All Day
November 15, 2010 6:33 AM   Subscribe

Just released a few hours ago, All Day is the newest album by mashup artist Girl Talk (previously).
posted by flatluigi (122 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
Anyone have a download link that works?
posted by empath at 6:41 AM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


The one on the page works, if slowly. If need be, I'll put up a mirror in my dropbox once I figure out if it'll kill my account or not due to large bandwidth usage.
posted by flatluigi at 6:47 AM on November 15, 2010


heh i was going to put it on dropbox once i manage to download it:)
posted by empath at 6:50 AM on November 15, 2010


Dropbox? Meh. Torrent that shit, guys, let the cloud host it. I'm not sure why that's not the way Girl Talk set this up. He's not collecting any data for downloading it, not even an email address.

No, I don't mean the Microsoft definition of the cloud.
posted by Plutor at 6:51 AM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


Can someone smarter than me explain to me why I don't particularly care for Girl Talk, even though I love The Avalanches? Intellectually it seems like they're the same thing, except that I'm probably more immediately familiar with the source works that Girl Talk employs.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:52 AM on November 15, 2010


Can someone smarter than me explain to me why I don't particularly care for Girl Talk, even though I love The Avalanches?

How about: you have personal tastes that differ from the personal tastes of others.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 6:54 AM on November 15, 2010 [7 favorites]


This torrent seems to be working fine.
posted by twsf at 6:55 AM on November 15, 2010


shakespeherian: possibly you've never been to a GirlTalk show...they are pretty great if you can accept lots of teenagers mugging for invisible cameras as adorable rather than insufferable.

GirlTalk is the mashup equivalent of Busta Rhymes. The first time you hear it in a car you're like oooooh shiiiit lol! But then you try to dance to it in a club and you feel cheesy. Then 10 years from now it'll seem like the soundtrack to the entire era.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:59 AM on November 15, 2010 [2 favorites]


How about: you have personal tastes that differ from the personal tastes of others.

I'm not attempting a your-favorite-band-sucks thing. I was hoping someone could articulate the aesthetic differences between two similar artists, because I would find that interesting and insightful.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:59 AM on November 15, 2010 [5 favorites]


Can someone smarter than me explain to me why I don't particularly care for Girl Talk, even though I love The Avalanches?

This article might be of some assistance. E.g.:

[Night Ripper]'s rarely listenable though — at least in any traditional, "I am taking pleasure in the configuration of these simultaneously occurring sounds and words" sense of pop music listening. Although Girl Talk has a few choice moments like the "Where Is My Mind" vs. "Hate Me Now" blend, he relies on pitch-shifting and time-distorting everything to fit within the same BPM — cramming all his various found elements into the same one-size-fits-all bed a la Greek villain Procrustes. He is obedient more to his process than the finished product. His most beloved blend of Biggie Smalls and Elton John pitches up "Tiny Dancer" to a ludicrous degree, and to add insult to injury, Gillis lets John's artificially-chipmunked lyrics step all over Biggie's rhymes. (This would surely prompt a severe drubbing if done in real life.) Gillis' labored matching of "Ain't to Proud to Beg" over "Friends of P" just sounds like "I Love the '90s" projectile vomiting.

There are also sloppy segments on Night Ripper where the songs' keys don't match up — like Ciara's "Oh" over Elastica's "Connection" — which I doubt was an intentional experiment in audience-polarizing post-modernism. Maybe we shouldn't say that the errors are "unmusical" but they have the groove of a elementary school violin recital.


More theoretically:

If Girl Talk has done anything, his dead-end project is a reminder of how fiercely dominant Western pop music has become. This is a capitulation, an audio essay even, of the last 25 years of American pop music: loop-based, interchangeable parts that, turns out, are more similar than maybe we'd like to admit. The "isn't it funny how 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' sounds like that Boston song" moment is taken to its darkest, veil-lifted extreme. That we're back in the Tin Pan Alley, and all pop music might actually be the same after all. That the difference is truly manufactured, that the concerns of each song are not interesting. Taking cues from the Grand Wizard Theodor: pop music is not art, but sound design.

Therein lies the insidiousness. Adorno pulled no punches. But Girl Talk poses as a pop optimist. He loves pop music — all pop music. It's all so unique. It's all just so great to him. Implicit in his project is that: It's all so similar to him too. That it all sounds the same in the end. That listening to a bunch of songs we used to care about in his refracted, rejiggered form is, at its heart, the same exact thing, compositionally and otherwise, as listening to a brand new song by a brand new musician. Why bother, right? This project, worse than any covert corporate sponsorship, he calls a celebration of pop music. What he himself doesn't know is we already had a name for it: la danse macabre.


I like Girl Talk more than these guys do, but I think they're definitely onto something.

More on-topic, at this very moment I'm listening to the new album on myspace; it reminds of Night Ripper rather than Feed the Animals. Which is disappointing--Night Ripper is good in parts, but Feed the Animals is pretty much a solid party from beginning to end.
posted by DaDaDaDave at 7:02 AM on November 15, 2010 [9 favorites]


I don't really like Girl Talk, you could do what he does in Ableton in a matter of seconds.

