An Aussie Wizard Is Turning Disney Samples Into Electronic Gold

2 June 2015 | 2:34 pm | Staff Writer

WITCHCRAFT

Somewhere along the line over the past five to eight years, you have probably become at least peripherally aware of Perth-based musican Christopher Nicholas Bertke, better known as Pogo — if not by name, then at least by his work.

Despite remaining outside mainstream acknowledgment, his glitchy, sample-based cuts Alice (2007) and Upular (2009) both individually achieved viral status soon after their releases, with the West Australian muso offering up a prolific number of meticulously crafted, soundbyte-heavy electronic compositions that quickly spread their wings beyond Bertke's preferred playground of Walt Disney flicks, encompassing such films and franchises as the Harry Potter universe (Alohomora), World Of Warcraft (Roarcraft), Pokemon (Catchatronic), the Terminator films (Skynet Symphonic), Lord Of The Rings (Murmurs Of Middle-Earth), Dexter Crimson), Back To The Future (Time Machine, with Skye) and even everyday street sounds from around his town (Perthfection).

The reason that we bring Pogo to your attention now is that this isn't just the stagnant body of work of a dormant artist — in fact, he's just released a brand new song, Forget, returning to his favoured Disney well to pluck samples from several animated movies to construct his latest track.

Forget is the enigmatic muso's first new work since September 2014's The Trouble, which didn't do insignificant business itself, having picked up close to 2 million views since its upload last year. As far Forget is concerned, with an overall bank of source films including DumboPeter Pan, Mary PoppinsThe Little MermaidAladdinPocahontas, The Jungle BookFantasia, Fantasia 2000CinderellaSleeping BeautyJames & The Giant PeachMulanBeauty & The BeastPinocchio and A Little Princess — phew! — it's likely to be another winner from the seemingly endlessly creative brain of one of the country's arguably most underrated musicians.

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Check it out below, then head to Pogo's YouTube or SoundCloud pages to lose yourself in the strange warmth of his ethereal, evocative electro tunes.