preconceived notions

april 03, 2004.

Probably there are a few of you that, like me, enjoyed Otis Fodder's 365Days project also because of the selections being, mostly, so very American. I don't know how true, nor how complete, but listening - as I continue to do regularly - to the daily selections of Otis and his curators for me does evoke some sort of a sonic portrait of the US of A; this is (part of) how it sounded over there, during the last, forty say, years of the last century. And a damn good portrait it is: home recordings, obscure records, obscure artists, great ones and tragically bad ones - though more often than not these are the touchingly sincere ones -, then the slightly or madly deranged ones, commercials, recorded greetings, high school bands, buskers ...

And if you do like that sort of 'Americana', I am pretty sure you will enjoy the Preconceived Notions, under which name Joe Mason from Chicago, Illinois, has been recording for about three years now.

"I bought my erstwhile collaborator, Dr. Sample, off Ebay," Joe writes. "He opened me up to a world of possibilities. Buying a friend's four-track with mixer opened up a few more. I discovered a fondness for using the sampler to lay backing tracks for spoken pieces lifted here and there. From old time radio shows to product instructions, media became my media."

Deeming the results of his efforts "with all the samples,[...] unreleasable", Joe decided to just give them away. "Take 'em, they're yours. Copy  'em, burn 'em, play 'em, re-sample 'em and spread 'em around," he says.

That's what the Preconceived Notions website is all about.

Mix'n'Match With Your Friends! the heading of the Preconceived Notion's web site's audio-page encourages us, then goes on to list 26 mp3-encoded tracks, ready for download.

The Preconceived Notions add up to some 90 minutes of free, fun plunderphonics. Musically, most tracks are built on simple loop-based backgrounds, hardly ever dense, but 'laid-back' and open, leaving lots of space for the "media": the spoken word, from radio- and television shows, promotional records, instructional tape ("Loadmatic"), film ("Be a Hu-Man"), a recording made at a brother-in-law's birtday party ("Prom" is one of my favorites!) ... but there's also the sound of a Mars Attacks toy ray gun ("At Grover's Mill"), and a 'modified singing bible alarm clock' ("Do You Think Christian Rock Is Alright?"), a fingerbeatz and a rap machine toy ("Ev'rybody Now!") ...

The site also has a page with a list detailing the sources for each of the tracks, but it is kind of hidden. I had to write Joe to ask for it.

"If you go to the page with the MP3s," he told me, "click on the dancing people at the bottom of the page. It will take you to the list." And: "I believe in listing your sampled sources. It's right to acknowledge them. However, I believe that audio material, once publicly released, is available as material for artistic expression."

We couldn't agree more.

[ : Laure de Ricqles ]

[ added march 2006 : The Preconceived Notions web site has been discontinued and is no longer available. ]

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