A couple of weeks ago, fellow mashup scholar Anthony Cushing introduced me to a mashup of "15 Step" by Radiohead and "Take Five" by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. It's by a DJ called Overdub, and he titles it "Five Step."
"Take Five" might be the more well-known of the two source songs, the biggest-selling jazz single of all time, famous for its 5/4 meter. "15 Step" is the opening track on Radiohead's 2007 album In Rainbows, which made news at the time of its release for being one of the first albums offered for consumers to download at a "pay what you want" (including $0) price. The two songs have a few things in common right off the bat. Both are in 5/4 which, as I said before, is the most notable feature of "Take Five." Radiohead is certainly familiar with asymmetrical meter, in fact, Brad Osborn devotes an entire section in his groundbreaking new book to their use of odd-cardinality meter. Conveniently, the meter in both songs is clearly divided into a 3 + 2 pattern, which is set up as an ostinato at the beginning of each track. Additionally, they are in closely-related minor keys; "Take Five" is in E-flat minor and "15 Step" is in A-flat minor.
The mashup begins similarly to "15 Step," with a drum machine setting up the meter before Thom Yorke's voice enters with the first verse. Distortion is added to the drum machine in the mashup, but the basic pattern remains the same. After Yorke's a cappella verse, Brubeck's piano riff enters, transposed up a perfect fourth to A-flat minor. This is my transcription of when the two events occur simultaneously:
As you can see, Yorke's melody lines up perfectly with Brubeck's harmonies. The similar harmonic structure of the songs (i and v7 in Brubeck, and i, IV, and v in Radiohead) allows for the combination of saxophone (Brubeck), vocal line (Radiohead), piano (Brubeck), and guitar (Radiohead) all at the same time. It's an extremely well-made mashup that exploits the rhythmic and harmonic similarities of two songs from different genres and different time periods. 10/10; would listen again!