I’ve always had a thing for music tracks backing cartoons. It probably started sometime when I went to Disneyland when I was little. I visited an easily forgotten shop going down Main street. Inside and around the maroon velvet curtain played old disney clips. My guess would be they were from the depression era. I was too young to know the word nostalgia, even now I wouldn’t use it to describe the feeling my ears were hearing, but there was something distinctive about the music being played in the background. Everything from Mickey whisteling, the patting of the horse’s hooves, to clicking of the projector seemed to work into the music perfectly.

Ever since then I’ve liked cartoon music that Raymond Scott and Carl Stalling composed. Everything from the early 50s through I guess somewhere in the 80s seems to hit this sweet spot for me. I don’t think cartoons would’ve been the same without guys like those.

I’m no expert on the subject, but it seems like sometime in the late 80s cartoon music started to change. Ninja Turtles was an awesome cartoon, but it didn’t have the same music as Scooby Doo and Spiderman had. Cartoons since then seemed to miss that extra element that tied music and the tv shows together.

Sometime between now and elsewhere I let cartoons take the back burner. Then I found this song by Madvillain. All Caps. All I can say is holy shit. I haven’t heard sounds like this in years. This guy has taken lots of those instruments and loops from tv shows that I’ve loved growing up and put words to them. It’s like this avant garde blend of Harlem Jazz, Disney cartoons, and hip-hop in one package. Somehow this track brought back years of growing up watching superheroes battle the bad guys. Ear nirvana.

They’ve even got an action figure of him.