The Droplift project

The Droplift Project is a compilation CD of 29 (or 30) tracks created by sound collage artists in July 2000.[1] It was manufactured by the participants and then "droplifted" into chain music stores. This process involved having operatives sneak the CD into stores and file it in regular music racks as if it were regular product.[2] In this way a kind of "reverse shoplifting" results in the artist's work appearing next to "legitimate" products of the dominant culture.[3] This same process is also known as "Shopdropping" in the U.K.[4]

Project origins

The Droplift Project began in 1998 when members of a mailing list called "Snuggles,"[5] which was organized to discuss the audio collage art of Negativland, began to trade their own collage works online. Two cassette tape compilations, "The Art/Act of Snuggling"[6] and "Red Hand Dave"[7] preceded the project, but these were limited edition tape trading projects not intended for wider distribution. Discussion online began to steer the group towards creating a CD of tracks, but the concept only came together when Richard Holland recommended the "Droplift" idea, which he had practiced earlier with his group "The Institute of Sonic Ponderance."[8]

Project operation

Under the stewardship of animator and sometimes Negativland collaborator Tim Maloney, the tracks were submitted via FTP, collated, mastered, and pressed to CD. Copies were sent all over America as well as some other countries for droplifting. On July 28, 2000, a coordinated effort was made amongst participants to drop the discs in chain record stores as a kind of protest against the music industry and especially the distribution of music at that time. Only 1000 discs were manufactured, but the audio materials, CD packaging, and other materials are still available online.

Track listing
No.TitleRecording artist(s)Length
1."Thunderclock"Tim Maloney2:35
2."Cubicle 38 Droplift Blues"Turntable Trainwreck2:13
3."Free Will"Phineas Narco & Ronald Redball2:41
4."Familiar Faces"The Button2:34
5."Rub My Face"Reggae Death Squad[tm]2:34
6."Recycled Flashback"OBE2:30
7."Cute Ass"Workshoppe Radio Phonik2:34
8."Traitors"Alamout Black2:35
9."Urgent Day Off"Chris Ball2:39
10."Blame The Media"Project Data Control2:03
11."Monkey Business"Brain Science2:29
12."Let's Play A Game"Mind1:58
13."Loder Runner [Droplift Flakes]"Social Security2:23
14."Mr. T Adventure Story"Bonefish Sam3:44
15."Untitled"Andy MacMillan2:32
16."Sailor Mom"Ben Burck2:41
17."Son Of Satan"EMP+T2:32
18."Long Slow Malcolm"equatorial2:15
19."Year Of The Rabbit"The Doom Patrol2:32
20."Ice Teal"Dad's New Slacks1:56
21."No Need To Fear"The Cranial Fishers2:15
22."Asshole"Entropical Utopia2:34
23."Marilyn Hanson Part 2"Seditious Halibut Media2:08
24."King Brian"(c)(P)ee1:31
25."Checkmate"Quiet American2:32
26."Elf Song"Escape Mechanism3:01
27."Everyone Is Afraid Of Clowns"Kumquat2:10
28."The Fullest Extent Of The Law"Stop Children2:37
29."Wannabe [Deconstructive Remix]"M-Sli©k Da NinjA2:33
30."Bonus Track"Naked Rabbit1:28
Total length:01:12:49

References
  1. "The Droplift Project by Various Artists [Droplift] at The Free Music Archive".
  2. Schwartz, Mara. "Rolling Clones". LA Weekly.
  3. Hillburn, Matt. "Shoplifting in Reverse". Chicago Reader.
  4. "Shopdropping aka Droplifting: Beginner's Guide to the Subversive Urban Art of Reverse Shoplifting". WebUrbanist. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  5. "Snuggles Collective (Label)".
  6. "The Act Of Snuggling / The Art Of Snuggling". Snuggles.sensoryresearch.net. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  7. "Snuggles Projects | Red Hand Dave". Snuggles.sensoryresearch.net. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  8. "The Droplift Project".
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