Wax Audio News

21st May 2008


What the hell is going on?

Christ, has it really been that long since I updated this site?

Don’t worry folks, Wax Audio is alive, well and happily mashing away on a stack of new audio delights to be uploaded and ready for your downloading pleasure in 2008. There are a couple of projects in the pipeline at the moment. First up there’s Mashopolos II – The Mashening - which (if you haven’t guessed) is a sequel to last years Mashopolos album. You can check out previews of tracks as and when they are completed over at The Mashening Blog. 

The other project currently in production has the working title of 9 Countries and is a mashup / sound-collage / ambient / documentary album using nothing but the archive of personally recorded field recordings I made throughout 2005/06 whilst travelling throughout Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, Tibet, India and Greece. This will be the first Wax Audio release to be made available for sale on CD (yep, that’s right folks – Wax Audio is entering the world of commerce!). Details will be posted here as the project develops.

It's also fast approaching time to change the look and layout of this site to reflect the changing times (two out of three of the world leaders who rapped on WMD - American Justice and feature on the front page of this site have now been consigned to the political dust-bin of history, and the third is about to join them). The Mashed Media Trilogy will remain on this site as a quaint reminder of our world of war, media and politics in the first turbulent years of the 21st century.

So stay tuned, enjoy the new tunes and keep on listening!

John (from Cal-TV) and I are both thrilled that not only does Yoko acknowledge and approve of these mashes - but seems to like them enough to present them on her front page! We've recieved so much support from around the world for these works over the last couple of years, but Yoko's acknowledgment is especially poignant.

Thank you Yoko, and a very merry xmas and a happy new year to you.

20th December 2007


WAX AUDIO RADIO SPECIAL - MELBOURNE


If you're in Melbourne you can tune into Community Radio 3RPP 98.7 FM on Friday, 28th December at 9PM for a two hour Wax Audio special! The show is called Beyond The Groove and his hosted by Steve Meyers. You'll hear all of new EP - Cut, Paste and Run and a selection of old time Wax Audio classics - interspersed with segments of a phone interview I just did. I was completely scatterbrained after a very draining day at work so I fluctuate between brief periods of lucid eloquence and long stretches of rambling incoherence.

31st October 2007

CUT, PASTE AND RUN - OUT NOW!!!

Wax Audio presents... Cut, Paste and Run

Wax Audio is back! After causing a global stir with Imagine This in 2005 whereupon the world heard George W Bush getting sentimental with John Lennon's Imagine, Wax Audio has returned to the mashed up political arena to deliver one more sonic diatribe: Cut, Paste and Run.

Wax Audio's Mashed Media EP trilogy began with WMD ...and other distractions (2004) and continued with MEDIACRACY (2005). This third and final installment features seven brand new politically charged tracks crammed with juicy sound bytes from a typically familiar and obscure selection of politicians, pundits, public citizens, rockers & rappers from Cronulla to Harlem, Tehran to Tel Aviv and Washington to Baghdad.

Cut, Paste and Run brings you songs and sounds of love and hate, peace and war - and of course, bitter-sweet irony in the form of a special encore performance from Commander in Chief George W Bush as he passionately recites two more John Lennon classics!

9th July 2007

Download Wax Audio's latest mash MAIDEN GOES TO HOLLYWOOD 18.2MB, 7:56

About Maiden Goes to Hollywood:

Iron Maiden's album Powerslave was released in September 1984, just one month prior to the release of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's equally seminal Welcome to the Pleasuredome. Whilst the two albums represented opposite ends of the pop music milieu, both shared equal measures of camp, chest-beating bravado, epic songwriting and interestingly, themes based on the work of the 18th century English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Maiden's longest ever song - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, was of course a re-telling of the famous Coleridge poem in which a wedding guest is regaled by a world-weary mariner about his supernatural encounters on an ill-fated sea voyage. The epic title track of Frankie's Welcome to the Pleasuredome is based Coleridge's other best know poem Kubla Khan - from which the opulent ancient Mogul capital of Xanadu was made (in)famous.

