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I was reading a review of a recent record and realized that audio collages through the ages come in all shapes and sizes and could be a genre and a playlist. They range from the wildly experimental musique concrete—first developed by Pierre Schaeffer in 1948—with music using recorded material as the raw source, to J Dilla and Tyler the Creator, who carried on the tradition of those who discovered that this raw source material could be laid on top of beats. I remember in high school cutting up recordings and splicing them back together— inspired by John Cage and Revolution 9. With the earlier material, it was often intentionally obvious that the material was pre-recorded (samples), but in recent decades I’m not sure if most listeners are aware that the Fatboy Slim and Beastie Boys songs they’re dancing to are elaborate multilayered collages.

In the early days, the collages were putting forward the idea that any sound could be music—melody and rhythm weren’t needed. It changed the way we heard. The more recent collages, many of them with beats and grooves, could be heard as “music as quotation”—you are aware by the sonic signature of the sound that they come from somewhere else—so the awareness of references and the urge to simply surrender and enjoy coexist and are simultaneous.

Not everything here will be to everyone’s taste, depending on the time of day or where you’re listening.

-David Byrne