The Crying Policeman and the Bieber-meme

There was a recently flurry of interest in the soundcloud of Shamantis ( follow him on twitter! he always does random projects like this alongside his actual music: @Shamantis ) who took the song "U Smile" by popular song imp Justin Beiber and slowed it down by 800% in Paul Stretch, a freeware piece of musical gadgetry. The premise picked up was that it became a fantastic ambient piece in the mode of Sigur Ros. And fair play, it did. It was a lovely time-stretch experiment and very reminiscent of Gavin Bryars track "The Sinking of the Titanic" in its execution and basic idea.

J. BIEBZ - U SMILE 800% SLOWER by Shamantis

Well done, Shamantis. I liked it.

Then I was thinking anything could be slowed by 800% and sound like a lovely ambient track. This meant that I had to now prove my point. I downloaded Paul Stretch and went to work with the most ludicrous track I could think of.

Original work: The Laughing Policeman by Charles Penrose.

OK. Now for the stretched version.

Laughingpoliceman - Charles Penrose 800% Slower by catjuju

Not sure I would call it beautiful. Sometimes like a wailing, plaintive cry of despair. I still like it though, I imagine it would require another 800% or a few octaves pitch shift before it becomes beautiful.