You remember how I said rush jobs make me lose my mind? You remember how I said big mixes make me lose my mind? Fweep.
This is also a first for me. The mix above includes elements, I won't quite call them individual mashups, that are only for the mix, namely Real Life (a sample from GOP TV vs Faith No More 'The Real Thing' vs 'Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)' by Soul II Soul) and Flash Fear (Tones On Tail 'The Movement Of Fear' vs Helen St John 'Love Theme From Flashdance'). There are, of course, a few mashups within it that I can make available individually. So I will. Lucky you.
Additional credits: Nobuo Uematsu 'Final Fantasy (Opening)' and 'Final Fantasy (Victory)', written by Nobuo Uematsu, (c) DataM / Polystar 1989 Rising Tide (c) GOPTV 1994; Faith No More 'The Real Thing', written by Mike Patton, Roddy Bottum, Mike Gould, (c) Slash 1989; Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, (c) 20th Century Fox 1984; Tones On Tail 'Movement Of Fear', written by Daniel Ash, Glenn Campling, Kevin Haskins, (c) Beggars Banquet 1984; Helen St John 'Love Theme From Flashdance', written by Giorgio Moroder, (c) Casablanca 1983; arranged by IronicHide
Soul II Sould 'Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)' v Alice Cooper 'Feed My Frankenstein'; Written by Trevor Beresford Romeo, Caron Wheeler, Nellee Hooper, Simon Law, Alice Cooper, Mark Manning, Ian Richardson, Nick Coler; Arranged by IronicHide; (c) Virgin 1989, Epic 1992
Ok, gotta 'fess up at this point. This mashup was made for an earlier incarnation of the ZooFights competitor Angsteater, back when it fought Cold Warlrus. It didn't get used (neither did the Walruses' tune) as the fight coverage started mid-brawl and/or nobody liked it. Tomaeto, tomahto. This version, however, has an extended coda that I dumped out of the mix to cut the running time and to get a sweet segue from Soul II Soul to the Def Leppard v AC/DC mashup. The acapella was sped up slightly to fit Alice Cooper's track, and this mashup was used to set the timing for the long-form mix; thus making Feed My Frankenstein (which I only found out was released in 1992 long after I'd made this, damn my presumptive attitude) probably the only bit of audio in the entire Rumble soundtrack that is in its original tempo.
Beastie Boys 'Brass Monkey' v The Pixies 'Monkey Gone To Heaven'; Written by Francis Black, Michael Diamond, Adam Yauch, Adam Horovitz, Rick Rubin; Arranged by IronicHide; (c) Elektra 1989, Def Jam / Columbia 1986
And, if you're taking confessions, I've already written about this Beasties v Pixies mashup. It was part of a raft of mashups made before we really worked out how to use them in ZooFights. If I had enough time to make nine individual theme tunes, I would have. I didn't, I'm afraid, but a skateboarding monkey that was always headed for disaster and had now been turned in to a jar of frog's piss absolutely justified the recycling of this track, to my mind. It's a classic conundrum.
Def Leppard 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' v AC/DC 'Back In Black; Written by Steve Clark, Phil Collen, Joe Elliot, Robert John Lange, Rick Savage, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson; Arranged by IronicHide; (c) Mercury 1987, Atlantic 1981
These two songs are exactly the same. Chug, chug-chug, noodly bit, chug. Same tempo. Bit more production on one. Ignore the chorues. It's like putting frozen peas and sweetcorn in the same pot. Not that there weren't problems. The production levels on Angus Young's lead guitar fills are, ironically, quiet. So, I covered one with another Back To Life sample in the Rumble mix and tried to distract the listener by having the next two fills play alternately in the left and right speaker. For the single mix, I duplicated the fills to play in both channels and boost the sound. There's a chancy cut and overlay of Def Leppard toward the end. This mashup should be a lot shorter but I liked parts of it and extended them to have fun. 
Nitzer Ebb 'Let Your Body Learn' (Plastikman arrangement) v AC/DC 'Thunderstruck'; Written by Bon Harris, David Gooday, Douglas McCarthy, Angus Young, Malcolm Young; Arranged by IronicHide; (c) Mute 1987, ATCO 1990
This was the first mashup I made for the Rumble. Sped up Thunderstruck to fit the beat, mixed down Let Your Body Learn for some apparent reason that I later regretted. Note: I'm calling it the Plastikman arrangement as I got the Nitzer Ebb track from the Richie Hawtin long-form mix Decks, Efx & 909. Also, the production ended up so tinny on this thing, I literally just duplicated it to make it twice as loud.
