The mash-up subgenre is easily maligned as derivative. Copying is the explicit name of the game. But there's a difference between poorly playing two songs concurrently and the songs on the new Girl Talk album. Like Eric Prydz but more dense by several orders of magnitudes. Gregg Gillis clearly has higher aspirations.
Ok, this album isn't entirely new. Much of its appeal is ultimately derived from the original tracks that compose it. But something more lies within these fourteen tracks. It's a true internet album, quite suitable for In Rainbows-like distribution. It's an effortless and elegant ode to Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V culture. Internet kids are omnivorous, and this album direclty reflects my omnivorous tastes. For Gillis, guitars, drums, and even sequencers are last generation's tools.
Girl Talk progresses sampling as art. Gillis magically manipulates context - every sample is recognizable but stripped of its temporal and socio-political background. He doesn't give a fuck about meaning, only about de/re-contextualizing the sound and the sound alone. Except of course for Girl Talk's derivation from today's punk rock; sampling culture. The damn label is called Illegal Art, and the album is unflinchingly illegal. But that's the beauty, Girl Talk is both completely aesthetic and completely political. And it's fucking fun.
On a strictly musical basis,
Feed the Animals finds Gillis a little more tuneful, melodic, and - dare I say this about such a giddy album - wistful. (See samples of Journey, RHCP, 96 Tears, God Only Knows, Procol Harum, VU, etc.) There are fewer dead moments than
Night Ripper, a vast majority of the notes hit home. The album is
NOW That's What I Call Music filtered through your average indie kid's music collection. And Rod Stewart. Awesome.
[
feed the animals]
[RIYL: top 40 radio, that one dynamic second in that Veruca Salt song, aural puzzles, visceral experiences, preternatural ears]
