Samples and Found Sounds: One in Ten

808 State: One in Ten

[purchase]

This is not the post I set out to do. It’s all the fault of a reader named Leopold Stotch. Two years ago, Stotch left a comment on one of my posts. It was the second part of my survey of polyrhythm, from Tricky Beats week. I had posted Help Me Somebody, by Brian Eno and David Byrne. Byrne and Eno had created an entire album of music built around samples of talk shows, radio preachers, and other spoken word found sounds. Stotch, in his comment, let me know that some of this music was sampled in turn by a group called 808 State. In checking them out, I found One in Ten.

One in Ten is technically a remix, but I really don’t like the term. It is built on a snippet of a recognizable song, but the resulting work is something new entirely. This one takes as its starting point the old UB40 song One in Ten. I suspect that the 808 State song also contains other samples that I don’t recognize. I still love the original UB40 song, but I find 808 State’s take off from it fascinating.

Ten: One in Ten

UB40: One in Ten

[purchase]

First of all, let me apologize. The version of One in Ten heard here is the remixed version from the 1985 EP Little Baggariddim. I am posting it because it’s a great song, and I don’t have the original version from 1981. But the ‘81 version is much better, and it is easier to get. For accuracy’s sake, I have provided a purchase link for Little Baggariddim, but the 1981 album, Present Arms, is still in print, while the ‘85 EP is not. If anyone has the original version, please post it in the comments. Thanks.

Now then. UB40 takes their name from the British unemployment form. One in Ten is their reminder that the statistics you hear and read about represent real people, people in trouble. As 2010 opens, the economy is struggling. My fondest wish for this new year is that we will all notice a positive difference by year’s end. To get there, let’s all take UB40’s reminder to heart, and remember the faces behind the numbers.