wax&wires

Busker Du – Phone Recorded Street Musicians

Call it anything but over-produced.

Busker Du is a website where users can phone in recordings of street musicians. Say you’re on the corner of 4th and Market in San Francisco and hear a street performer delivering a creative rendition of Don’t Worry Be Happy; or perhaps you’re in a subway station in NYC and you’re catching a sweet saxophone belt out an enchanting rendition of Harlem Nocturne that echoes through the tunnels; it’s time to share those magical moments with the world. Phone it in via you’re cell or a nearby payphone, and it will get uploaded to Busker Du, where the rest of the world can share in the beauty and nostalgia that has become such a defining characteristic of our urban metropolis.

You all saw the video a few weeks back from Playing for Change of street performers around the world singing Stand by Me. This is almost like a more rugged version of a simlar concept. The end goal is the same, and that is a commentary on respecting the street performer as a legitimate artist.

Perhaps what I love most about Busker Du is how raw it is. We’re so used to hearing excessive amounts of production and electronic manipulation of audio, that Busker Du is a breath of fresh air, and reminder of what matters more than production quality, the performance and relational abilities of the artist.

You’ll hear me say this again in the future, undoubtedly:

Great artists do one of two things:

1) Wow the audience with an epic and huge sound, putting them in a state of “Wow, I could never do that. It’s too awesome.” (Think U2, Pumpkins, any big 80s rock band… big sound approaches something superhuman/divine = shock and awe = crowd comes back for more)

OR

2) Draw the audience in to such an intimate place, that they believe that they could do what you’re doing. This creates a level of relation unattainable through the first avenue. (Think Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Jack Johnson… simple sound accentuates humanity and intimacy = crowd comes back for more)

Busker Du is the full realization of the latter. Street performers, recorded at ultra low quality through telephones. The ultimate in lo-fi, simple, yet captivating recordings. Something about the dirt and rawness makes the recordings feel a lot more timeless than your typical radio hits.

Brilliant concept, and great execution.

www.BuskerDu.com

(Thanks Caleb117 for the lead!)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 at 11:10 pm. It is filed under wires and tagged with busker du, phone, websites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.