Other The East Village Vampire
Conquistadors

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."

• Albert Einstein

Taking Einstein's quote to heart, 'Conquistadors' was an attempt to expand my horizons. Regardless of whether the track is any good, it is absolutely unique in my catalog and that alone makes me like it. It is just so unrepresentative of anything that I have ever done before or since (including 'The Deep Juice Electro'). As a curiosity I think it is worth having a listen to.

In short, 'Conquistador' is an electro track that I did in the early 2000’s. It probably sounds a bit dated now (a huge problem for dance music in my opinion). And although it might sound just like any other dance/electro track I really tried to tell a story through various musical movements. As such, nothing in this track was random. For better or worst I mapped it out before recording a single note. I remember asking myself can dance music actually be intelligent? Can it tell a story? This was my attempt to answer those questions.

Be warned, I’m about to get SERIOUSLY PRETENTIOUS. Here is how the so-called "story" in this track can be read:

• Movement 1 (0:00 – 0:28): Indigenous people living life freely.

• Movement 2(0:28 – 1:40): Conquistadors traveling across the ocean to a new land.

• Movement 3(1:40 – 4:32): Conquistadors arrive bringing their religion and "progress".

• Movement 4 (4:32 – 5:01 ): Indigenous & Conquistador cultures forever mixed together.

• Movement 5 (5:01 – 5:44): A new beginning or new Conquistadors on the way?

I did warn you (I'm embarrassed even as am I writing this description)

What also makes this track different for me is the use of samples. Granted, I have sampled before but never in such an upfront manner. I delved into my CD collection and heavily sampled both ‘Canto Gregorinao - Coro de monjes del Monasterioi’ and Public Image Ltd’s track ‘Religion’ – as always Johnny Lydon provides the perfect lyrics and the perfect delivery. I can't remember where I got all the chants from. I do think the samples have been used tastefully.

Musically, there is a bit of Leftfield, Chemical Brothers and Future Sounds Of London. However, if you listen a bit more closely there are also touches of Dead Can Dance, Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel floating around.

By the way, the theme of Conquistadors was inspired by Werner Herzog's classic film 'Aguirre, the Wrath of God'. If you haven't seen it you really should. Long live Klaus Kinski.

For those who prefer my traditional song writing I'll be returning to my trusty guitars and pianos in my next release. For now here is something different.

Hope you enjoy!

Conquistadors by The East Village Vampire is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Based on a work at soundcloud.com/the-east-villag...e/conquistadors.