Coldcut Remix Contest

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 3:51 pm

Hi All,
DJs and Ninjatune founders Coldcut join Ableton for an Interview and Live Set remix contest for their new single "Everything is Under Control."

Prizes will include:
M-Audio Evolution X-Session Controller
Ableton Airbag
Ableton Hooded Sweatshirt
and more...

For more details, check out our artist pages here:
http://www.ableton.com/artists

Best,
Jesse

2/21/06 Update: the Results are in!

Coldcut Remix Contest Winners

Ableton and Coldcut are happy to announce the winners of the Coldcut remix contest for "Everything is Under Control." The top ten entries came from France, Japan, Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, the US, and the UK, where our winning duo, Illkinski hail from. Matt Black and Jon More have painstakingly gone through all the entries and come up with a winner—and with comments on the winning submission and the ten runners up. Matt had this to say about the entries: "We got a wide range of cool ideas in remixing what is quite an odd track. Thanks to everyone who joined us for the contest. Believe us, this was a hard one to judge!"

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to Coldcut and everyone who participated!
The Abletons

1st Place: Illkinski (Arash Lowni and Adam Perry) www.illkinski.com

Band Bio
Illkinski was founded 3 years ago in London by Adam Perry & Arash Lowni. They have played numerous gigs in and out of London including The Vibe Bar, The Rex, & Electrowerkz - alongside Plaid (Warp).

Over the years they have also won a competition on BBC Radio1xtra for their track "Buttonpushers", and last year were awarded a grant from The PRS Foundation. They have also just set up a bi-monthly podcast, sending out free mp3's to subscribers. Their next gig is on Friday 3rd March at Juno bar, 134 Shoreditch High Street, London E1, and it's FREE.

Coldcut Comments: "Groovy backing track, menacing, tough, funky. Interesting use of the chorus vocal, which is looped up in a sinister, dubby way. The vocal is connected to the track—vital and not as easy as one might think."

Prizes: Evolution X-Session controller, Ableton laptop bag, Ableton hoodie sweatshirt, Ninjatune gift bag including signed copies of "Everything Is Under Control," t-shirts, control cards (top trump), stickers, and stencils.

2nd Place: Dirk Mirre

Coldcut Comments: "Theoretically this shouldn't work, mixing abrasive vocals with a funky jazzy backing track, but actually it works surprisingly well. Not a hundred percent, but props for trying an unusual combination. I like the vocoder. He overused the vocals too much toward the end; he could have dubbed them up.

Prizes: Ableton hoodie sweatshirt, Ninjatune gift bag including signed copies of "Everything Is Under Control," t-shirts, control cards (top trump), stickers, and stencils.

3rd Place: Amaury Groc

Coldcut Comments: "I like the backing track. Again, the vocals don't fit that well. It goes to show it’s not just a question of sticking an a capella over a backing track; a magic X-factor is needed to glue them together. A real stomper of a track, with a moody feel."

Prizes: Ninjatune gift bag including signed copies of "Everything Is Under Control," t-shirts, control cards (top trump), stickers, and stencils.

Honorable Mention:
Note: The critiques are offered to help further your musical career, not to get you down! These are all great tracks.

Mark Love

Coldcut Comments: "I like the start newsreader with Bush cut up. An 'A' for effort finding and pasting actual samples of Bush saying "under control'—an idea done on our original demo. A little too cheeky on the samples for releasing; it's more a mashup then a remix, but full of ideas."

James Postlethwaite

Coldcut Comments: "I like it. It has a nice bouncy rhythm, it has the wonk factor. A really good start too. Nice slowdown at the end."

Kastuyuki Minami

Coldcut Comments: "I like the start. I like the beat when it comes in. I'm not quite sure about the rap dropping in. The vocals don't sit that well over the track. Nice atonal noises at the end though."

Daniel Salontay

Coldcut Comments:"The vocals are pitched up, which was a good attempt at doing something interesting, but it doesn't quite work. The track was too full at parts, but nice job overall."

Matej Ocepek

Coldcut Comments: "Not bad. The intro is too long. Not quite thumping enough; it feels like it's missing a good kick. Again, the vocals don't sit well over the beat."

Seep http://www.myspace.com/seep

Coldcut Comments: "I like the extra samples used within, but it feels like there is something missing."

