sampledelia
{{short description|Sample-based music genre}}
{{Infobox music genre
| name = Sampledelia
| stylistic_origins =
| cultural_origins = Late 1960s–1980s
| instruments =
| derivatives =
| subgenres =
| fusiongenres =
| regional_scenes =
| other_topics = *Plunderphonics
}}
Sampledelia (also called sampledelica){{cite book|page=44|last=Dent|first=Susie|year=2003|title=The Language Report|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198608608}} is sample-based music that uses samplers or similar technology to expand upon the recording methods of 1960s psychedelia.{{cite book |last1=Reynolds |first1=Simon |title=Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture |date=2012 |publisher=Soft Skull Press |isbn=978-1-59376-407-4 |pages=364–379 }} Sampledelia features "disorienting, perception-warping" manipulations of audio samples or found sounds via techniques such as chopping, looping or stretching. Sampladelic techniques have been applied prominently in styles of electronic music and hip hop,{{cite book |last1=Demers |first1=Joanna Teresa |title=Steal this Music: How Intellectual Property Law Affects Musical Creativity |date=2006 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |pages=98–99}} such as trip hop, jungle, post-rock, and plunderphonics.
Characteristics
Sampledelia describes a variety of styles which involve the use of samplers to manipulate and play back appropriated sounds, often drawn from outside familiar contexts or from foreign sources. Common techniques include chopping, looping, or time-stretching, the use of found sounds, and a focus on timbre. Artists frequently join musical fragments from different sources and eras, emphasizing rhythm, noise, and repetition over conventional melodic and harmonic development. The 1990s also saw computer-based sampling develop, with sounds treated within the "virtual space" of the hard disk. Samples may be used for both their musical qualities and cultural associations.{{cite book |last1=Landy |first1=Leigh |title=Understanding the Art of Sound Organization |date=2007 |publisher=MIT Press |pages=115–117}}
According to critic Simon Reynolds, sampledelic music expands upon the recording methods of 1960s psychedelia, which saw artists abandon "naturalistic" recording practices in favor of using studio-based techniques and effects to create sounds that could not be achieved through live performance. Reynolds identifies two contrasting tendencies amongst sampladelic artists: postmodernist versus modernist, with the former viewing sampling as a form of collage and pop art referentiality, and the latter approaching it as an update of musique concrète's techniques of sonic manipulation and transformation. Theorist Kodwo Eshun has described sampledelia as a kind of mythology in which "sounds have detached themselves from sources [and] substitute themselves for the world," inducing an experience of "synthetic defamiliarisation."
Origins
Image:E-mu Emulator II on the floor.jpg II (1984) was an early, cheap digital sampler used by 1980s hip hop producers.]]
Early sampling practices date back to late-1960s turntablism and scratching in dance music, including Jamaican dub music scenes.Nicholas Collins, Julio d' Escrivan Rincón (2007), [https://books.google.com/books?id=AJbdPZv1DjgC&pg=PA49 The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music, page 49], Cambridge University Press Critic Simon Reynolds notes that early sampling techniques were used by art rock artists such as Brian Eno, Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel (the latter two via the expensive Fairlight CMI), with Eno and David Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981) a landmark in the genre.[https://www.thestranger.com/seattle/a-talking-head-and10of-his-time/Content?oid=1097466 A Talking Head of His Time-Music-The Stranger] However, he states that the beginning of the sampledelic era was marked by the acquisition of cheaper samplers such as the E-mu Emulator and Ensoniq Mirage by rap producers. In 1985, John Oswald coined the term "plunderphonics" to describe an approach which framed sampling as a "self-conscious practice" which interrogated notions of originality, identity, and "the death of the author."
