The “Remix” Term
The term ‘remix’ is often used to describe Pogo’s tracks. Here at PogoMix.net, we believe the term greatly undervalues his work, and that a new term to describe it is in order.
A remix is typically the taking of a melody or lyrical passage from a pre-existing song, and putting it to a new backing track with a different BPM. There’s no questioning that the originality of Pogo’s work stretches far beyond this technique. Pogo has come to develop his own sound, micro-splicing chords and syllables to produce completely new pieces of music.
Pogo’s music is difficult to accurately describe, so we want your ideas! What would you have us call a Pogo track?
I love the suggestion for Bitmix.
I’d say the easiest way to describe Pogo’s Music in an academic sense would be “Plunderphonics.” It’s not really a “genre” but it is a compositional style a guy named John Oswald coined the term in an essay he wrote in 1985 and presented to WIRED magazine. The title of the essay “”Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative.” Currently I’m writing a thesis on unique music composition types, and while I’ve liked Pogo since “Alice” I’d say that in a broad sense of the term Pogos compositional style goes under that blanket term.
Re-flash.
I don’t think that’s what a remix is at all. That’s a sample. A remix is taking an original composition and rearranging aspects of it to create a new composition with a different feel but that retains the original composition as recognizable. Maybe I’m just involved in a different remix culture…
Still. Just like there are more or less creative genres/artists in electronic music, there are more or less creative remixes. Pogo is definitely pushing all the boundaries of “remix”. Nobody thought to remix anything other than a song, doing so with movies subverts assumptions the way John Cage’s 4’33″ did (though less challengingly) or Stomp does with percussion.
As much as the songs stand up on their own, the video portion is more than a “music video”. It’s not a marketing afterthought. It’s part of the composition and sequenced/presented as such. Which is simultaneously inescapable if you’re going to remix a film, and pushes the boundary of media that a remix can exist within.
But then, the original works (Gardyn, Joburg Jam) aren’t remixes of other compositions. They’re remixes of original spontaneous happenings, perceptions, life. They’re arrangements are similar in a sense to any classical work, but kind of reversed. Rather than a composer choosing which instruments play which parts, maybe writing a part specifically for an instrument, and the conductor directing the performance, in Pogo’s case the performers play/present whatever is on their mind at the time and those performances are later crafted into an arrangement.
In that way it’s also kind of the reverse of a typical jazz/rock/blues solo. Rather than having the musical structure predefined and then letting spontaneity happen within that structure, the spontaneity happens first and the structure comes later.
I’m not coming up with any catchy names, and disagree about “remix” not applying to the “remixes”. But the original works definitely break new ground and I’m interested to see more.
Frankenstein took parts from corpses and turned them into a living, breathing creature. Pogo does something similar, but with childhood favorites, and without the lightning or cackling to the best of my knowledge. i suggest “Frankentuning”, to capture that idea. I do wish i had a better example of someone who took things apart and made the new thing better than the old ones, but alas, i do not. i do guess being a live creature was better than being a bunch of dead bodies, until all the angry mobs gathered and whatnot.
mosaic
Bitmix. Mixing clips and sounds in a new medium, a collection of bits of data that becomes some entirely its own upon its creation.
A Bitmix.
Thank you so much for continuing to make beautiful music! You continue to brighten my day with every piece you release. It’s unique and wonderful, and I wish I could have seen you in Chicago T_T ! Next time you are in the states hopefully I can take time off. :D
Christina
Bitmix, as Christina wrote.
REARRANGE, RE-SETTING, COMMUTE, REFIX, RETOUCH, RE-SORT
Right now my impression of this music is “orchestrated techno”. To me the music sounds like theres some type of orchestra playing along.
Just call it Progo.
I’d call each of Pogo’s works a “musical collage”
(From Wiki) – A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole.
Pogo’s music is an assemblage of different clips and samples that create a new form of music.
I love it ^_^
sound bits collection
DreamPop! DreamPop! DreamPop!
Pop music the makes you escape reality to be filled with joy.
or maybe dream-ix? dreamix? dRe-mix?
or maybe all movies made by hollywood henceforth should be called “premixes.” ;)
I’m going to the theater to see some “source material” tonight. lol
PS You should do the 3 Narnia movies
Or ‘recombined.’
How about something like ‘sliced’ or ‘spliced’. Or laminated tunes. Too many syllables. Five syllables sound like the beginning or end of a haiku. But they are very like sliced and laminated pieces of work — audial instead of visual. I like the image of lamination for this. The ‘glue’ in the laminate is the beat. Just wish I could think of a snappier term. I’ve seen it referred to as something having been pogo’d.
ooh that’s a tough one, because although your music bares a similar sound to traditional remixes, mainly in beat. You are making your own unique compositions, it just so happens that movies are your instrument, and the sounds from the particular movie guide the general theme of the composition, and now that you are moving away from the ‘traditional’ remix beats into the realm of more mellow rhythms and coming up with your own unique source material. I’m not sure what name would suffice besides remix, “movie remix,” “life-mix…” maybe something reminiscent of the film industry would be more appropriate. like “celluloid” a somewhat antiquated term not used to refer to movies anymore could fit. “What kind of music do you listen to?” “celluloid”
hmm, still doesn’t sound right.besides your wonderful music your visuals are also key, almost like the video-song genre that’s kinda of been spawned on youtube with artists like Pomplamoose… Maybe they just need to be simply called “Mixes” not “re”-mixes… or perhaps “video-mix?”
Pogo’s: Whisperlude (A Video-Mix)
I don’t know that’s just my 2 cents.
Hmmm….that’s a tough one. I would say that the term “remix” could still hold true. While I realize the term “remix” has sort of become a genre of its own (much as “non-denominational” has become its own denomination of Christianity) you are technically remixing the pre-mixed track of whatever you pull from. But if it’s a name you want……how about Pomix?
“Yo dude. Did you hear that new pomixed track from Pirates of the Caribbean??? It’s dope!”
Renickxed?
Maybe? Anyone??
How about ‘Fremix’?
Video sampling remixes musics
A little bit long but i couldn’t find any thing else.
[...] an Australian based musician Pogo, who held the Internet in the palm of his hand with his cut (not remix) of Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, aptly titled [...]