Stay Classy, Hideawayheads

Stay classy, hideaway heads...and thanks for stopping by...but mainly, stay classy.

Kaada – Thank You For Giving Me Your Valuable Time

I’d like to take a moment and thank everybody who stops by from time to time to check out the site. People are visiting and commenting more often, two things that I wholeheartedly encourage. Don’t believe me? Check out the chart above, things are picking up around the Hideaway. So, in honor of you guys, I am posting my favorite “thank you” song. I like putting this on the end of friends’ mix discs sometimes, it makes a great closer. Kaada is a Norwegian sample artist who I recently heard has made an album with Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Loveage) that was released last November. This song, however, is the title track from his 2001 album. To me, “Thank You…” sounds like Otis Redding singing over an old Motown tune (hackneyed comparison of the day) . Except, I believe it’s Kaada himself doing the crooning over his own 50’s style instrumental track that he built via samples. I’m a sample-artist aficionado and I’ve never heard anybody else doing anything close to what he’s got on this album. It’s not anything near hip-hop, it sounds like a 50’s soul collage and Kaada found some great vocal samples to lay on top of the tracks. I think this album came in pretty far under the radar when it was released, because The Avalanches were getting all the sample-artist media love at the time. Here’s a great description of the album by Popmatters.com:

So what does the record sound like, you ask? Well, it's sort of similar to The Avalanches, in how Kaada cuts and pastes snippets from various songs to create aural collages of his own, but unlike the Australian outfit's joyous energy, Kaada takes a more minimalist approach, taking a small handful of samples, and layering the sound with sparse electronic beats, live bass and percussion, as well as some guest vocals. It's like being forced to sit next to a crazy old man who's listening to an old AM radio, rolling the dial, and singing along to whatever he comes across. Kaada's choice of songs, namely obscure pop gems from the late '50s and early '60s, and his bare-bones accompaniment, has somewhat of a David Lynchian quality, one that evokes warm thoughts, but also gives you the feeling that there's some pretty nasty business happening beneath the surface. It's that blend of old kitsch with new technology that makes Thank You For Giving Me Your Valuable Time so compelling.

Can’t get enough of Kaada? I know the feeling...Here’s the first track from the album, which is actually my favorite song from it. I love the vocals on this track. THESE are sampled vocals, not a crooning Norwegian soulman.

Kaada - Care