WWIIIO (World War Trio, Wio)

Jan Stuyven
Michel Sadin
Maks Konings

Coldcut Comments: "Nice and melodic. Fonky."

Benedikt Guschibauer

Coldcut Comments: "I like it when it kicks in. Speeded up vocals again, sounds a bit 'Mickey Mouse.'"

ishimaru · Post by **ishimaru** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 4:35 pm

Hot damn I am doing this for the hoodie. lol

jahnlay · Post by **jahnlay** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 9:51 pm

It would be much cooler if the prizes included a release on Ninja Tunes, I wouldn't do a remix competition without the chance of the remix getting released.

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 10:00 pm

I can't think of a better way to get Matt Black and Jon More to hear your music than to win a remix contest with one of their singles?

Good luck,
Jesse

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Wed Nov 16, 2005 10:05 pm

they really want us all to email a 10mb mp3 to them???

wow, my pop3 server would choke on that!

surely we should host it and mail them a link or something. Well it's their server's funeral.

muthafunka · Post by **muthafunka** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 3:01 am

Angstrom wrote:they really want us all to email a 10mb mp3 to them???

wow, my pop3 server would choke on that!

surely we should host it and mail them a link or something. Well it's their server's funeral.

Thems is smart cookies, they say 10Mb is OK, chances are it's OK. Interesting to see what's the standard service-wise around the world though-my isp claims mail of basically any size is OK, go figure. Call me cynical but I think certain communications co.s still artificially restrict bandwidth etc just to squeeze more $$ out by using monthly volume limits and /Mb charges.

jahnlay · Post by **jahnlay** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:26 pm

It's all very well to say that Jesse, but I know what kind of time constraints label bosses have on themselves and unless they've consented to actually taking the time to listen to the winners remixes, I doubt they ever will. It's not that I'm being otherwise for the sake of it, I've just worked for labels most of my working life and I know what the label heads time schedules look like. Now running my own label, I'm realising why!

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:31 pm

hey jesse, i just unzipped the package to my desktop (pc) and opened the als by double clicking it. it asked me to try locate the sample 4kick.wav

i will try unzipping to a different location and testing it out again.. maybe it's my setup..

muthafunka · Post by **muthafunka** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:43 pm

sweetjesus, the kick it's looking for is in a folder that was in the download .zip, just locate that when the dialog appears and it'll find all the rest of the files. The included lessons and tips are pretty well done too, I'd recommend downloading this just for that if nothing else.

amo · Post by **amo** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 12:44 pm

sweetjesus wrote:hey jesse, i just unzipped the package to my desktop (pc) and opened the als by double clicking it. it asked me to try locate the sample 4kick.wav

i will try unzipping to a different location and testing it out again.. maybe it's my setup..

Hey SJ, I was asked the same but then pointed to the sound folder and all was fine.

Jesse, I've read the lesson which is cool as for tips and all. Just one thing, if I remember well since I've read it fast: you're talking of the groove parameter and the ability to make the hole song shuffle just by turning up the general groove parameter, though all clips groove in clip view is set to "none", I'm just thinking of total beginners in Live here, who would need the tip of the need to turn individual clips groove to 16th to get a regular shuffle. Hope I didn't just miss it in the lesson.

Best,
amo

Machinate · Post by **Machinate** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 1:20 pm

Hey people, just drop the als file into the sounds folder and open it from there. that seemed to work for me, anyway.

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:20 pm

thanks for the replies guys, i had actually figured out the kick was in the sound folder, but they should still sort this out as it doesnt look so professional.

funk313 · Post by **funk313** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:29 pm

sorry to be a lil hater

but dont u guys think this track is wack.. sounds like
2 old men trying to be rockstars or sum shit like that anyways remixing this would prob. only make this better. so good luck to yall

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:32 pm

funk313 wrote:sorry to be a lil hater but dont u guys think this track is wack.. sounds like
2 old men trying to be rockstars or sum shit like that anyways remixing this would prob. only make this better. so good luck to yall

have you heard Armand Van Helden's "Nympho" album?

its like as offensive as rock and punk people who say all electronic music is DOOF DOOF DOOF DOOF

funk313 · Post by **funk313** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:40 pm

well anyway regardles of genre its just wack to my ears esp. the vocals.
do they really mean what theyre sayin . fuck it sounds like a bad car commercial or maybe a new hair product from loreal or sumn..