Sources:

- Iron Maiden - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Powerslave (1984)
- Iron Maiden - Moonchild - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
- Iron Maiden - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Live) - Live After Death (1984)
- Iron Maiden - Only the Good Die Young - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)

- Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Relax - Welcome to the Pleasuredome (1984)
- Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Relax (12" New York Mix - 1984)
- Frankie Goes to Hollywood - The World is My Oyster - Welcome to the Pleasuredome (1984)
- Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome - Welcome to the Pleasuredome (1984)

- Ian McKellen - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Recited for BBC Radio (2007)

- Gyorgy Ligeti - Requiem For Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs & Orchestra (1963-65)

Available on THE NUMBER OF DA BOOTS : THE IRON MAIDEN BOOTLEG COMPILATION ALBUM

17th April 2007

DISSOLVED BY THE WATER ALL THESE YEARS (COVER ME)

Here's a sneak peek at the latest (and last) mash for the MASHOPOLOS project...

P J HARVEY : DOWN BY THE WATER  +   BJORK : COVER ME  +  TORI AMOS : SILENT ALL THESE YEARS 

& MASSIVE ATTACK : DISSOLVED GIRL

Download (4:09 / 192kbps / 5.8MB)

UPDATE! Coming in at number 1 on the Toronto Star's Anti-Hit List for April 28:

1. PJ HARVEY VS. BJÖRK VS. TORI AMOS VS. MASSIVE ATTACK, "Dissolved by the Water all These Years"

The rogue imagination behind the recent Black Sabbath/Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd/Bee Gees pairings returns with a considerably more ambitious mash-up that pairs "Down by the Water" (the one with the "Little fish, big fish swimming in the water" refrain), "Cover Me" from Björk's Post, "Silent All These Years" by Tori Amos and "Dissolved Girl" from Massive Attack's Mezzanine.

In the process, it makes you realize those disparate pieces of music are all about the same thing: the devastation of loss.

And in this months Bootie Top 10:

Wax Audio - Dissolved by the Water All These Years (PJ Harvey vs. Tori Amos vs. Bjork vs. Massive Attack) – Sydney, Australia

A lot of our favorite mashups take shamelessly commercial pop and rap music and make it sound magically "cool," simply by pairing it with Pitchfork-approved indie and alternative artists. This one, however, forgoes any ironic juxtapositions. It's just a hauntingly beautiful track, sounding like a dream collaboration among three of our favorite female singers, all of whom have well-earned reputations as unique women with left-of-center artistic visions.

27th March 2007

MASHOPOLOS - ON-LINE NOW!

All of these tracks have been leaked gradually over the last few weeks but now can all be downloaded at the MASHOPOLOS page

WHAT THEY'RE ALL SAYING...


John Sakomoto - Toronta Star Anti-Hit List:

Black Zeppelin : Whole Lotta Sabbath: "For mid-February, head-clearing riffage, it's difficult to imagine a more potent mood elevator than this mash-up of the former's "War Pigs" and the latter's "Whole Lotta Love." As cleverly interwoven by Wax Audio, the results could be characterized as artistic bludgeoning. Oh, the heaviosity."
John Sakamoto - Toronto Star Anti-Hit List for February 17th


Stayin' Alive in The Wall: "If you were to base these bands' respective reps solely on this concoction's source material ("Another Brick in the Wall" and "Stayin' Alive"), you'd be hard-pressed to justify the former's standing among the rock pantheon and the latter's relegation to the ranks of disco has-beens. The tempos, rhythm sections, and overall production are so frighteningly compatible, they sound like the product of the same session." - John Sakamoto Toronto Star Anti-Hit List for March 3rd


Maiden Goes to Bollywood: "If the idea is enough to make you laugh – the thudding metal of the former's "The Flight of Icarus" meets the bubbly pop of the Bollywood star's "Crazy Kiya Re" – the execution will leave you impressed. Then again, the brains behind this mash-up, Australia's Wax Audio, is the auteur responsible for "Imagine This," on which U.S. president George Bush "recites" the lyrics to John Lennon's pacifist anthem. What's next? "Billy Talent goes to Jamaica"?" - John Sakamoto Toronto Star Anti-Hit List for March 17



Adrian & the Mysterious D - BOOTIE TOP 10:

