''Some Assembly Required'' is a

sound collage In music, montage (literally "putting together") or sound collage ("gluing together") is a technique where newly branded sound objects or compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as montage. This is often done throug ...

radio program in the United States, produced in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. It is the first radio show known to focus exclusively on works of sample based music, and appropriation in audio art. The nationally syndicated program features work by artists from a variety of genres, including

plunderphonics Plunderphonics is a music genre in which tracks are constructed by sampling recognizable musical works. The term was coined by composer John Oswald in 1985 in his essay "Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative", and even ...

, hip hop

turntablism Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating new music, sound effects, mixes and other creative sounds and beats, typically by using two or more turntables and a cross fader-equipped DJ mixer. The mixer is plugged into a PA system ...

musique concrète Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic, ...

, noise,

bastard pop A mashup (also mesh, mash up, mash-up, blend, bastard pop or bootleg) is a creative work, usually a song, created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, typically by superimposing the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumenta ...

, sound art and more. The program celebrated its tenth anniversary on January 27, 2009. The final episode originally aired in 2011. Since 2021, new episodes are being produced, monthly, via the website and for radio stations, such as KBOO, in Portland, OR. Additional monthly episodes are also produced for The Wiggle Room, on The Sheena's Jungle Room stream, at wfmu.org. Some Assembly Required has featured interviews with a number of influential sound collage artists including

The Bran Flakes The Bran Flakes are a Canadian-American indie pop group formed in Seattle in 1992. The group, whose line-up comprises Otis Fodder from Montreal, Quebec, and Mildred Pitt from Seattle, Washington, specializes in creating sound collages from pre-ex ...

, Emergency Broadcast Network,

The Evolution Control Committee The Evolution Control Committee (The ECC) is an experimental music band based in Columbus, Ohio. The ECC was founded by Mark Gunderson (a.k.a. TradeMark G.) in Columbus, in 1986. They create music that falls within the borders of the sound collag ...

, Omer Fast,

DJ Food DJ Food is an electronic music project currently headed by Kevin Foakes (also known as "Strictly Kev"). Originally conceived by the members of Coldcut on the Ninja Tune independent record label, the project started in 1990 on the premise of p ...

The Freelance Hellraiser Roy Kerr, aka the Freelance Hellraiser, is one of the creators of the UK bootleg ( mashup) scene. Career Under the Freelance Hellraiser name, Kerr gained fame with a mashup in 2001 called "A Stroke of Genius", which combined an instrumental edit ...

, Girl Talk,

Go Home Productions Go Home Productions (also known as GHP) is the alter ego of Mark Vidler, a producer/remixer/DJ based in Northampton (and formerly Watford), England. GHP has produced well over 200 mash-ups since May 2002, many of which have been played on both n ...

Christian Marclay Christian Marclay (born January 11, 1955) is a visual artist and composer. He holds both American and Swiss nationality. Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film. A pioneer of using gramophone records ...

Negativland Negativland is an American experimental music band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! track, while their record label (Seeland Records) is named after another Neu! track. The core ...

, John Oswald, People Like Us,

DJ Qbert Richard Quitevis (born October 7, 1969) known by his stage name DJ Qbert or Qbert, is an American turntablist and composer. He was awarded America's Best DJ in 2010, was DMC USA Champion 1991 (solo) and achieved titles as DMC World Champion in ...

DJ Spooky Paul Dennis Miller (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is an American electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntabli ...

Steinski Double Dee and Steinski is a duo of hip hop producers, composed of Doug "Double Dee" DiFranco and Steven "Steinski" Stein. They achieved notoriety in the early 1980s for a series of underground hip-hop sample-based collages known as the "Less ...

The Tape-beatles The Tape-beatles (also known as Public Works) are a multi-media group that formed in Iowa City in December 1986. Its members have included Lloyd Dunn, John Heck, Ralph Johnson, Paul Neff, and Linda Morgan Brown. Beginning with analog tape reco ...

, Wayne Butane and many more. The program began as a streaming online radio show in 1999, at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

's college radio station (

KUOM KUOM (770 AM) – branded ''Radio K'' – is a daytime-only non-commercial educational college/alternative rock radio station licensed to serve Minneapolis, Minnesota. KUOM covers the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, and extends its ...

), and quickly became a feature on the station's broadcast schedule. The radio program has aired on dozens of college, community and public radio stations across the United States and Canada and is heard online via its podcast. Some Assembly Required is hosted by Jon Nelsonhttp://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=MN&p_theme=mn&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=11CC891C899644F8&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM and produced at Post Consumer Productions.

Reviews and articles

''The Art of Mashups''
By Tom Ashbrook, On Point, February 5, 2009
''Jon Nelson of Escape Mechanism''
by Katya Tylevich A.V. Club Twin Cities, January 28, 2009
''Some Assembly Required: Mash-Up Pioneer Dreams in Soundbites''
By Elizabeth Held,

Wired Magazine ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online magazine, online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquar ...

December 22, 2008

References

{{reflist

External links

Some Assembly Required websitePost Consumer Productions website
American music radio programs