This is my twenty-sixth entry in The Producers Corner "sample challenge", where everyone is given the same source music from which to sample, and the results are diverse and entertaining. The source this week was the Soulparanos YouTube mix "JOURNEY - Odyssey Within Your Mind, Body & Soul", a collection of smooth jazzy instrumentals, some old and obscure, some noticeably recent. I really wasn't that motivated by anything I heard, as much of it was tracks which already featured sampling and looping (such as one by Mr. Chop). So I just set those aside, downloaded pristine versions of the other songs I liked, and edited and layered and arranged a bunch of loops from those. All in all, I ended up utilizing about fourteen different loops and snippets, with some other stuff tossed in to keep myself interested, a bunch of my own drum programming, and a reading of a poem by Amy Lowell. I'm satisfied with the result, it's listenable, but there's really not much THERE there; it's just kind of a collection of cool loops tuned and arranged to play well together. I often see producers post an instrumental and ask, "who could you see rapping over this?", and I gotta say in this case who I see is DJ Shadow, wrapping this up in the garbage and moving on. I called this one "Three Seashells", and if you get that reference you'll understand what exactly I think this beat might be good for. I look forward to hearing the far more interesting stews that all my fantastically talented fellow producers made from these same ingredients. But still, as always, I hope you find something to enjoy or inspire, and please everyone stay safe and healthy out there!!!