Loop instrumental part of crappy pop song, overlay acapella/vocal track from other crappy pop song... insert a heaping dose of irony. Profit.

I prefer a fun, non-ironic DJ to Gregg Gillis basically any day.
posted by cloeburner at 7:06 AM on November 15, 2010 [2 favorites]


Girl Talk borrows a lot more from glitch pop than he does with the more common type of mashups or what can be found in the genre of turntablism, shakes. They're definitely under the same sample-based spectrum of music, but they're much different aesthetically.
posted by flatluigi at 7:06 AM on November 15, 2010


Soooo...If I've never found mashups even remotely listenable or enjoyable, I should skip this too?
posted by Thorzdad at 7:08 AM on November 15, 2010


cloeburner: "I don't really like Girl Talk, you could do what he does in Ableton in a matter of seconds. "

Honestly, I'd love to see you try. I'll give you an entire week to upload something similar to MeFi Music as proof.
posted by flatluigi at 7:09 AM on November 15, 2010 [37 favorites]


Soooo...If I've never found mashups even remotely listenable or enjoyable, I should skip this too?

Probably.
posted by ghharr at 7:09 AM on November 15, 2010


I'm 50/50 on Girl Talk. They songs are interesting and always at least midly enjoyable. But I tend to like their songs more as a "spot the references" musical puzzle rather than as songs that stand up to repeated listens. In this genre I prefer the Kleptones, who seem to have a bit more fun and have more songs that I want to listen to more than a few times. That being said, the first song on All Day seems more than most of the other Girl Talk (great use of Sabbath and the Ramones), so I'm really looking forward to digging into the whole album.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 7:10 AM on November 15, 2010


I don't really like Girl Talk, you could do what he does in Ableton in a matter of seconds.

No, you really can't. And I say this as someone who DJs with Ableton.
posted by empath at 7:11 AM on November 15, 2010 [9 favorites]


I've always thought of Girl Talk as a slightly less inventive 2 Many DJs.
posted by empath at 7:11 AM on November 15, 2010 [2 favorites]




Flatluigi go to my soundcloud. I don't do the same style of mash-ups he does, but I also do mash-ups.

It's less that it's easy to make this stuff, and more that I don't like the high levels of irony in which his music is presented and consumed.
posted by cloeburner at 7:16 AM on November 15, 2010 [3 favorites]


I've always thought of Girl Talk as a slightly less inventive 2 Many DJs.

Agreed. I think Girl Talk just broke through at a time when the masses were finally ready to hear stuff like that, but 2 Many DJs has been doing it, and doing it better for years.
posted by cloeburner at 7:20 AM on November 15, 2010 [3 favorites]


To apply that article's argument to the difference between Girl Talk and The Avalanches--most obviously, because The Avalanches' samples are less recognizable than Girl Talk's, it's easier to take their mashups on their own terms rather than as a discrete series of recognitions ("Hey, it's Missy Elliot! Hey, now it's the Beach Boys! Hey, now it's Earth, Wind & Fire!") or juxtapositions ("Hey, it's Birdman over Arcade Fire!" (I am hearing this combo literally right now)). Also, in their mixing, use of stereo space, etc., The Avalanches' mixes sound much groovier and more organic, to me at least, where Girl Talk just sounds like two (or five) songs combined in the most brutally efficient manner possible, without much concern for making the combination sound like a professionally produced piece of modern pop music.
posted by DaDaDaDave at 7:20 AM on November 15, 2010 [5 favorites]


Taking cues from the Grand Wizard Theodor: pop music is not art, but sound design.

I understand what's being stated here in context, but to equate "sound design" with "not art" is a little diminutive. It's like saying "that opera I saw was not art, it was just loud singing." Sound design is a part of the art of music, or rather, it can be - so it seems like what they really mean is that it's "artless sound design." Like how you could say you saw "artless singing," at an Opera, but at an artful opera there'd still be "loud singing."

And with their argument, you could say the same thing about fine art. Would it be any different if someone took all the Rembrandt's and Carvaggio's and photoshopped them together into a giant tableau?

All that said I've never been able to fully get into Girl Talk. I don't know why. Maybe it has something to do with the above statement. I'm curious to hear thew new album though.
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 7:21 AM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


Not clear how this is BOTW..

flatluigi: i have a side project called The Sly Players where we do more disco-oriented bashups - , and that project kills me a little bit on the inside because people sweat that stuff so much more than the original music i put my heart, sweat, and soul into. cloeburner is right, it takes a couple of hours in ableton. each one of these took me less than a day to do.
posted by analogue at 7:22 AM on November 15, 2010 [3 favorites]


Girl Talk uses AudioMulch to perform live...

I worked on one of his shows, and wasn't particularly fond of him or his crew. His fans worship him, and it seems to have gone to his head... I've worked with quite a few musical acts, and have almost universally been impressed with their professionalism and courtesy. Girl Talk and his touring staff were all generally rude and dismissive to us (not to mention the smoke/mirrors process that the venue had to go through to book the guy -- his agent cancelled the show twice on us, and had the gall to ask for more money each time).

