Osymyso’s Resolution MP3s

OSYMYSO’S RESOLUTION MP3S: Whether or not they go the full 365, new year’s resolutions make for good web projects. Case in point, osymyso.com, which was recommended in the latest email newsletter from the Warp Records label as a fine counterpart to DJ Food’s recent Raiding the 20th Century, an extended mash-up of mash-ups. Osymyso makes the standard January 1 promise: new content, once a week, every week. In this case, it’s 50 tracks over the course of 50 weeks, with a bonus: “it will then be re-arranged and mixed into one chunk for release on the first day of 2006.” So far, Osymyso (may we call you Osy?) has been producing the sort of retro-futuristic sampling that used to be the sole province of the Ninja Tune label, the sorta jokey yet funky stuff that Funki Porcini, Food, Coldcut and others cemented as perhaps Britain’s first major contribution to hip-hop. Osymyso’s tracks, collectively titled 05YMY50, bear the marks of Funkadelic and Salt ‘n Pepa, the Beastie Boys, even Morris Day, filtered through a penchant for rigorous instrumental cut’n’paste play. (There’s an informative interview at pixelsurgeon.com.) So, make a less demanding new year’s resolution of your own: put osymyso.com on the weekly to-do list, and we’ll take stock on the first of next year.