Brian 'Danger Mouse' Burton: Crafting Iconic Sounds

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Music 580
The mixing and producing style of Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton
Artists and songs represented:
Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Getaway
Black Keys - Turn Blue
The Good, the Bad, and the Queen - Kingdom of Doom

Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton

Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton came to fame via a mashup he made in 2004 of the Beatles White Album and Jay-Z’s Black Album to create The Grey Album. To be fair though, he did mix the biggest band in the world with one of the biggest hip-hop artist. However, I first came to hear of him on The Mouse and The Mask by MF Doom. While the album can be a little childish at times with all of the Adult Swim characters, the hooks and beats that Danger Mouse created are super catchy. This is one of my all time favorite collaborations.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Producer

The Getaway is definitely a departure for the Chili Peppers, this song is the first cut from an album that has not been produced by Rick Rubin since 1989. It starts right off with a sampled beat-box; with distortion added to it, and a sampled Chad Smith drum part. All of which are characteristics of Brian’s tendencies. The guitars are panned left with some parts in the right, with a lot of delay or reverb added and for lack of a better description, just sounds like the …show more content…

I love the way he can take simple hooks and incorporate them as secondary ideas that come and go in layers. It goes back to his Grey Album he has always shown a knack for grabbing hooky ideas and making catchy tracks. He also is great at making a sonic backdrop for his productions by using pianos and synth lines, a great example of this is on the Broken Bells’ Highroad. The synth line is so quirky, but such a catchy part of the track. I feel that this is in part due to his triple threat status as a musician, composers, and producer. All of which give him a strong insight into the music

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