My review of Girl Talk's Night Ripper went up at Flagpole yesterday; it reflects an opinion of the album more positive than my initial impression, but less positive than my current assessment, given that I am actually listening to the damn thing right now before my officemates arrive. I do still think it's getting a wee bit more credit than it should (I didn't read all the reviews, but did anyone bring up "Intro Inspection"?), but it's also a really fantastic little thing. Some mornings I can put it on and enjoy the flow, and other times I can pay close attention and notice just how good he is at bringing in elements and throwing them around to create movement without making it seem schitzophrenic. The part of "Smash Your Head" before the Biggie verse comes in is pretty great, too, with the production changing under the vocals every four bars, and it's shit like this that opens up more possibilities for non-mashup music. That's one of the great things about mashups: it lets people play with arrangement and production without having to deal with the additional work of making original elements, and given that freedom, new ideas can emerge.

Should be a few posts up today, so watch this space.
posted by Mike B. at 10:30 AM 0 comments