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© 2011
A. Thomas Tran

MASHUPS

Linkin Park vs. Wolfgang Gartner - God Bless Illmerica (The Catalyst mashup by Unity303) 2011 Mashup 6:08 11.2 MB [mp3] [youtube]
The lyrics to "The Catalyst" are ambiguous as to who are the oppressors. I had a long conversation with my buddy Pete (another music producer, highly analytical about lyrics) who talked of this song being about North Korea. I argued otherwise -- when I closed my eyes to the song, I saw a collage of images of American injustices (Native American genocide, nuclear bombs on Hiroshima/Nagasaki, an even recent flagrant racism against Hispanics in Arizona/now Alabama). ...then one day I saw Ryan McNamara's music video for Illmerica. Wait. These were the many images I envisioned Linkin Park would put to Catalyst. I needed to try mashing these. Back to back I played the two songs and noticed they were already *perfectly* in key D minor. The chord progression alignment worked. Even the blocks of verses went along with the breakdowns. The counter-melodies of Illmerica's two main synthlines seemed to reflect Linkin Park's back-and-forthing between Mike and Chester. The two songs were begging to be married on many levels.

**I wish I had the 2nd verse acapellas from Catalyst, I could only work with what was given during the LP Underground Catalyst remix contest, and could not successfully isolate the vocals. (Any friends of Mike/Chester here?) xD


Coldplay vs. Paul Van Dyk - Nothing But Clocks (Unity303 Mashup) 2009 Mashup [mp3]
Mashed these two up for my Sanctuary mix. I remember dancing away to Paul Van Dyk on the decks at The Mayan (LA) back in 2005, and hearing his track, "Nothing But You." In my mind, I kept hearing a familiar song from Coldplay until.... ah-hah! Alas, this is what I heard thumping in my brain.

The Killers vs. Daniel Kandi - Mr. Brightside's Child (Unity303 Mashup) 2009 Mashup [mp3]
This was on my Sanctuary mix, as well. I had to find a remix of Mr. Brightside that was less Rock and more EDM that I could work from. As if sending the two tracks thru the Large Hadron Collider, these are the mashed up particles that resulted. Enjoy!

Solar Stone vs. System F - Seven Cities vs. Solar Insolation (Unity303 Mashup) 2001 Breakbeat Trance 6:05 5.6MB [mp3]
My first mashup attempt in 2001. Snips from Solar Stone's classic "Seven Cities" chopped up with breakbeats and additional fluffy trance sounds from a System F track called "Insolation." This was how I closed my "Now Will Never Come Again" 78 minute mix.

REMIXES

Alicia Keys - Empire State Of Mind II (Unity303's DnB Remix) 2010 Drum N Bass 3:50 4.0MB [mp3]
My 2010 Drum N Bass remix of Alicia Keys' - Empire State Of Mind. At first the idea was to remix the Jaz-Z version, but finding the acapella was impossible. Then I stumbled across Alicia's Key's version, without drums, and realized I could work with that.

Unity303 - Faithless Society (Doc Logic vs. Kid Sonic Remix) 2003 Trance 8:12 7.5MB [mp3]
The bastard love-child that I had with Ian Taylor, my ex-drummer from my band Thomas' Apartment. :) "Doc Logic" completely took the song to a whole other level.

Sheryl Crow - Strong Enough (Voltron Krew Remix) 2000 Drum N Bass 3:10 2.9MB [mp3]
Mike "Agent" Smith and I worked on this remix when we found out Sheryl Crow was coming into the PhatNoise office the next morning. We layered synths and fx and made a jungle drumtrack, which got kinda tricky cause the song is in 6/4 time.

Jonathan Elias - Grace (Voltron Krew Remix) 1999 House vs. Trance 4:03 5.2MB [mp3]
Hate it when some remixes just steal few lines of vocals and make a whole new song out of it, and STILL claim it's a remix? Well this is one of them. (heh.) Sony Classical Recordings sponsored a college remix competition in 1999 and we entered it. Romulo Rivera (Astroboy), Mike Smith (Agent Smith), Lev Lvovsky (KGB), and myself (Unity303) joined forces to work on this remix and ultimately Romulo dubbed us the Voltron Krew.