Aliases

woops said:

Madlib seems to be on a world record attempt:

Aliases:
Ahmad Miller, Beat Konducta, D. Relmond, Dezo, DJ Lord Such, DJ Rels, Duma Peterson, Joe McDuphrey, Joe McDuphrey Experience, Junior Taylor, Kamala Walker and The Soul Tribe, Kay Henderson, Malik Flavors, Medicine Man (8), Monk Hughes, Monk Hughes & The Outer Realm, Morgan Adams III, Otis Jackson Jr., Otis Jackson Jr. Trio, Quasimoto, R.M.C., Russel Jenkins, Sound Directions, Spectrum 77, Suntouch, The Eddie Prince Fusion Band, The Jazzistics, The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble, The Loopdigga, Tyrone Foster, Yesterday's Universe All Stars, Yesterdays New Quintet, Young Jazz Rebels

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Richard H. Kirk I think bests that (from Discogs):

Agents With False Memories, Al Jabr, Anarchia, Biochemical Dread, Bit Crackle, Blacworld, Chemical Agent, Cold Warrior, Dark Magus, Destructive Impact, Digital Terrestrial, Dollars And Cents, DR Xavier, Electronic Eye, Extended Family (2), Frightgod, Future Cop Movies, Harold Sandoz, International Organisation, King Of Kings, Multiple Transmission, Nine Mile Dub, Nitrogen (2), Orchestra Terrestrial, Outland Assasin, Papadoctrine, Pat Riot (2), Port Au Prince, PSI Punky Dread Allstars, Reflexiv, Richard H Kirk And The Arpeggio 13, Robots + Humanoids, Sandoz, Signals Intelligence, The Revolutionary Army (Of The Infant Jesus), The Silent Age, The Third Man (3), Trafficante, Ubermenschlich, Ubu Rahmen, Vasco De Mento, Wicky Wacky

version said:

I was thinking about "Dirt McGirt" last night after making the thread. It's difficult for vocalists and rappers unless they wanna perform with their face covered or have no public profile as you just go "It's ODB".

Love that Dirt McGirt tune on the Neptunes comp.

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In my top 5 fave rappers easily.

it's a way of flooding the market, without it seeming like you're flooding the market. when you're on a hot streak and got too much good stuff to release. when you want put out something new, but your latest track is still getting play and you don't want to step on it.

and for a lot of small labels, it was a way of seeming like you had a bigger roster.

blissblogger said:

it's a way of flooding the market, without it seeming like you're flooding the market. when you're on a hot streak and got too much good stuff to release. when you want put out something new, but your latest track is still getting play and you don't want to step on it.

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Yeah, that was certainly the case with Todd Terry. He was in a contract that wouldn't let him put out records under this own name, so he found a loophole to get around it by inventing these aliases out of sheer necessity. I think he had like 10 records out and blowing up at once at one point, which was pretty much unprecendented I think.

There was the conceptual side at work as well I think though, cos he divided them up by the sample sets he used

"Every alias kind of matches a sound. Black Riot is Chicago acid samples. Royal House is Marshall Jefferson samples. The Todd Terry Project is Arthur Russell samples"

Benny B said:

There was the conceptual side at work as well I think though, cos he divided them up by the sample sets he used

"Every alias kind of matches a sound. Black Riot is Chicago acid samples. Royal House is Marshall Jefferson samples. The Todd Terry Project is Arthur Russell samples"

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yeah i have wondered whether these multi-aliased producers actually have designated vibes to each identity. With Aphex Twin, the characteristics of certain identities seems to be "this is pretty throwaway, bashed-out stuff, strictly for the obsessives"

i suppose George Clinton kind of invented this, with all the different configurations of the same pool of musicians, signed to different deals. but then again probably there's some other precursor in showbiz or jazz or something, some canny breadhead.

then there's probably a musician equivalent to that thing where your have the brand-name maker of e.g. mustard, but the same company makes a virtually identical product for supermarkets to sell as own-brand / generic. so the punter is really just paying extra for the brand-name's advertising campaign.

that would be something like the musician with a reputation, a discography / uuuurv with a profile, but they also do a bunch of library records to earn extra dough

invisible man released under one so he wouldn't get yelled at for using the same breaks as 'valley of the shadows' that had just been blowing up. mundane but practical

There's Prince's pitched up feminine alter ego Camille, which was slated as an LP but then shelved during the gestation of Sign of the Times. I think it would have made a great stand-alone, SOTT's a bit bloated.

Rebirth of the flesh
Housequake
Strange Relationship
Feel U up
Shockadelica
Good Love
If I was your girlfriend
Rockhard in a funky place
U Got the look
Scarlet Pussy

There's probably more...

version said:

I thought about doing a thread on this idea, but couldn't think of anything to actually say about it. I wasn't thinking specifically about Prince, more people shifting their voice to present a character, e.g. Positive K in 'I Got A Man' and Madlib when he's Lord Quas.

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Slim Shady

version said:

I dunno if he really did a different voice for Shady though. It's the lyrics.

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True, but I think he did put on different voices and set up some of his songs up like little plays with dialogue sometimes, cant think of concrete examples off the headtop though

Tbh I havent listened to eminem for over 20 years so I may be talking shit

Coil had a good few didn't they?

Black light district
Time machines
Elph
The eschaton

I think with them it was a way to side step the baggage and expectation that came with naming things COIL. Revealing an insecurity and worry at the heart of it all. May be a similar thing going on with aphex ?