An Interesting Musical Parallel

A recent episode of Radiolab discusses William Basinski’s disintegration loops.

[…]William Basinski, a composer who loops analog tape to create a unique sort of music. One day, Basinski dug up some of his old tapes, stuck them into his player, and heard a melody in the throes of death.

They’re beautiful. They sound like this:

After listening to a few of these I realized there’s a whole other musical domain full of short loops and slowed down melodies: The chopped and screwed style of Houston Rap. Here’s a quintessential example:

Basinski has worked in New York for the past 25 years, but where was he born?

Houston.