The Evolution Control Committee

The Evolution Control Committee (The ECC) is an experimental music band based in Columbus, Ohio. The ECC was founded by Mark Gunderson (a.k.a. TradeMark G.) in Columbus in 1986.^[1] They create music that falls within the borders of the sound collage genre, typically using uncleared and illegal samples from various sources as a form of protest against copyright law. The ECC also produces numerous audio experiments that goes outside regular composition methods, including the disfiguring of compact discs in a live performance known as "CDestruction". They have produced a few video works as well, ranging from re-edited 50's corporate shorts to Teddy Ruxpin reciting the works of William S. Burroughs. Other activities include culture jamming.

They are one of the pioneers of the mash-up or bootleg, where two or more songs are mixed together into a new track. According to Neil Strauss in The New York Times, "...many musical observers trace the official beginnings of the British bootleg scene to The Evolution Control Committee, which in 1993 mixed a Public Enemy a cappella with music by Herb Alpert." These are the now-classic "Public Enemy/Whipped Cream Mixes" containing Public Enemy's inflammatory raps titled "By the Time I Get To Arizona" and "Rebel Without a Pause" overdubbed onto instrumentals by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.^[2]

The ECC wrote "Rocked by Rape," consisting of samples of Dan Rather's deadpan delivery describing various atrocities over looped riffs from AC/DC's "Back in Black." This work brought legal threats against The ECC by CBS, but by 2003, CBS appeared to have dropped the issue.^[3] "Rocked by Rape" was nationally broadcast on NPR's All Things Considered in 2000.^[4] It was even played at a roast for Rather, later broadcast on C-SPAN.

Desde el año 2000, Gunderson ha interpretado sus obras en directo mediante un instrumento electrónico de su propia invención: el "Thimbletron". Consiste en un par de guantes con diez dedales sujetos a las puntas de los dedos, conectados a un ordenador portátil. Al juntar los dedales, el ordenador reproduce una muestra de sonido diferente. Gunderson afirma que el dispositivo utiliza "energía de dedal" y advierte que "la radiación de dedal puede filtrarse inesperadamente debido a un percance durante una actuación en directo. Se recomienda al público asistir a las actuaciones del Thimbletron bajo su propia responsabilidad". Gunderson también ha modificado una tostadora de pan de forma similar, de modo que cada vez que se pulsa una palanca se reproduce una muestra de sonido.

El Thimbletron ha sido prácticamente retirado de las presentaciones públicas en favor de la Rueda del Mashup, donde los espectadores suben al escenario y giran una rueda para seleccionar aleatoriamente la música y las voces que se combinarán. Estas se mezclan en tiempo real mediante el VidiMasher 3000, una gran pantalla táctil de proyección trasera que se utiliza para controlar Ableton Live . Demostración del VidiMasher 3000 (Pantalla de Video Mashup).

• Jesu Boy of Man's Desiring (Autoeditado)

  Casete de audio con fragmentos de los primeros tiempos .

• Buddha Bleach (Autoeditado por Def Clam Tapes , diciembre de 1990)

  Casete de audio con fragmentos de los primeros montajes.

• El último centro comercial (Autoeditado)

  Casete de audio con bucles y llamadas telefónicas de broma. Empaquetado en una bolsa de compras de "Lazarusears".

• Big Wyoming (Autoeditado)

  Casete de audio con crónica de viaje de las vacaciones de esquí de la familia Gunderson, acompañado por un Casio . Empaquetado en postales.

• Gunderphonic (Autoedición, 1994 ECC -=- The Virtual Gunderphone )

  Casete de audio inspirado en Plunderphonics de John Oswald . Incluye fragmentos de audio, como las conocidas mezclas de Whipped Cream y dos discursos de George H. W. Bush sobre la Guerra del Golfo, en una versión "corregida". El casete viene empaquetado dentro de una antigua cinta de 8 pistas .

• Doblemente gordo y aún insípido (lanzado por Eerie Materials )

  CD con collages y música electrónica , además de sketches de humor absurdo y actuaciones de artistas invitados. Un disquete de 5,25 pulgadas está cortado por un lado y el CD se inserta en su interior.

• Plagiarhythm Nation (Publicado por Seeland Records )

  CD con collages y música electrónica.

• Mezclas para crema batida (publicadas en Eerie Materials / Pickled Egg )

  Vinilo de 45 rpm. Cara A: Rebelde sin pausa. Cara B: Para cuando llegue a Arizona.

• Unreleased Ambient Works (Self Released)

  CD featuring dark atmospheric/illbient works.

• Rocked by Rape (Released on Eerie Materials)

  Vinyl 45.

• The Television Will Not Be Revolutionized (Self Released)

  VHS video cassette.

• Compact Discstructions (Self Released)

  A manual packaged with a random CD. The manual describes various ways to make a CD play incorrectly, and is intended ultimately to destroy the CD.

• Subliminal (self-released)

  Cassette featuring many layered subliminal self-help recordings. The website claims that side one "will increase your creativity, improve your employment, develop your ESP, help you stop smoking, and so on." While side two, being a reverse recording of the same, "will help you gain weight, get demoted, become stupid, etc." link

• Weapons of Ass Destruction (self-released)

  Full length album released online, available for download from the Sounds section of the ECC web site.

• All Rights Reserved (self-released)

  Full-length album released online Discography: ECC Media of the Past, Present, and Future; also available in LP and CD format.

Mark Gunderson also records as DJ Pantshead and performs with Cheese & Pants Theater, a comedy/performance art duo consisting of a giant pair of pants and a giant Parmesan cheese shaker who pantomime to bizarrely edited vintage audio and as DJ John Philip Suicide with Dub Assault. Past projects have included the experimental performance troupe Gaga, several ECC performances at the Columbus Avant Garage film festival, and a release with the Weird Love Makers. A present project is his webcast 'The Sound of Plaid' as Trademark G. at the Amsterdam-based international radio-art webstation DFM RTV INT, which airs two times each week.

Other related artists include The Bran Flakes, Emergency Broadcast Network, Escape Mechanism, Negativland, John Oswald, People Like Us and The Tape-beatles, Messer Für Frau Müller.

Greg Gillis, in interview outtakes for the movie RIP: A Remix Manifesto, admits that Evolution Control Committee was a major influence and inspiration to create the mashups for his artistic persona Girl Talk. Gillis even explains that the best description of Girl Talk's music is "Plunderphonics."

• El sitio web del Comité de Control de la Evolución
• "Intervención cultural, control de la evolución" .
• Discografía de Evolution Control Committee en MusicBrainz
• La licencia artística
• Reportaje radiofónico : Entrevista con el Comité de Control de la Evolución, en la sección "Se requiere cierto montaje" .