If you are even vaguely interested in musical happenings on the Internet (and let's face it, you probably wouldn't bother reading this blog if you weren't), then you've probably been forwarded the "Justin Bieber slowed way, way down" link that leads to what is supposedly a 35-minute version of "U Smile" that has been drastically slowed down. The resulting track sounds like something that might be tacked onto the end of a Sigur Ros album or be on one of Enya's more experimental forays into noise. The track crawls, glistens and builds to a handful of killer crescendos that make it sound infinitely more epic than Bieber's original could ever be.
It's a remarkable sound experiment that would be the greatest experiment to happen all summer if it weren't for one thing: It appears as though it may be fake.
While the track is meant to be slowed down 800 times and thus making the original track completely unrecognizable, there are some convincing Bieber-esque tones in there. But it turns out the track was constructed by an ambient collective from Milwaukee called Photon Wave Orchestra. The tracks is actually one continuous EP called Echoes Across the Astral Wasteland and is available for a free download.
Or is the existence of Photon Wave Orchestra (which, admittedly, sounds a little bit fake) just a huge hoax? The date on the blog post where the EP is posted is April 1, 2010, which is of course April Fool's Day. There's at least one link that describes Photon Wave Orchestra as a group from South Korea, which also seems slightly off. A look at the "band's" RSS feed reveals that the track was actually posted on August 16, so perhaps the track is actually "U Smile" sped way, way down.
Until the truth outs, we'll let you decide. Listen to the original "U Smile" and the "slowed down" version linked to above and let us know what you think in the comments.