Mission : Remix of The Winstons - Amen. Brother

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Mission : Remix of The Winstons - Amen. Brother
Posted on: 06.02.2012 by Kandra Fagler
Hey there guys i am planning to do a remix of the old skool 1969 funk classic "amen brother" by the winstons for a school project

this song is best known as having the drum break solo, called the "amen break" which many regard as the most sampled drum loop in history and also contributed to the birth and development of drum & bass / jungle music

many people have sampled the drum loop in the middle of the song but not many (if any?? please let me know) have remixed the actual 1969 song, due to the age of the song there is no midi or even music sheet out there on the net that i can find so I will pretty much need to start from scratch

This is a part of my school assignment which also involves marketing research / interaction with other people for their input / feedback / suggestion, basically you guys hahaha

This is the original song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxZuq57_bYM


For those who are not familiar with the amen break this is a very cool documentary (a must watch for any EDM and music lover!) about the amen break

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac


my project is to do a fresh 2012 interpretation of the 1969 song - i must say it wont be an easy task but i am willing to try

the direction i am going would be a funky house with electro elements (taking note from the roots of house music - funk, which i can use to reinterpret the song into modern sounding) and also add some wobble here and there

the toughest part would be extracting the sound from the original song, they asked me to keep sampling to a minimum - meaning i would have to re-perform some parts of the song, my music training was a bare minimum so i am actually hunting down a few things and also ask the following questions (for my school market research)

- Are you aware / have you heard about the song 'Amen, brother' by the winstons? Would you have heard about the song if it wasn't for the Amen Break association?

- what do you believe about the idea of doing a 2012 interpretation to raise awareness of the original song?

- do you happen to (this is a long shot) have come across or in possession of the music sheet / midi notes for the song 'amen brother'? the song is really really old i was hoping some older music stores would have at least music sheets for them (which i can convert to midi) but everywhere i went i couldnt find the music sheet / midi notes - anyone happens to have seen or own the music sheets to this song that they can share?
Kandra Fagler
11.03.2012
Originally Posted by CONNtrol
I really like your remix -

Just wondering if you had heard chrizz luvly's version, called "amen"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31oCSFdeQps
hi there, thanks!

actually no this is the first time i heard that link you gave me - i guess someone else had the same idea to use the vocals from the documentary, somehow im not surprised haha, the documentary is quite well-known

i wish i heard this version before I started my assignment though, it could have served as a good reference track, I pretty much started mine from scratch and it took a lot of time
Kandra Fagler
06.02.2012
Hey there guys i am planning to do a remix of the old skool 1969 funk classic "amen brother" by the winstons for a school project

this song is best known as having the drum break solo, called the "amen break" which many regard as the most sampled drum loop in history and also contributed to the birth and development of drum & bass / jungle music

many people have sampled the drum loop in the middle of the song but not many (if any?? please let me know) have remixed the actual 1969 song, due to the age of the song there is no midi or even music sheet out there on the net that i can find so I will pretty much need to start from scratch

This is a part of my school assignment which also involves marketing research / interaction with other people for their input / feedback / suggestion, basically you guys hahaha

This is the original song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxZuq57_bYM


For those who are not familiar with the amen break this is a very cool documentary (a must watch for any EDM and music lover!) about the amen break

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac


my project is to do a fresh 2012 interpretation of the 1969 song - i must say it wont be an easy task but i am willing to try

the direction i am going would be a funky house with electro elements (taking note from the roots of house music - funk, which i can use to reinterpret the song into modern sounding) and also add some wobble here and there

the toughest part would be extracting the sound from the original song, they asked me to keep sampling to a minimum - meaning i would have to re-perform some parts of the song, my music training was a bare minimum so i am actually hunting down a few things and also ask the following questions (for my school market research)

- Are you aware / have you heard about the song 'Amen, brother' by the winstons? Would you have heard about the song if it wasn't for the Amen Break association?

- what do you believe about the idea of doing a 2012 interpretation to raise awareness of the original song?

- do you happen to (this is a long shot) have come across or in possession of the music sheet / midi notes for the song 'amen brother'? the song is really really old i was hoping some older music stores would have at least music sheets for them (which i can convert to midi) but everywhere i went i couldnt find the music sheet / midi notes - anyone happens to have seen or own the music sheets to this song that they can share?
Nilda Eastgate
11.03.2012
Yours is really good though! Don't worry about it
Kandra Fagler
11.03.2012
Originally Posted by CONNtrol
I really like your remix -

Just wondering if you had heard chrizz luvly's version, called "amen"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31oCSFdeQps
hi there, thanks!

actually no this is the first time i heard that link you gave me - i guess someone else had the same idea to use the vocals from the documentary, somehow im not surprised haha, the documentary is quite well-known

i wish i heard this version before I started my assignment though, it could have served as a good reference track, I pretty much started mine from scratch and it took a lot of time
Nilda Eastgate
10.03.2012
I really like your remix -

Just wondering if you had heard chrizz luvly's version, called "amen"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31oCSFdeQps
Kandra Fagler
24.02.2012
Hey thanks for the feedback!
Yea I know what u mean with the amen break, had this idea of automating the breakdown into 174 bpm and let it go all amen / dnb but kinda thought it's overused so scrapped the idea and had this instead , but hey you got me believeing ,

although this was supposed to be an interpretation of the Winston's song rather than the drum break itself Which was why like the original song I kept the amen break to be just in the middle

Thanks! Now I'm believeing to do an alternate version with more amen running out of time though it's due on Monday
Charline Dunch
24.02.2012
ha, fun idea. i like where you're going. i find it somewhat weird though that you're neither using the amen break or other samples in your main parts of the track ("after the drop"). at least throw the amen in there.

i feel like it's somehwat overused but it just makes so much sense in this particular track.
Kandra Fagler
21.02.2012
just an update on what i did so far

this is the semi-finished product of my assignment described before:

http://soundcloud.com/ivan-zilch/deadpixel-amen-v1-unmastered

comments appreciated

i took inspiration from the recent styles of artists such as knife party, porter robinson etc, i also included some vocal cuts from the amen break documentary to make the track a little "educational" hahaha
Kandra Fagler
06.02.2012
well the amen break is an interesting topic indeed, i did a research paper on the cultural impact of the break and also the copyright issue surrounding it - they never received a single cent of royalties from the usage of their drum solo, another sad fact is that the original performer of the drum solo , gregory cylvester coleman, died poor and homeless (according to an interview on BBC Radio 1 with the last living member of the winstons, Richard L spencer)
Marshall Aby
06.02.2012
Interesting. The Bamboos did a cover of this recently on Tru Thoughts records.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLyFJ-Mntzk

To be honest, without the drum break, we just have a fairly mediocre b-side - I'm not a big fan of the song itself.

I believe I'd go post-modern, tell my tutors to spin, and construct the entire song from pitched snippets of the many tunes that sample 'Amen Brother'.

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