Re: Silent Strike & Kazi Ploae - Silent Regis EP
Posted: Fri Apr 05, 2013 9:22 pm
via wikipedia
Tataee has said that he uses multiple instruments while working in the studio, preferring to use virtual instruments and the computer to arrange and produce his instrumentals. His Twitter official page features various conversations with inquiring fans, with Irimia stating that he prefers virtual instrument manufacturers such as Native Instruments and Steinberg. He cites Dr. Dre and Public Enemy's Bomb Squad as his primary musical influences. During the time he answered fan questions on the bugmafia93.ro message board, he used Steinberg Cubase to sequence and mix his beats, but he has since switched to ProTools HD.[32] Other equipment he uses include keyboards from such manufacturers as Korg, Clavia, Kurzweil, Yamaha and Roland. The Hammond organ is also frequently present in his work. After founding Casa Productions and releasing B.U.G. Mafia prezintă CASA with B.U.G. Mafia in 2002, his music became more diverse and, while retaining typical g-funk elements such as high pitched synths pioneered by Dr. Dre and Above The Law in their productions a decade earlier, it included new instruments such as multi-layered guitars and string arrangements. He also started using fewer vocals samples (as he had done on "Limbaj De Cartier", "Raid Mafiot 2" or "De Cartier" on the De Cartier album in the late 90s) preferring to have Casa Productions artists such as Villy or Mario to provide backing vocals for his productions instead. The 2003 Băieţii Buni album by B.U.G. Mafia features a completely different production style, with mellow, guitar-driven beats that, over the years, has become a production trademark for Tataee.
In the mid 90s Tataee started collaborating with Camil Beldeanu, a Romanian keyboardist who had worked with various Romanian artists and who went on to be one of the most prominent producers and arrangers to work with Romanian hip hop artists in the late 90s and early 2000s.[33][34] Beldeanu shared production credits with Irimia on many of his productions for B.U.G. Mafia's albums, including their anniversary albums Viaţa noastră (Vol.1) and Viaţa noastră (Vol.2).
Like most hip hop producers in the '90s, Tataee made use of various music samples in his productions. This has led to controversy among B.U.G. Mafia's fans: as none of the samples he used have been credited on any of the covers of the albums he has worked on it fueled rumors of plagiarism. As "UCMR-ADA" (The Composers' Union in Romania) had broken off all contacts with ASCAP in the communist era, clearing any sample from records released in the United States was virtually impossible, so Tataee chose to use whatever samples he wanted to use without any permission, since he had no legal way to do otherwise. He cleared this issue himself in a post on the B.U.G. Mafia fan message board, while conversing with the fans:
Let me tell you about the 'stolen' instrumentals. Hip hop producers used, since the beginning, elements from other songs, this technique being called SAMPLING. In any country in the world there is an artist's association where every artist goes and subscribes their score and song lyrics, they are archived into a database, thus creating the copyright term. ... Let me give you an example: if B.U.G. Mafia wants to use a sample of Snoop Dogg's What's My Name we would have to call UCMR (Uniunea Compozitorilor și Muzicienilor Români - Romanian Composers and Musicians' Union) and they should give us the right to use the sample through their connection with ASCAP, that's the association that holds Snoop Dogg's records and send the money percent from our sales and airplay. This is where the problem comes as UCMR hasn't sent any money outside the country for years and whatever contract that they give us would be useless if we would be sued for sample clearing. We tried to contact ASCAP but they can give rights for sample using only in the United States of America. So we decided to use whatever we used from other artists considering that we had no legal way to do this.[35]
Despite Tataee making use of samples in his productions, especially in the 90s, covers of albums on which he worked on give insight on a number of musicians he has collaborated with over the years. Camil Beldeanu is one of his most frequent collaborators, being credited as a keyboardist on every B.U.G. Mafia album since 1997's IV: Deasupra Tuturor and, although on this album, he is also credited with guitar work, since 1998's De Cartier, guitarist Cristi Andrei has done a considerable amount of work for Tataee. An electric guitar solo from the 1998 B.U.G. Mafia song "Poveste Fără Sfarșit" (Endless Story), which is famous among the fans as being one of the group's most soulful songs, has also been played by Cristi Andrei. The acoustic guitar on the remade version of "Poveste Fără Sfarșit" from Viaţa noastră (Vol.2) was played by Vlad Crețu, guitarist for Romanian groups Todomondo and Hara. Cristi Andrei shared guitar duties with Andrei "The Cat" Vlad, a Romanian session guitarist on the 2002 compilation album B.U.G. Mafia prezintă CASA. Andrei created the guitar riff playing through "După blocuri" the first single from the B.U.G. Mafia album of the same name and one of the group's most famous songs and he also returned to work with Tataee on both volumes of "Viața Noastră". Gabriel Mitran and Viorel Sârbu composed basslines for Tataee's productions during work for De Cartier and După blocuri albums. More recent collaborators include Ștefan Mihăilescu, doing guitar work for B.U.G. Mafia's first anniversary album, Viaţa noastră (Vol.1) and even being credited with keyboards on the second volume of the anniversary album, on the "O lume nebună, nebună de tot" (A crazy, crazy world) remake. Florin Sever, a Romanian film score composer did the string arrangements for both anniversary albums of B.U.G. Mafia.
Although Tataee is the main producer for B.U.G. Mafia, bandmates Uzzi and Caddy are credited as co-producers on many of the group's songs. Tataee has said on his official Twitter account that they occasionally contribute in the production process and that this will probably occure in the future too. When asked about considering other producer's work for the group, he answered that this is also a possibility, but any composition will be produced by himself, thus maintaining his position as the group's producer. This was the case on JerryCo's debut album, "Orice E Posibil" (Anything Is Possible) where, despite producing the whole album, Bucharest-based production duo Agresiv have contributed to many of the album's compositions, being credited accordingly. Frequent B.U.G. Mafia collaborator Villy has also done keyboard work for Tataee, especially on songs where he was featured as a vocalist.
As far as post-production, B.U.G. Mafia album covers credited Romanian songwriters Jolt Kerestely and his son, Andrei Kerestely and sound engineer Eddy Schneinder with mixing and mastering the bulk of Tataee's work for the group until the late '90s, when Romanian sound engineer Cristian Dobrică started working with B.U.G. Mafia and has mixed and mastered their every album since. Tataee has stated on his Twitter account that he will often guide the mixing sessions and work as assistant mixer on his productions but that Dobrică will make the final calls regarding mixing and mastering. Holograf's Tino Furtună is credited with the mastering of IV: Deasupra tuturor, as the vocal sessions for this album took place in his home studio. A premiere occurred during the post production of JerryCo's debut album, Orice E Posibil (Anything Is Possible), when Tataee personally mixed every song on the album, as credited in the album's liner notes.
