2004

recording on acetate, turntable, PA system, paper documents

dimensions variable

total run time 17 minutes, 46 seconds

edition of 10

 

Can I Get An Amen? is an audio installation that unfolds a critical perspective of perhaps the most sampled drum beat in the history of recorded music, the "Amen Break." It begins with the track Amen, Brother by '60s soul band The Winstons, tracing the transformation of the song's drum solo in its original context as part of a B-side vinyl single into its use as a key aural ingredient in contemporary musical expression. The work scrutinizes the techno-utopian notion that "information wants to be free," questioning sample culture’s efficacy as a democratizing agent. This as well as other issues are foregrounded through a history of the Amen Break and its peculiar relationship to copyright law.

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