Justin Bieber slowed down 800% is ambient masterpiece

Justin Bieber: not so great at normal speed.
Justin Bieber: not so great at normal speed. (Image credit: Sayre Berman/Corbis)

We'd never normally recommend that you listen to Justin Bieber, but when it's his track U Smile slowed down 800% and transformed into a blissful ambient soundscape, we'll make an exception.

Our colleagues over at Future Music alerted us to this slice of remarkable oddness, which is the work of US artist Shamantis (AKA Nick Pittsinger). He freely admits that all he's done to the song is slow it down using open-source application Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch, with the result being a track of which Sigur Rós would be proud.

This raises two questions: why did Nick think to do this in the first place, and does speeding up Sigur Rós by 800% give you a Justin Bieber track? The answers (in order) are that we have absolutely no idea, and no.

Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.