Wax Audio – Stayin' Alive In The Wall (Pink Floyd vs. The Bee Gees) – Sydney, Australia
Definitely our new favorite bootlegger. It was hard picking out just one from Wax Audio's recent batch of mashups. But in the end we went with this one, which just sounds like "instant Bootie classic." Two iconic, genre-defining songs rolled into one. And you can dance to it!" - BOOTIE TOP 10 : March 2007


Wax Audio – Maiden Goes To Bollywood (Iron Maiden vs. Sunidhi Chauhan) – Sydney, Australia
Talk about a genre clash! There's no good reason why this should work -- heavy metal meets Bollywood? In less talented hands, this would have turned into a train wreck. But Aussie bootlegger Wax Audio knows what he's doing, and makes this rock in the most unexpected way. This just might be our favorite mashup on this month's list. Our favorite part comes one minute in: "Maaaaaaiiiiden!!!!" - BOOTIE TOP 10 : April 2007


And...


"...DISSOLVED BY THE WATER ALL THESE YEARS : This is a different tune. Even if it contains three girls and a cool band. No party shining, very inspired, dark and beautiful. Wax Audio closed his Mashopolos collection with this piece and what a stylish end!" - Mashuptown.com

"...another 'rising star' in the world of bastard pop, and this combo of Iron Maiden and Bollywood singer Sunidhi Chauhan is both hilarious and inspiring" - Party Ben


"...made me want to smash my computer into bits" - Invisible Oranges : The Metal MP3 Blog

WAX AUDIO MYSPACE SITE?

Visit Wax Audio on MySpace

Yes, I have succumbed to peer pressure and created a Wax Audio MySpace site! It's a bit like mobile phones, I resisted at first deeming the concept faddish. Once I became the last person on earth to join the bandwagon I promptly jumped right on! You wont find a great deal more on there than you will here but by all means drop in and become my "friend"!

Wax Audio to feature in Party Political at Sydney's Newtown Theatre :

Wax Audio's track Howard Killed (featuring Alexander Downer) will feature in the upcoming theatrical performance Party Political at the Newtown Theatre as part of the CRACKER Comedy Festival. "Watch in shock and awe as all the leaders you love and hate let it all hang out. It won't be pretty... but it will be funny! Party Political is biting political satire from a collaboration of twenty of Sydney's finest writers and directors.  Following hard on the heels of Short & Sweet (the biggest short play festival in the world), many of its leading lights will turn their attention to this tasty production at the Newtown Theatre".

View Flyer - View Press Release/Book Tickets

Issue #45 - February 2006 (Click pages below to enlarge) 

         

The current issue of Audio Technology (issue #45), Australia's leading professional audio mag, features an interview (with me!) conducted by Gavin Hammond from between London and Phnom Penh via email. Gav asked me all about the Mediacracy project and the methods employed in creating it - and gave me ample rant-space for other issues regarding all things Wax Audio. Aussies can pick up a copy wherever good audio mags are sold.

21st February 2006

IMAGINE THIS - THE VIDEO!!

John Callaghan of Dublin (see Cal-TV) has been busying himself lately, creating a full length video for Imagine This. He's done a superb job, using over 40 individual pieces of video footage to create a powerful visual accompaniment to the track. WATCH IT HERE! (on YouTube) or just click the play button below...

Happy New Year! I've spent the last month in Cambodia and been a bit slow in getting this site updated. Thanks very much to Sean at Metal Postcard for his diligence in emailing me reports from across the globe. Here are snippets of news covering the last three months or so...

IMAGINE THIS, A RUN-AWAY TOP 40 HIT IN LATVIA!
Yep, the Latvians know good, solid, subversive, political/media mashup when they hear it. Not content to let this one stew in the underground, DJ's in the baltic state have put "Imagine This" into heavy rotation on Latvian top-40 radio! SWH Radio - one of Eastern Europe's most popular and eclectic stations got the ball rolling back in November. Thanks to the folks who posted this up on the forum way back then (I was somewhere in Indonesia at the time) and to Sean from Metal Postcard Records for his involvement.

