A few weeks ago, I read about Girl Talk releasing their album All Day on the web for download. Who the heck is Girl Talk? I’ve never heard of them either. Turns out he is the alter-ego of a biomedical researcher who moonlights as a DJ doing a lot of mash ups. Fast forward a few days later and I was looking for music so I downloaded a bunch including All Day. On first listen, it was very messy and noisy.

A week later, I tried listening to it again, and it is a lot better. I think you have to be in the right mood to listen to it, because one problem with mashups is that there is always something happening – two or three songs are combined into one – it’s always on, always action. If you’re looking for some background music, this is not it.

All Day is actually well done. Unlike your run-of-the-mill mashups, there has been thought put in to match harmonies and flow, in addition to the rhythm. And it’s not just 1+1 = 1, it’s more like 5+3=1; just take a look at the samples list. I was also surprised to find out that the album is, and will always be, free. Not donateware like Radiohead’s In Rainbows, but completely free and released under a Creative Commons license. That is awesome! and I would add it to my iPod except that the album doesn’t work as individual singles!

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: mashup, music