Finding Music In The Mundane

What Bonobo, Four Tet, and a washing machine can teach us about organic sampling.

Hey—It’s Matthew from BeatsbyVanityTV.

Estimated read time: 1 minute, 04 seconds.

Earlier today I uploaded a video breaking down the sound of Bonobo.

One big takeaway was his focus on organic material.

For Bonobo, that means weaving acoustic instruments into his electronic productions.

For me, it’s more DIY.

I like grabbing one-shots from places like freesound.org. Throwing them into a sampler and seeing what happens.

Often these sounds become layers. Supporting more stable instruments. Adding character and flair.

A much more fun approach is to use your house as an instrument.

Walk around. Open and close things. Tap, bang, scrape. You’ll be surprised how many potential instruments are hidden in plain sight.

These sounds can stand alone. Or just add texture to a drum hit.

In that tutorial, I layered a washing machine door recording over the kick drum. Suddenly something bland becomes unique.

Beyond just layering, household foley can easily become an entire percussion bed—if you get creative.

Make it a habit to record at least one sound every time you head out for a few hours. Before long, you’ll have a curated collection. A sonic diary of sorts.

In my Four Tet tutorial, I mentioned how he recorded himself and his daughter ice skating one afternoon. That sound made it into his track, aptly titled Skater. It wasn’t just ambiance. It was a memory—woven into the music.

Foley and field recordings aren’t just texture. They’re anchors. They tether a track to something real. A place. A feeling. A person.

So when you’re making music, ask yourself: what would this track sound like if it could remember something?

See you next Thursday,

—Matthew