Mixmaster Alice

Mixmaster Alice by Jackson

December 3, 2009, 7:40 am
Filed under: Jackson

I love music. I’m always a fan of interesting tunes, indie music, classic rock, and my closet interest, electronica. So I was ticked pink when, while doing my Alice homework, I made a harmonic discovery. An audio artist, by the name of Nick Bertke, has taken sounds from the animated Disney movie “Alice in Wonderland,” and, using only those sounds, has mixed together a fantastic, dreamy electro-pop song. Listen to it here, before going further (headphones are strongly recommended).

I love this piece of music. I think that the song flows well from element to element, and that the bass and the treble are mixed together well to provide a tone that is neither too deep or too high. I also think that the variety of sounds used, as well as how ingenious Bertke is in mixing them, is astounding. I really do think that as a semi-instrumental piece, it’s one of the best I know. While it is, in effect, a simple loop, it’s very pleasing to the ear, and I find myself coming back to listen to it time and again.

It also provides an interesting metaphor for Alice’s adventures. Alice, in her adventures, is broken up and pieced together. It wouldn’t be strange to see the chapters presented in an entirely different order. I think her adventures in Wonderland are so building-block like that they really could be shuffled and rearranged, at least some of them. For example, the Mad Tea Party could go almost anywhere in the story, as could the caucus-race.

I think that overall, the song provides a good analogy to the story itself. When the clips are shuffled around, the story too, can bend with the musical wind. The song and the story both provide an example of how almost anything can be bent to a common will.

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