IMAGINE THIS INCLUDED IN BBC RADIO 1's FESTIVE 50
"Imagine This" has made it into (John Peel’s) BBC Radio 1 Music Festive 50 on UK Radio 1. The Festive 50 is a chart voted by listeners and a popular music institution. You can see and listen to the festive 50 here. The track has also featured prominently on Chris & Rob's Blue Room on the same station.

WAX AUDIO IMMORTALISED ON-LINE AT PANDORA
This Wax Audio web site has now been archived at PANDORA: "a growing collection of copies of Australian online publications, established initially by the National Library of Australia in 1996, and now built in collaboration with nine other Australian libraries and other cultural collecting organisations". You can view the archived version here http://pandora.nla.gov.au/tep/50505 - handy if this site ever goes down (which we have no intention of it doing, but you never know!)

I've left Australia for the time being and am in Indonesia en-route to Scotland (via Tibet).

Really.

I've posted a rant with more info for those of you with some time to kill, as well as some new music (a totally different project which I thought I'd just throw out there for some fun).

In the meantime Wax Audio is still up and running for the rest of the forseeable future.

16th September 2005

ABC dig radio feature : Copy Cats or Appropriation Players

by Cassy Polimeni - 14/09/2005

It's the record companies versus back-yard music makers in a fight for the rights to use culture freely, so what do Charlie Parker, Johnny Rotten and Sydney producer Wax-Audio have in common, and why does it matter?

Sydney-based recording artist Tom Compagnoni-the human behind the digital mash-up machine known as Wax Audio-has been using appropriation in his work since he was a little tyke. "I used to make my own sound collages from radio, TV and whatever else was lying around... hitting the pause button to create funny edits," he recalls. "That was all pure appropriation but I wouldn't have even known what that meant at the time." In fact Compagnoni was tapping into an established tradition of borrowing and adaptation.

Read the full story here

Yep you read right! According to themusic.com.au anyway. Coming in at number 12 in their Top 20 - Australian Bands/Artists chart, right underneath kylie.com and (god help us) guysebastian.com.au, is none other than waxaudio.com.au - beating the King's very own elvis.com.au by 8 places!

So how the hell did this happen? Have people in Australia suddenly developed a thirst for subversive, underground audio activism? I've no idea. But I do know that there has been nationwide airplay in The USA, The UK, Canada, Italy (thanks to Livio Compagnoni for letting me know about that!) and New Zealand, tracks have been popping up on podcasts all over the place and that the number of visitors to this site has increased by about 1000% in the last 10 days.

Meanwhile I'm still trying to get to the bottom of the AOL situation (see below). If you're an AOL customer and want to help - please contact me.

25th August 2005

Sydney-siders can hear me interviewed on Richard Glover's Drive program on ABC Radio 702 this afternoon at 4.10pm. Those outside Sydney can listen via web stream from the site.

Healthy doses of airplay on Triple J have brought the track to the attention of people all over the country - not least the Sydney Morning Herald who has run a feature on the track and the guy behind it (there's no hiding now!) in their weekend edition:

"George Bush has been keeping musical company with John Lennon this year and it's been entertaining thousands. Yes, it's true, the former Beatle is long dead and the US President, unlike his sax-honking predecessor, confined his "tooting" to wild parties during his youth. But thanks to the efforts of a Sydney musician-cum-political activist, this unlikely duo has had one of the most requested tracks on radio for several months, here and overseas..."

Read Sydney Morning Herald Article - By Bernard Zuel - August 20, 2005

 

And if that isn't enough exposure for the weekend, Mike Malloy has given the track a spin on his Air America Radio show which I'm told is broadcast across the US in response to the epidemic of right-wing talk radio there.

I went away for the weekend, only to return to find that Imagine This has been downloaded over 1200 times in the last 2 days!

Reports are that this tune has been getting widespread airplay. I'm happy that so many people have heard this track (and that many people are finding this site and discovering the rest of the tunes) but regrettably the problem of bandwidth has reared its ugly head once again and I am now forced to disable the links to all MP3 files until I resolve this issue.

Any serious offers of bandwidth space will be keenly followed up!

Sorry for the inconvenience – keep checking back as everything will be restored as soon as is possible.