b0g – sitting on a romanian hill of mashup gold
Published March, 2012
by Easterndaze
Since a long time we have been following the music generated by the Romanian mash-up artist Bogdan Marcu going under the name of b0g. His sonic “plunderphonic mutants” are not only an exercise in mixing seemingly disparate sources into one bass-heavy and dirty piece of lo-fi booty electronica, but most often also conceptual pieces reflecting and reinterpreting Romanian culture, history and politrix. We asked b0gdan to answer a couple of questions.
Bogardo’s way – now i want to sniff some glue by b0g
Can you introduce yourself ?
My name is Bogdan Marcu. I’m an audio-visual artist from Romania, Bucharest. The weather is very sunny today and the mall in front of my block is full.
What was your first contact with music ?
I was very atracted by the mash-up technique, especially the pieces that were very unusual, almost funny, but they still possessed some chemistry that blowed my mind. I tried to find something similar in Romanian music and realized that there is almost nothing but Matze and that the possibilities are unlimited. I tried to do such music for myself and since then I’ve never stopped.
Stela Enache si Florin Bogardo by b0g
In your music the sounds and songs of Romania play a big role – is it a fascination with history, a reaction to it, or a defense ?
It is all of that. I use samples from Facebook posts of my friends, I use music that is considered stupid or having low quality, but I also use big pop icons and symbols of the Romanian culture. All of them are things that people from Romania never heard in a different context as in the one they were born into.
Most of my songs are mash-ups but not only because I use samples from other songs. I try to construct something out of them that is made by me. I usually create a story or some correlation between samples. Almost every time there is a message present, except when the message is to have no message.
You had a track (now unavailable) with a song from the Iron Brigades – what was it about ?
The story of that sample is interesting. It was the hymn of the Iron Brigades, but it was interpreteted by a choir of nuns that were singing it for their head priest on his birthday because he was in the Iron Brigades when he was young. So i contrasted their feminine voices singing that song which is always sung by men with some hard techno.
Do you think that making mashups is easier than making ‘original’ tracks ? And is it possible to do something original these days at all?
It is not easier because you have to introduce somebody’s song in your sound and that requests a lot of trying and testing and searching and cutting and resampling. As for originality, yes, it is actually very simple to be original, but you can’t sell it. Nobody needs it.
You produce quite a lot, every couple of days there is a new track on soundcloud, why is that ?
It’s normal. I’m siting on a big hill of gold and I enjoy diggin’ this shit.
How is it to live in Romania for you ?
In Romania the mash-up culture is very poor but I started to appreciate to live here because here I can feel the taste of freedom.
What is the difference between b0g and Bogardo’s way ?
b0g came at the beginning when I discovered that if you change a sample just a little, it becomes a completely original and new creation which turns you into a god. Or almost a god, because you use an already created substance.
Bogardo’s way comes from an interesting Romanian popular composer Florin Bogardo. There was a scandal here in Romania between old music composers and some dj’s. The dj’s were accused that they are not original because they use parts of the old composers’ songs and make new stuff which is the same with what they were originally working with but only not digitally. And that made me bind this story to my older name and resulted in Bogardo’s way.
Where and how do you take the samples from ?
The internet like a normal web pirate, so please STOP ACTA!!!!!