Sampling was incorporated into hip hop's DJ- and studio-based approaches by artists such as Mantronix, Eric B & Rakim, and the Art of Noise, and by 1987 UK acts such as Coldcut, M/A/R/R/S, S'Express were creating breakbeat-driven sample collages blending the feel of hip hop and house. Late-1980s hip hop albums such as It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back (1988) by Public Enemy, 3 Feet High & Rising (1989) by De La Soul, and Paul's Boutique (1989) by the Beastie Boys exemplified the sampledelic production style by appropriating sounds from varied sources to create "a dizzying, impressionistic whole that reminded some of the rock's ambitious psychedelic era of the late '60s" before copyright law made such an approach more difficult.{{cite web |last1=Shipley |first1=Al |title=10 Ways To Sound Smart Talking About Rap Beats |url=https://www.complex.com/music/2014/02/ways-to-sound-smart-talking-about-rap-beats/ |website=Complex Magazine |access-date=16 June 2018}}
Later developments
Early sample-based music often involved blatant interpolations of known music, prompting criticism and copyright concerns, but in the 1990s the style grew more subtle, with artists obscuring their sources in part to avoid legal repercussions. Artists such as A Guy Called Gerald, Techno Animal, and the Young Gods approached sampling with a more modernist outlook than Oswald.{{cite news |last1=Reynolds |first1=Simon |title=JOHN OSWALD / GRAYFOLDED |work=The Wire |date=1995}} According to theorist Kodwo Eshun, sampledelic techniques were used by artists such as Tricky and RZA of Wu-Tang Clan and Gravediggaz.{{cite book |last1=Eshun |first1=Kodwo |title=More Brilliant Than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction |url=https://archive.org/details/morebrillianttha00eshu |url-access=registration |date=1997 |publisher=Quartet Books Ltd|isbn=978-0-7043-8025-7 }} 1990s acts such as Position Normal and Saint Etienne would also take a sampledelic approach to explore forgotten elements of English culture.{{cite web |last1=Reynolds |first1=Simon |title=POSITION NORMAL - Stop Your Nonsense / SAINT ETIENNE - Places to Visit |url=http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2018/07/position-normal-and-dawn-of-hauntology.html?m=1 |website=The Village Voice |access-date=5 June 2019 |date=1999}} Albums such as Throbbing Pouch (1995) by Wagon Christ and Endtroducing..... (1996) by DJ Shadow are prominent 1990s works in the style.{{cite web |last1=Staff |title=PRIMER: Belong On … Essential Electronic Records From the '90s (That Weren't Released On Warp) |url=http://www.self-titledmag.com/2011/03/25/primer-belong-on-essential-electronic-records-from-the-90s-that-werent-released-on-warp/ |website=Self-Titled Mag |access-date=16 June 2018}}
Australian group the Avalanches[https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/05/the-avalanches-announce-first-ever-north-american.html The Avalanches Announce First-Ever North American Tour-Paste Magazine] extended DJ Shadow's sampledelic approach on their 2000 album Since I Left You.{{cite web |last1=Murray |first1=Robin |title=The Avalanches Close To Completing New Album |url=https://www.clashmusic.com/news/the-avalanches-close-to-completing-new-album |website=Clash |date=10 June 2010 |access-date=4 June 2019}} Pitchfork described the 2007 Panda Bear album Person Pitch as sitting "firmly in the sampledelic canon" alongside Since I Left You and Paul's Boutique.{{cite web |last1=Fitzmaurice |first1=Larry |title=Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion Was Radical Enough to Redefine Indie Music. Why Didn't It? |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/article/animal-collectives-merriweather-post-pavilion-was-radical-enough-to-redefine-indie-music-why-didnt-it/ |website=Pitchfork |date=7 January 2019 |access-date=20 October 2021}} In the 21st century, genres such as chillwave pushed sampledelic music into new territory, incorporating retro styles such as yacht rock.{{cite web |last1=Gabrielle |first1=Timothy |title=Chilled to Spill: How The Oil Spill Ruined Chillwave's Summer Vacation |url=https://www.popmatters.com/129734-chilled-to-spill-how-the-oil-spill-ruined-chillwaves-summer-vacation-2496151511.html?mrfCacheBuster=1575307351377&rebelltpage=2&rebelltitem=1 |website=PopMatters |date=22 August 2010 |access-date=10 January 2020}} West Coast hip-hop producer Madlib was described by Uncut as a master of the "lost art" of sampledelia, harkening back to an earlier era of hop-hip beatmaking.{{cite web |last1=Staff |title=Uncut’s Best New Albums Of 2021 |url=https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/lists/uncuts-best-new-albums-of-2021-136102/ |website=Uncut |access-date=2 December 2024}}