As a follow-up to my recent documentary
for Radio 4, ‘Cutting Up the Cut-Up’, I have been working with Dan Shepherd of
Farshoreline Productions
on an online supplement: ‘Cutcast
Up-Pod’, which is currently available from Soundcloud. When editing the
original programme Dan and I quickly discovered that we had recorded far more
material than we could comfortably fit into a show that was scheduled to come
in just shy of half an hour. This is quite often the case when making a radio
show for the BBC. In this case, however, we found that we had accumulated a lot
of really fascinating material on the audio cut-up process – Vicki Bennett,
Lenka Clayton, Cassetteboy and Armando Iannucci all went into great detail
about what kinds of methods to follow, which machines work best and what kind
of material it is best to start with. Vicki Bennett and Armando Iannucci shared
a passion for local radio news , while Lenka Clayton and Casstetteboy both
demonstrated a more systematic and painstaking approach to cutting up
words. Editing the four speakers
together, with an absolute minimum of scripted links, offers insightful information
to anyone interested in developing their own cut-up skills. As William
Burroughs always liked to remind us: ‘any number can play.’
'Cutcast Up-pod' – featuring additional material
from Chris Morris and Negativland – is available here.
A short piece on the cut-up method
I wrote for BBC News Online – also with online examples from Negativland and
Chris Morris – is available here.
RIP Don Joyce (1944-2015) – ‘….then
I feel so bad.’
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