Girl Talk - Night Ripper

Girl Talk is a mashup DJ, but instead of throwing two songs together like anyone else, he creates epic, album-length operas using dozens of artists and songs. It's generally pretty entertaining, and at times comes together into something pretty amazing. There's only a few different things being sampled at any one time, but things get switched up often enough to keep it from getting stale while the good transitions keep it as a cohesive experience. Night Ripper really can be listened to as one long piece of music, with some of the breaks between songs completely unnoticeable. Most of the vocals are from rap which is to be expected, but the instrumentals come from everywhere, and it's always a treat when you recognize something from a song you really like.

Some samples that jumped out at me or were used really well were The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony", "Where Is My Mind?" by Pixies, "Holland, 1945" by Neutral Milk Hotel, and Smashing Pumpkins' "1979". Girl Talk plays a lot with pitch both in the music and the vocal bits. It's cool how he can take a well known melody and use it in a completely different way, even making a voice into percussion or something. There are also a couple instrumental bits used here and there he made himself, mostly crunchy electronic stuff that enhances the mood effectively. Throwing other people's music into a blender isn't the height of the creative arts, but Girl Talk sure does a hell of a lot with it.