Mashups are a toughie. To be perfectly blunt, most of the time they’re doing no favours for either song involved. It’s inherently jarring to splice together two things you know so well into a completely new beast, and often they can poison their original sources with each other’s presence.
Not this time. Thanks to a soundbite of Miles Davis playing the trumpet for 1958 film Ascenseur Pour l’Échafaud, YouTube user Alessandro Grespan has made the LCD Soundsystem hit New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down even more heartbreaking than it already was.
Expect the unexpected when mashing up Miles Davis and LCD Soundsystem, as one YouTuber hunts down the unlikely musical combo.
The two sync up perfectly, creating the rare mashup in which both contributors are actually enhanced by one another’s performances.
A sombre song to begin with, New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down becomes absolutely drenched in salty heartache with the addition of Davis’ soloing. The fading trumpet is the perfect compliment to James Murphy’s lo-fi croon, and somehow the disheartened Kermit only enhances the experience.
In case you’re skeptical about how well these two work together, you can always go ahead and try it yourself. The two videos are below – start the Davis video when LCD Soundsystem gets to 0:32.
