In the wake of 2001, a new brand of music swept the UK known today as "Mashup" or "Bastard Pop". So why the hell was Canned Peaches making this stuff back in 1992?
Some people will take an existing product and make it better. Canned Peaches takes an existing song and does the following:
Mixes it with other songs
Overlaps old lyrics with new ones
Mixes in sound effects
Splices it with other songs
Takes it and manipulates it until it's goddam funny!
The trouble with doing this stuff back in the 1990s is there were no commercially available computers to make this stuff. The creator of Canned Peaches (Ben Century) used old analog tape decks, reel to reel decks, mixers, filters, cheap microphones, and even a few home made devices to create what you hear. Although some of the mixes may be far from professional, the analog effects add "character" that you will NOT find in digital recordings.
The newer recordings have obviously been created with a computer, and provide a much smoother sound than previously heard. Also, all of the analog recordings that you hear on this myspace page have been digitally remastered, but MP3 encoding pretty much fucks that up for the listener.
History:
In 1992, the first Canned Peaches song was created to vocalize a hatred for the specific person it was intended for. The song was called "Michelle" and was instant entertainment for friends who heard it. It spawned the first album called "Sleeps With The Peaches" which was a combination of humorous song manipulations and medleys, and sometimes both put together. The album contained 8 tracks (there were supposed to be ten, but the creator who was only 14 at the time was grounded for a month, and didn't reach the deadline)
The second album entitled "Mix It Up" was released in 1993, and pretty much continued where "Sleeps" left off. The album was heavily circulated among friends, but recieved lousy feedback. All it did was add to the creator's fuel to create bigger and better.
The third album "Hypnotix" was released in early 1994. Although the album cover sucked, there were a couple of bright shining moments. A mashup of "I'm Too Sexy" and of course, a mashup of Barney and Friends called "Barney Mix" were the tracks that made people pay attention. A clip of Barney Mix was played on a local radio station.
The fourth album "Peach On Ice" (1995) was the home run. The album was loved by many who heard it, and was heavily circulated among friends. The medleys were abandoned for the most part, and the comedy took over. "Ice" was instantly accepted by anyone who heard it.
"A Legend Bound To Come True" (1996) was the fifth album, and proved to be a bit too experimental for most people. Compared to the previous release, "Legend" was pretty much a flop, but did contain a couple of shining moments such as "Suzie's Puke" and "Ozzy's Cats".
The sixth album "Dimension's End" (1997) was planned to be the last Canned Peaches album containing all new material. The original plan was to create tracks for each of the previous album titles (only some were used), conquer the goal of the longest and shortest CP Mashups (Dimension's End, She Has It) and contain a medley of previous mashups called "Greatest Hits". The album proved to be much better than Legend, but didn't do much from lack of exposure.
Following "Dimension" in 1998 came "Lost Music", an album of previously unreleased material plus three new songs. Each of the three new songs were instantly praised by friends.
In 2005, the album "13 Years Expired" was released as a free internet download, and contained the best of Canned Peaches plus three new tracks. Announced was that the creator of Canned Peaches was planning on making a new album of all new material sometime in the near future. Times and technology has changed, and making mashups has become easier than ever.
Thanks to the internet, CP mashups have been circulating around the internet, and now they're available to put on your myspace page!
Enjoy the mashups, and don't take them too seriously. They were always done in good fun, and with the intention of making you laugh.
