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.
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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.
