Evolution Control Committee, historical plagiarism.

.emusic



21.04.04 Evolution Control Committee, historical plagiarism.


One of the peculiar characteristics of musical plagiarism is to have a common goal, to protest against the absurdity of endless copyright enforcing, and at the same time a wide variety of strategies and forms. With the catchy slogan ‘Copyright violation for the nation’, the Evolution Control Committee is one of the plagiarist bands which have best interpreted the unlimited use of sound samples. The group, headed by Mark Gunderson, is from Columbus, Ohio, and has been in the scene for twenty years, producing everything from subliminal audiotapes to cause unpleasant effects to a manual of techniques to damage a compact disc. Their ‘moment of glory’ arrived with ‘Rocked by Rape’, a sound edit made in 1998 which mixes riffs from the song ‘Back in Black’ by AC/DC with samples of a famous anchorman of CBS, Dan Rather, describing several catastrophes and atrocities. The other side of this vinyl record featured the raw samples used for the piece and the instructions to put them together. The record, after avoiding a lawsuit by CBS thanks to an intense promotional activity by the group, is not sold anymore, but the files used to make it can be downloaded from their site. This band, in its live performances, uses the Thimbletron, an instrument made with ten thimbles mounted on two cotton gloves connected to a sound control system.