Kutiman: Thru You Too

Update: I've added the new album to thru-you.org - downloads, metadata, and links to all the original source videos.

Five and a half years ago, Kutiman blew my mind. Today he did it again.

Thru You Too dropped today. Six new tracks, same magic: unrelated YouTube videos of people playing music in their bedrooms, practice rooms, garages. People who never met. Kutiman found them, cut them, stitched them together into something larger than its parts.

He told Yahoo why it took five years:

It took me a few years to get back to the point where ... I'm doing it freely. From an honest place where I'm not trying to bring the next thing, and just do it for fun.

The first single, "Give It Up", dropped on YouTube September 12 and hit a million views in days.

The vocalist is an aspiring singer from New Orleans who goes by the name KarMaRedd or "Princess Shaw". Her videos barely break a hundred views. The day after the single dropped, she posted a thank-you video. Someone had emailed her: did you hear the remix of your song? She didn't even know how to pronounce Kutiman's name. "It was so surreal," she says. "Almost in tears."

"No One In This World" followed, published about a week ago.

The remaining four tracks + companion website (thru-you-too.com) launched today.
The full playlist is here.

Six female vocalists anchor this album - R&B, soul, groove. Warmer sound than the original Thru You.

What gets me every time is thinking about those musicians. You post a video to YouTube. Maybe a few dozen views. Then one day you wake up and discover your bedroom harmonica solo, your practice drum fills, your voice singing into a webcam - it's part of something millions of people are experiencing together. You weren't alone in your room. You just didn't know it yet.

Someone was out there, scrolling through the noise, and saw a light in you. Wanted to connect it to other lights.

In addition to the songs, Kutiman released a video introducing the project, but even that was assembled from YouTube clips, strangers explaining his work for him:

It's like having your imaginary internet friends... I feel like I made a whole bunch of new friends even though I don't really know you.

My Vendetta is the one that resonated with me the most. Kutiman found the vocalist Erika Anderson singing her original song "Vendetta" a cappella, and saw the light in her.

this is a song i wrote, it's from my heart and it means a lot to me. vendetta means a bitter, destructive feud. i hope u guys enjoy this one.