In 1952, John Cage first performed his piece "4'33," in which he sits down at a piano for four minutes and 33 seconds and doesn't play anything. As part of a Facebook prank turned reality, the group known as Cage Against the Machine has started a campaign to make Cage's piece a number one single in the UK on Christmas. There have been a number of creative remixes of the piece, but our favorite (as nerds) has got to be Fake Blood's stitching together of the opening seconds on a vinyl record, a crackle extremely familiar yet mostly neglected. Fake Blood took that sound from 312 of his favorite records and wove it into a four minute, 33 second piece of introductory silence. Listen to the "song" below and read his statement on the record after the jump.
Stream: John Cage, "4'33 (Fake Blood's Needle Drop Mix)"
4'33" (CATM version) (Fake Blood`s Needle Drop Mix) by RemixAgainstTheMachine
My 4'33" is made up of the static crackle, hum and pop on the intro grooves of 312 of my favourite records - that little moment of apparent nothingness when you drop the needle and wait for the music.
For me, there is more excitement and anticipation in those 2 seconds before each record starts, than there is in a thousand series of X Factor, Pop Idol, Britain's Got Talent, etc.
These are records made with passion, flair, fun, experimentation, freedom, uncertainty, hopes, pain, and fire. Records made by people, not committees.
These are not exercises in popularity or mechanical talent - the ability to hit the technically perfect note on a proven and saccharine pop standard - these are the sounds of people who had ideas and dreams, created music to express them, and meant it.
Some of these artists you'd have heard of, and some never made it. But each record has a story attached, and those two seconds of silence and crackles to me is like opening the cover of a book.
- FAKE BLOOD"
