-experimental days. Just for fun.