This is half-pie.

The end of the year is nigh… and so it becomes time for lists of stuff to fill out those uncomfortable pauses before Christmas.

Throughout the year I’ve been checking in on my favourite mash meisters, and of course Mashculture too. I’ve downloaded lots of stuff: some good; some great; some appallingly bad. This is all part of the fun. Out of all this hard work (coff!) I present here a modest list of 10 tracks that are available at the time of writing.

Maybe I should start with the most awful, the most appalling, and nauseating mashup I’ve found this year.

• Ex-dublxero – Rolf Harris Touches Himself Every Time He Thinks About YOU! – Someone, somewhere, taped Mr Harris reciting the words to that dumbarse Divinyls song. Ex-dublxero has found this, and then put a backing to it. The result has to be heard to be believed, revolting like a kindly uncle heavy breathing in your ear, but at the same time, funny as hell. One to er, “enjoy”. Link

And now onto the list proper... in no particular order (because I’m finding it hard to rank this stuff!).

• Divide & Kreate – Always With You – I should hate this. I should. I even hate myself for liking this. But Willie’s Always on my Mind sounds strangely beautiful and tragic juxtaposed with U2’s With or Without You. Link.
  Please, if you don’t like this, or even the very thought of Willie Nelson turns your stomach, please go visit Divide & Kreate’s website – there’s a full range of other great stuff there (like the cool mash of Eurythmics Sweet Dreams and Franz Ferdinand’s Jacqueline among others).

• fuTuRo – Keep Tomorrow Hanging – A good example of how mashups aren’t just about the music, but picking the lyrical content too. A mash of The Supremes You Keep Me Hanging On vs the Stereophonics Maybe Tomorrow, with the lyrics interspersed to tell both sides of the story. Link.

• Martinn – Papa was a Rose of Stone – Martinn reclaims the rhythmns of The Stone Roses Fool’s Gold for soul. I’m a bit of a sucker for the music of my youth mixed up with anything else, really. Link.

• Party Ben – Pump Up The Doorbell – That old classic Pump Up The Volume mixed with the White Stripes Doorbell. The girls and I often put this track on loud and dance around the living room. They’ve even started singing the lyrics; and I rushed out and bought the White Stripes album thinking it might be all as good as this. I’m sorry, but I don’t think so. Link.
  Party Ben’s also done a whole heap of other good stuff this year like Hung Up On Soul, a mix of Madonna and Death Cab for Cutie (but the clincher with this track being the uplifting little run of Abba in the chorus!) and Doncha / Seether (Pussycat Dolls / Veruca Salt – amusing, but not for the kids though).

• Tigerbluemusic – Another Beautiful Summer – I suppose this one is a bit obvious (James Blunt vs. Snoop Dogg) for the better travelled. It’s not obvious for me as I haven’t been over-exposed to either of the songs mixed here (I live under a rock, and also I never listen to the radio). Very sweet. Link.

• Bug – Johnny Be Good to Frankie – This is about as old-skool as you can get: Johnny Cash’s Johnny & Frankie vs. Jerry Lee Lewis Johnny Be Good. It works. Link.
  Unfortunately I don’t seem to be able to find Bug’s website though – if anyone knows, let me know and I’ll link here.

• Team 9 – Crazy Times – As you guessed, Crazy, but mixed with Prince’s Sign of the Times. Like the Snoop/Blunt mash above I’m probably the only one who will think this is cool, mainly because I haven’t heard Crazy enough to be sick of it. Link.

• A plus D – Love Will Tear You Apart / She Wants Originality (She Wants Revenge vs. Joy Division vs. Bauhaus) – This one is amazing. I’d not heard the original Bauhaus song before but the Joy Division one has resonated with me for 25 years now. Together these make one hell of a spooky mix of obsessive, violent love. And there’s lots more good stuff on the A plus D site too. Link

• DJ Zebra – Crystal Javanaise – New Order! Serge Gainsbourg! How can we go wrong? DJ Zebra cannot, bringing a welcome cool French vibe to his many great tracks. Link.

• DJ Earlybird – Hell of a Heavenly Bang Bang – Another tale of obsessive, violent love that all goes horribly wrong. The testosterone power of Black Sabbath vs. the deeply sad sounding Nancy Sinatra. These two seem to go together in a way all too reflective of the real world. Link.
  Earlybird is not only prolific, but crazy with it. Diana Ross Upside Down with the Dead Kennedies Too Drunk to Fuck, anyone?

Honourable mention:

• Team 9 – Loaded vs. Oops, Oh My – This is actually my favourite Mash this year, even though it’s a bit old. It doesn’t make the list because Team 9, under his continual refresh policy, has taken it down since I found it in September. [Update 17/12/06: Team 9 has reinstated the track for a limited time here. Thanks!]
  Primal Scream’s Loaded is one of my all time favourite songs: a formative musical experience of mine was listening to this 12” for the first time, down in the Dunedin record shop that had just got its monthly shipment of import vinyl in, and I was hearing that those weedy Scots popsters turned grungy rockers had suddenly gone 90 degrees left into dance music and it was effin good. Now, Team 9 have taken that music and returned it to its roots by grafting a really nice sexy dirty soul vocal on it. So, so good.

And that’s it. If, at the end of this, you’re still looking for more, here’s some handy links:

• My list from 2005.
• Culturebully’s Mashes of the Year for 2005 and 2006 for two interesting and cool lists with no overlap with mine whatsoever. I’ll be downloading his 2006 list shortly.
• The Best of Bootie 2005. I hope they do another one for 2006 – there are around 20 cracking tracks on here, all of which I’ve purposely avoided including in my list above as you should just download the whole album instead. The standout for me is Cheekyboy’s Nirvana vs. NWA mash Smells Like Compton. [Update 3/01/2007: “Bootie” (see comments) advises that Best of Bootie 2006 is now out! Download and enjoy!]

So, what are you waiting for? Download and mix your own list: and let me know when you’re done!