Music heads on the internet got a big surprise last spring when a track surfaced that slowed Justin Bieber's music down 800 percent from its normal speed, transforming it into beautiful ambient music. Turns out it can work for pretty cool hip-hop beats too.
For their latest track "III" (premiering below) the beat-making duo known as Blue Sky Black Death worked in not only some 243 different layers of music, they also snuck in a bit from the Canadian pop singer that even true Beliebers wouldn't necessarily recognize, though you'll have to guess which one.
"We like to keep most of our sources hidden and obscured," the duo told WIRED by e-mail. "[But] there's a Paul Stretched (time-stretching program called Paul Stretch) Justin Bieber sample that's slowed 800 times [its normal playing speed] so it ends up sounding more like Gregorian chant than pop. Also, [we] used a delayed guitar sample from our favorite UK shoegaze band, Slowdive."
So how'd they work all those layers into a song that sounds more like moody hip-hop than shoegaze pop? Turns out that's courtesy of a piece of software that's nearly 14 years old. Back in 1999, a company called Sonic Foundry released version 2.0 of its music production program called Acid. The loop-based software offered "one-touch CD burning" and according to reviewers celebrated that it was a "powerful, near-professional program" that was "exceptionally easy to learn." For BSBD (as they're commonly known), it's just as good today as it was when it came out.
"Its interface is very simple and intuitive and by now we could call ourselves masters of it," the duo said. "It would take serious time before we were as good with any other program. Also, at times, technology and constantly-updated software can become a hindrance to your creative process. … It would be harder to create complex progressive music if we were using complex software/hardware."
The pair – known as Kingston and Young God – made their upcoming album Glaciers almost entirely with Acid 2.0 software (they run the "Pro" version). Running on Asus PCs, they used the software's simple interface to create an album of atmospheric beats that sound as rescued-from-history as they do futuristic. How so? Acid Pro 2.0 has the ability to handle massive amounts of sonic loops – the repeating bits of sound on which BSBD bases their music, which evokes the "based" sound of Lil B producer Clams Casino while also having a haunting atmospheric/cinematic vibe. That means that even if it's a little archaic, it's still the best tool for the job.
But still, how did the end up making a record using software that's more than a decade old? That's a story that can only come out of the early aughts: They met via a mutual friend over AOL instant messenger. That same friend then also gave them the Acid 2.0 software and they both started using it, however they didn't start making music together until after they finally met in person in 2004. (Luckily neither of them was a musical catfish.) Since then, they've stuck with what they know – making beats for underground rappers like Nacho Picasso and Deniro Farrar, and now their upcoming LP.
"We have interest in learning and trying new programs, but it's also a little bit frightening to stop using something that has always worked for you in the past," they said. "Ultimately it's not about what you use, but how you use something."
Glaciers will be released Oct. 1.
