Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage?

"Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage?" is a song by the English DJ and Techno music producer Blawan (Jamie Roberts) on 25 August 2012 as the lead single on the four track 33+1⁄3 rpm vinyl EP His He She & She on Hinge Finger records. It became an underground dance music hit, regarded for its heavy 4/4 bass-drum beat, minimalist instrumentation^[2] and its prominent vocal line sampled from a 1996 Fugees song.

Before the track became critically and commercially successful, Roberts was a respected but low-key producer slowly building an underground reputation. He worried about being type-cast when the track became a hit, and largely withdrew from live performances and recording over the following three years.

The song was covered in 2015 by the Irish post-punk group Girl Band.

Composition[]

Vocal sample[]

The looped vocal line is sampled from Fugees's 1996 song "How Many Mics",^[3] which is repeated every eight bars, and acts as the track's main hook. In the Fugees song, Pras' sings "Squash your squad and hide their bodies under my garage"; the opening words are truncated in the Blawan track so that it should like "Why they...".^[3] Roberts says he began the project with a sample from one of his mother's favorite albums, The Score, and that thus the track began in a tongue-in-cheek manner.^[2] However, he adjusted the vocal to give it a more "gravelly" and dark sound, which the music critic Philip Sherburne describes as going "way beyond [a] vaguely spooky affect".^[3]

Music[]

While Roberts approached the Fugees' sample in a light-hearted manner, his final sound is abrasive, murky and dark, coinciding with the tone of his previous work.^[4] It is dominated by a heavy bass drum, and a series of highly modulated sound effects, which he said aimed to create a "weird" and edgy soundscape.^[4]

The first of the His He She & She EP's three B-sides, "His Money", also samples a line from "How Many Mics" and employs a similar bass heavy and consistent 4/4 beat.^[3]

Release[]

It became Blawan's best selling track to that point; until then he had been a low-key, underground UK bass and dubstep producer, whose best known track was the white label "Getting Me Down".^[4] "Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage" became an unexpected international club anthem in late 2012 and early 2013, and copies quickly sold out. As its popularity spread, it attracted praise from a diverse range of dance music producers, including Jeff Mills, ^[4] and Skrillex.^[2]

Daunted by the commercial success and media attention, Blawan gradually withdrew from performing live, and did not release another record until 2015's "Hanging Out The Birds".^[2] Explaining his reasons for withdrawing, he said in 2018 that "all of the attention focused on the track was highlighting where my career could end up going if I wasn't careful. It felt like I'd lost control of the reins... It some ways it was a horrible time but I'm also glad it happened in a way because it allowed me to step back and think about where I was going with my music."^[2]

Re-mixes[]

Reacting to the song's popularity, the American EDM DJ Skrillex released a re-mix high energy version of the track.^[2] Skrillex's version was maligned by fans, critics, and Roberts himself. Doran described it as an "unwanted and point-missing bells and whistles remix",^[2] while Roberts became deeply uneasy with an act he did not want to associated with, and began to view the track as seriously compromising his credibality.^[5]

Blawan's original track was sampled by the English beatboxer Reeps One in 2015.

Girl Band cover[]

The song was covered in 2015 by the Irish post-punk and noise rock group Girl Band.^[6] It was release as the lead single for their 5 track The Early Years EP on Rough Trade Records.^[7] Compared to the original, which is based around a repeating loop, Girl Band's version slowly builds up tension until it climaxes in a burst of noise about half way through.^[1] Noting the rarity that rock bands cover techno music songs, Otis Hart of NPR observed that while the Blawan track is based around a repeating sample and constant beat for over 6 minutes, Girl Band's four minute cover version slowly builds dynamics and tension until it climaxes half-ways through with a burst of distorted guitars.^[1]

Music video[]

The single was accompanied by a music video directed by Irish filmmaker Bob Gallagher, which shows a mortician performing an autopsy.^[8] As of April 2021, the video is deemed as adult content by YouTube, and requires registration to view.^[8]

Reception[]

References[]

External links[]

• Girl Band official video