With the recent release of Girl Talk, I’ve been thinking about the mash-up. Girl Talk with his mass of bloghype, was quite a disappointment (wait, can one be disappointed if one has no expectations?) Considering the mash-up, I’m trying to realize the good and the bad. Ignoring the bad, let’s reflect on the good.
Sample-based mash-up records are easy to do—but hard to do well. The mash-up can trace its roots to Double D & Steinski records starting in 1983, these records were an inspiration and foundation for sample based hip-hop music and set the stage for similar records decades to come. Mash-ups can be eloquent like, DJ Shadow’s 1996 album ‘Endtroducing’ and The Avalanches‘ 2000 album ‘Since I Left You’, or game-changing party albums like Z-Trip & DJ P’s 2001 record, ‘Uneasy Listening’ or Armand Van Helden’s 1997 record, ‘Sampleslaya’. These examples prove that a mash-up record can be an artful music arrangement, and more than just a cacophony of familiar chords and choruses.
…But I digress. Everything has a time and place! And when you want to be in the realm of familiar chords and choruses, a record I keep coming back to, far more than any Girl Talk, is Ludachrist and their funtime, ‘Bangfest’. Ludachrist is the shits-n-giggles side project of Knick (of Evol Intent) and Ewun (a.k.a. Kill The Noise), and these skillful producers know how to mash-up a pretty good party record. ‘Bangfest’ has deservingly been all over blogtown since its Big Stereo debut last November, and is available for free in its entirety at Worshipludachrist.com.
Here’s a mash’d track pulled from the mix for your own mixing and sampling purposes. It takes from Brooklyn emcee, Busta Rhymes and the iconic Ghostbuster theme.
MP3: Ludachrist - Ghost Busta Rhymes
This entry coincides with Ludachrist’s first L.A. performance tonight, July 25th, at The Roxy in West Hollywood. ‘Christ plays alongside other badmen, Villains and LAZRtag. Worship Ludachrist!
Visit Ludachrist on MySpace or at their official site, Worshipludachrist.com.
1 votes | Average: 3 out of 5
I have an edit of E-40’s “Tell Me When to Go” blended with an electro/house remake of the Ghosbusters theme by Acid Wash that I made for live sets.
Czech it out:
http://rynrgsdl.ethangar.com/drtron/tell_me_when_to_ghost.mp3
se-bast-i-Am is a great track.
these guys fuckin ripped it @ roxy last night. spongebob stole the show lol!
DMX x Ghostbusters mix is infinatly waaaaay better then this.
Much more raw & fist-pumpable.
Although the new girl talk did not totally blow my mind completely apart like Unstoppable (the one before Night Ripper), I still think it has some really great moments. A 12 minute mashup of the best points on the record may say it better: http://www.scissorsoft.com/djadhd/music/feed_the_animals_dj80hd_slash_and_mash_edit.mp3
Feed The Animals wasn’t my favorite Girl Talk album but I don’t think it can be dismissed entirely.
girl talk is horrible
To call Endtroducing and Sampleslaya Mashup albums is ridiculous. Those are 2 albums full of sample based tracks; to call it anything else is rather insulting in my opinion. In what silly way do you consider them mashups?
@ Fishr Pryce:
Take it personal? Is “mash-up” a bad word in itself?
Research Double Dee & Steinski and you’ll have the beginning of your answer. Shadow did his most direct mash-up on ‘Lesson 4′. To call ‘Endtroducing’ (or ‘Sampleslaya’) a “mash-up” is using the word liberally, but not off base—the albums sample entire bars, layered over other sampled phrases. Armand van Helden and DJ Shadow are on a whole ‘nother level and working with samples from different genres and software, not completely different from Girl Talk or Ludachrist on paper.
Would it have been better to reference Coldcut’s ‘Paid in Full (Remix)’ or DNA’s remix of Susan Vega’s ‘Tom’s Diner’? Those are more classic examples of good mash-ups (before they were called mash-ups).
In what way do you not consider them mash-ups? If you make a good case, I’m always willing to change my opinion.
@Kittens
Raise your cans of holy beverage and rejoice in the name of the true messiah … LUDACHRIST