Here’s where all those weird-ass Gorillaz samples come from

Like an experienced chef on the set of Chopped, a good sample artist is able to transform the disparate, minimal ingredients at their disposal into an enticing and memorable feast for the ears. But before they can even begin their magical remixing process, they must first spend hours, sometimes days, digging through crates of old, obscure vinyl in order to find that perfect three-second drum loop or weird proto-synth tone. Once they’ve taken the old music and made it new again, it’s up to certain fans (preferably with a lot of time on their hands) to reverse engineer this process and find the original source of the sample, thus completing the circle.