Like an experienced chef on the set of Chopped, a good sample artist is able to transform the disparate, minimal ingredients at their disposal into an enticing and memorable feast for the ears. But before they can even begin their magical remixing process, they must first spend hours, sometimes days, digging through crates of old, obscure vinyl in order to find that perfect three-second drum loop or weird proto-synth tone. Once they’ve taken the old music and made it new again, it’s up to certain fans (preferably with a lot of time on their hands) to reverse engineer this process and find the original source of the sample, thus completing the circle.
That’s what YouTube user Kirima Nagi did recently and ended up with this 15-minute comprehensive recap of nearly every sample used by Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz. From their 2001 self-titled release to this year’s Humanz, it’s possible to track the evolution of the virtual band’s samples, from old blues riffs and Dawn of the Dead quotes to obscure breakfast commercials and yodeling pickle toys. Despite the eclectic source material, each sample is expertly molded to serve the band’s aesthetic, making each ingredient feel completely like their own invention.
[via Gizmodo, which, like The A.V. Club, is owned by Univision]