Ever play exquisite corpse when you were a kid?
Let me refresh your memory.
Here’s how it works: you get a sheet of paper and on the top of that piece of paper you draw something. For this example, let’s say you draw the helmet of an astronaut.
You then pass the sheet of paper to the person sitting next to you and that person draws the torso. Let’s say they draw the torso of a sherrif from a western movie: a white button up shirt, a leather vest with a tin star-badge pinned to it, and in the sheriff’s hands are two revolvers, waiting to be fired.
That person then passes the sheet of paper to the person sitting next to them. But this time they’ve covered the top of the paper: the drawing you did of the astronaut’s helmet. The new player on the game of exquisite corpse can only continue the drawing based on what they can see: the sheriff’s torso.
That person decides to draw the legs of a ballerina, complete with tights and a tutu. And then they pass the sheet of paper to the person sitting next to them, but this time both the astronaut’s helmet and the sherrif’s torso are covered. Only the ballerina’s legs are showing.
That person decides to complete the drawing by adding enormous clown shoes to the legs of the ballerina.
At the end of the game the drawing in it’s entirety: an astronaut’s helmet on the torso of a western sheriff with the legs of a ballerina wearing huge clown shoes. Everyone has a good laugh at their group effort.
There are all sorts of variations of Exquisite Corpse. Writers will adopt this technique to tell a story. Composers will use the Exquisite Corpse method to create a piece of song.
And that’s what we’re going to do on today’s solipsistic NATION, but with music and the players are people who blog about electronic music.
I started out the Exquisite Corpse mix by choosing a song, which I then sent to a blogger who then had to choose a track that they thought should go next. The criteria is up to them: they can choose a song that would seguely nicely from the track I selected. Maybe they want to stay in the same genre. mood or key. Maybe they decide to veer off into a different direction. It’s entirely up to them.
The track they selected is sent off to the next blogger, each person choosing a song for the mix based only on the track they have just heard until the mix is complete. Today’s show will be just as much a surprise for them as it is for you.
At the end of today’s Exquisite Corpse mix we’ll hear from each of the players: who they are, what song they chose and why they chose that song.
If you enjoy today’s show you’ll want to listen to the previous Exquisite Corpse mix on solipsistic NATION.
Photo Credit: Patricia Bravo
- Bubblegone “Thank You” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
Selected by Bazooka Joe, solipsistic NATION - Flexor81 “Myriapoda” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
Selected by Pietrobot, Igloo Magazine - Jason Corder “Twilight Sleep” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
Selected by Travis Nobles, hiddenplace music - Skeetaz “Dirty Dobbers”
Selected by HC, Headphone Commute - Bufi “Homeless Hero” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
Selected by Mike Gregoire, blocSonic - Machine Drum “Stevie Bam Jackson Remix (Kettel)”
Selected by Jacob Arnold, Gridface - New Look “Everything” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
Selected by Casey Winters, The Music Lobby - Tolera Storm “Revelation”
Selected by Daysha Taylor, Earthbird Music - Mint “Dead Pixel”
Selected by Bruno Lasnier, The Milk Factory - Sci Fi Industries “Questions and Ansewers”
Selected by Miguel de Sousa, Connexion Bizarre - Halogen “Redux”
Selected by Daniel Crossley, Fluid Radio