It's Wednesday and that means it's time to watch some vids.  The last few weeks we've been taking a look at child prodigies and that was all well and good, but I'm starting to feel weird about watching videos with other people's kids in them.  So this week we're going to look at three amazing examples of something that could not have existed before the Internet began to video seriously: the self-ensemble.  What does that mean?  I'll tell you!  With an ear for arrangement and a webcam a ton of musically-minded people have stormed the Internet with videos of themselves harmonizing with, well, themselves.  And not just that, people have gone beyond a capella arrangements to make entire bands all by their lonesome.  There's nothing new about one person recording all the part of a song, but there is something novel and impressive about watching them do it. 

First up is a guy by the name of Francois who recorded a 64-track a capella version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller." What's so impressive about this one is that using only his voice he is able to get most of the instrument sounds down pretty well.  The beat he creates and the ambient chords echoing over the whole track are almost indistinguishable from the original.  Cut him some slack on the main vocal track, though, it's near impossible to nail MJ's voice. 

Next up is a young man who has taken a love of videogame music to a new level.  Skilled on the violin as well as vocally, this dude gives a pretty spot on version of the Zelda theme all by himself.  He's also great at wearing different hats, which in the weird world of the Internet will get you noticed a lot quicker.  It's no 64-track masterpeice but there is something that seems a little more refined about this performance than the previous.  It could just be me and my love of Koji Kondo's music, though.

Finally, let's take a look at my favorite one of all.  This is by a dude named Jack Conte and it rules.  I might even go so far as to say it rulez.  Conte records everything himself here and the output is an actual catchy tune.  And God truly is in the details here.  For instance, instead of just playing a tambourine all the way through (which would have been easy) he stops using it points to slow the song down and then picks it up again when he wants us to feel movement.  He has other awesome videos, too, but this one is easily my favorite.  Enjoy.