(Illegal Art • 2007)
Posted: Aug. 24th, 2007
I haven't reviewed in a while and yet this is the year in which I've consumed (yes: purchased) the most music of this whole decade. So I thought I'd get back on the horse as it were.GirlTalk (aka Gregg Gillis) is an eclectic turntablist. He performs a brilliant array of mashups using some definitely unexpected sources as sample material. The track that caught my ear on this one was Friday Night. It starts off innocently enough, using your standard hip-hop backbeats and shout-out samples. ("Everybody say yeaaaah!") But then segues very seamlessly into a vocal sample of Billy Squier. From there, and throughout the album, he grabs bits and pieces from pretty much any pop artist you've ever heard of, plus a bunch of non-pop artists. James Taylor, Hall and Oates, M.I.A., Elton John, Metallica, and on and on. It's insane! I don't know how he managed to clear some of these samples but my hat is off to him.
Listening to this becomes a bit of "name that tune" after a while but it's certainly entertaining stuff, and hugely innovative as far as DJ's go. He's easily one of the most interesting DJ's I've heard since maybe Kid Koala, only much, much more listenable and quite a bit less avant-garde.
This was worth the purchase. I hear his live set is equally fantastic and plan to check him out when he swings back my way.
I am on a mission to get back into writing. My work has eaten into my music hunting. That's about to change. :) Thanks to those of you who gave me the push back into writing again.
