My Top 5 Songs of 2009: #5 “The Mother of All Funk Chords” by Kutiman
I’m a movie & TV guy, I don’t listen to much music (not much new music away). My music listening tendencies lean more towards a research scientist. I find a band I like, I acquire their entire catalogue, then I move on. I love music. Love playing music & seeing live music but I’m not what you’d call an audiophile. So why a Top songs list? Am I qualified? Do I know what I’m doing? Well, no, but that’s more your problem then mine.
Unless you troll YouTube regularly, I’ll wager you’ve never heard of Israeli musician / composer / animator Kutiman (born Ophir Kutiel). But that’s as may be. For his 2009 project ThruYOU he combine the best techniques of a video editor with an uncanny ear as he mixes instructional music videos from YouTube together to make cohesive songs. Seven songs altogether in a project that took him a little over two months. Kutiman himself puts it thus: “At first I took some drummers - before I had the idea about ThruYou I took some drummers from YouTube and I played on top of them - just for fun, you know. And then one day, just before I plugged my guitar to play on top of the drummer from YouTube, I thought to myself, you know - maybe I can find a bass and guitar and other players on YouTube to play with this drummer.”
Now, I know what you’re saying to yourself: “Patrick, how can that be anything more than a fun little experiment?” Well, it can, so shut up.
These are REAL songs. Not just some electronic mixed noise but real, honest-to-God, listenable songs. And the leader of this pack is the first track of the album “The Mother of All Funk Chords”. Combining the efforts from at least a dozen different videos, Kutiman has created a funk song worthy of George Clinton. It’s infectious beat and wonderful riffs will make you listen over and over.
Due to copyright restrictions that would be nearly impossible to entangle, ThruYOU will never be released on any other format than Kutiman’s own site. But that is not a shame, that is a blessing. This is a project of pure joy created for the love of music and given to the world for free. Let’s not ruin that shall we?
ThruYOU | Kutiman mixes YouTube official site (I also recommend track 4 “Babylon Band”)
SOURCES:
“Kutiman” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kutiman, as of December 7, 2009
“Kutiman in Wroclove, p.2″ - an interview for radiowroclove.com, June 19, 2009
