Sunday, September 21, 2008

Girl Talk- Feed the Animals

Mash-ups aren't anything new, DJs have been mixing up records for nearly three decades now. But as technology has advanced and music has become more digital, dance and electronic music is being spit out from computers like bilious fluids. If you have a computer and the internet you can download beats and become another shitty laptop DJ. But out of the sea of Macbooks comes a DJ who's less interested in rehashing beats and more interesting in rocking the party. Girl Talk is Gregg Gillis, the whitest DJ I've ever seen, but damn can he get you moving. This is his fourth release on Illegal Art records.

Instead of making his own music he's quite content with stealing some of the most popular hits from the last fifty or so years and crushing them up on the table and snorting them up his nose. Why make new music when people want to hear what's already popular?

Take all the most ridiculous mainstream rap songs ever made and insert subliminal hints of classic rock, electronica, soul, punk, old school hip-hop, and anything elese that may have made the pop charts. It's a mix-tape for the attention deficit. One second youre hearing Lil' Jon, which turns into BLACKstreet as electronics from Radiohead fizzle in the background and then BOOM!, you're listening to The Band. The first listen is great because you don't know what to expect, what embarrassing nostalgic moment will be conjured up from hearig a certain song? With repeated careful listens you can pick out subtle moments of songs, like the organ from Procol Harem's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" playing in the background of Kanye West and T-Pain.

I hate mainstream music, but presented in a fresh way like this, it's hard not to enjoy yourself. No matter how hard you think you are, I guarantee if you listen to this some song will pop up and you'll be like, "Hey, used to love that song in 4th grade!"

Girl Talk myspace

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