New Order 'True Faith' v Manhar & Sadhna Sargam 'Har Kisiko Nahin Milta Pyar'; Written by Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Gillian Gilbert, Stephen Hague, Indivar, Anandji Veerji Shah, Kalyanji Veerji Shah; Arranged by IronicHide; (c) Factory 1987, Universal Music India 1986
This was the last mashup made for the Rumble, and in a total blind panic. I was still editing it as the Rumble actually started. True Faith, particular the opening eight bars, makes me inexplicably happy. I thought I'd extend them into a two-minute piece. The entire New Order half of this mashup is the opening two bars looped four times, then the second, third and fourth two looped four times. That's it. Took about 20 minutes. Normally, I'd hand make a loop by splitting the sample from the original and overlaying it. Didn't have time. Just found the in and out points to the nearest millisecond, hit Repeat, selected '3' times. Boom, on we go. If your in and out points aren't exact, any other music longer than the loop, risks going horribly out of sync and no time-stretching will save the mashup. I took the opening 12 bars only from Manhar & Sadhna's song from Janbaaz (a lunatic musical of sex and violence from '80s Bollywood), which left plenty of wiggle room. While honking out short mashups in double-quick time for ZooFights, I learned an equaliser is a worthy isolater and I took a lot out of the track to leave the bass guitar, the snare, the voices and the rinky-dink-dink notes made from a machine I imagine to be made of fine metal tongs and a hand crank. The Rumble version has a slight wobble after the first passage so that's where the Temple of Doom sample got stuck in. Rearranging things for the stand-alone mashup I was able to shift the harmonies within it and add some fading-out rinky-dinks.
Free MP3 download: IronicHide - Duckulawnmoa.mp3Doreen Edwards & Mike Harding 'Count Duckula (Ending)' v Lawnmower Deth 'Watch Out Grandma, Here Comes A Lawnmower'; Written by Mike Harding, ; Arranged by IronicHide; (c) Cosgrove Hall, Earache 1989
Blondie 'Atomic' v Metallica 'Ride The Lightning', including samples from Johnny Cash 'The Man Comes Around' and Strapping Young Lad 'S.Y.L.'; Written by Debbie Harry, Jimmy Destri, James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Cliff Burton, Dave Mustaine; Arranged by IronicHide; (c) Chrysalis 1980, Megaforce 1984, Def American 2002, Century Media 1995
I promise to stop using Metallica. Honestly, I'm done with them. But it's so tempting when making short '80s mashups. The songs are instantly recognisable, fast tempo and James Hetfield sings on one note. Except he doesn't on this. If anything, previous to the Black album, this is the Metallica song with the most note-rambling throatwork. Those stretched notes and sudden harmonic dips in the chorus; almost every track I'd used previously for Teslacorn or Horsepower had this acapella thrown over it. It fitted none of them. Similarly, I'd tried to use Blondie's track with other songs but the melody just wouldn't work. Regarding the samples: Mental Ben (the terror bear) rides Nightmare (a horse that science has rendered abominable) into the final. So I cut up Johnny Cash talking about a horse and Devin Townsend talking about a bear. In the Rumble mix, I use it as a lead from Flash Fear in to this track but liked it well enough to stick it in this single mix. As a bonus, this is the extended version with two verses instead of one. I really spoil you, huh?
I promise to stop using Metallica. Honestly, I'm done with them. But it's so tempting when making short '80s mashups. The songs are instantly recognisable, fast tempo and James Hetfield sings on one note. Except he doesn't on this. If anything, previous to the Black album, this is the Metallica song with the most note-rambling throatwork. Those stretched notes and sudden harmonic dips in the chorus; almost every track I'd used previously for Teslacorn or Horsepower had this acapella thrown over it. It fitted none of them. Similarly, I'd tried to use Blondie's track with other songs but the melody just wouldn't work. Regarding the samples: Mental Ben (the terror bear) rides Nightmare (a horse that science has rendered abominable) into the final. So I cut up Johnny Cash talking about a horse and Devin Townsend talking about a bear. In the Rumble mix, I use it as a lead from Flash Fear in to this track but liked it well enough to stick it in this single mix. As a bonus, this is the extended version with two verses instead of one. I really spoil you, huh?
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