Fun show, but the guy's an ass.
posted by schmod at 7:30 AM on November 15, 2010


Incidentally, he attempted to play a show at my house with Dan Deacon and Spankrock a couple years ago, but the cops shut it down due to overcrowding. It was literally shoulder to shoulder, we were all relieved that the cops came because the situation had become almost Great White-esque and was out of hand.
posted by cloeburner at 7:39 AM on November 15, 2010


i have a side project called The Sly Players where we do more disco-oriented bashups

Oh, shit. I found out about you guys thanks to Dimitri From Paris' twitter, proceeded to get my hands on everything I could, and gush about you to my other disco-friendly DJ friends (who also like your guys' stuff).

Finding out a fellow mefite is involved in making this stuff is icing on the proverbial cake!
posted by sparkletone at 7:42 AM on November 15, 2010 [3 favorites]


as long as we're discussing mashups/dj'ing and free downloads, I figure I'll toss in some love for Z-Trip's Uneasy Listening. Perhaps even more notable for being done analog.
posted by namewithoutwords at 7:44 AM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


sparkletone: yeah.. ever since dfp did that it's been a bit crazy because we never meant for something that was so illegal to get so well known. slim, my partner in the sly players is the head of goodgroove records, so if you're into that sound you should go check out their other releases.

namewithoutwords: z-trip is the real deal. you won't ever find me saying a bad word about him. everything he does has a lot of context and history to it.
posted by analogue at 7:54 AM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


i used to like girltalk 3-4 years ago when nobody knew who he was.

i haven't listened to him in years and will probably avoid in the future.

this is not an aesthetic criticism
posted by flyinghamster at 8:10 AM on November 15, 2010


not to mention that z-trip's downloads function.
posted by eustatic at 8:15 AM on November 15, 2010


i used to like girltalk 3-4 years ago when nobody knew who he was.

I used to like liking bands before they were cool before liking bands before they were cool was cool.
posted by empath at 8:21 AM on November 15, 2010 [25 favorites]


EVERY BAND YOU LIKE IS NOW POPULAR

YOU MUST BE A BAD PERSON
posted by shakespeherian at 8:23 AM on November 15, 2010


Girl Talk - All Day (Let It Out extract)
posted by various at 8:35 AM on November 15, 2010


I think Slack-a-gogo and DaDaDaDave have it - what little I've tried of Girl Talk sounds like a blender of spot-the-reference. The best I can describe it would be an assorted collage of those movie fights where the cuts are so quick you have no idea what's going on even though you know it's James Bond/Jason Bourne/The Rock/whoever/whatever beating up. Something seemingly badass is going down but I can't register it fast enough. As the article says, it doesn't breathe.

With Girl Talk, I feel like I'm supposed to go "Oooh! Ooooh!" every 10 seconds. While I don't know the samples The Avalanches uses, it sounds so damn seamless and practically natural that yeah, a horse should whinny there right now.

Are we really 12 days from Since I Left You's 10th anniversary? WHERE IS THE NEXT ALBUM DAMMIT?
posted by zix at 8:39 AM on November 15, 2010


I don't really have any opinion on Girl Talk worth sharing, but in regards to the irony complaint, I believe I've heard him say that he really, sincerely loves everything he samples.
posted by neuromodulator at 9:00 AM on November 15, 2010


Torrent's not working for me. Anyone got another link?
posted by dobbs at 9:01 AM on November 15, 2010


Some things I like and do are so cool and cutting edge that nobody outside of my head knows about them at all. It really doesn't get more exclusive than that, you guys. You may touch my robe... you may NOT touch my robe.
posted by Askr at 9:02 AM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


Didn't we just have a post about Polka Party tracks? Oh wait, those are the same thing but by someone who can actually play a musical instrument.
posted by Locobot at 9:10 AM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


Why on earth would you use audiomulch for music like this? I really hope he did this album on Ableton Live, it is just so much easier.
But no, it's not quite as easy to do this stuff in Ableton. And Girl Talk has been mostly upstaged by DJ Earworm, who does something similar but focuses more on the musicality of it all. He also does genius things with video and audio edits simultaneously.

I like Feed The Animals and didn't thing too hard about Girl Talk. Then I saw the live show, and felt like stabbing my eyes out.
posted by Theta States at 9:23 AM on November 15, 2010


I think Girl Talk just broke through at a time when the masses were finally ready to hear stuff like that, but 2 Many DJs has been doing it, and doing it better for years.

A medley of pop songs with an added rhythm track is nothing new. Granted, they aren't technically mash-ups, but acts like Stars on 45 and Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers charted hit singles since the 80s.
posted by hydrophonic at 9:23 AM on November 15, 2010


shakespeherian: Can someone smarter than me explain to me why I don't particularly care for Girl Talk, even though I love The Avalanches?

The Avalanches made an album based on samples that blend into a seamless whole, intended to continuously flow from moment to moment, snippets woven into a journey. Girl Talk is a spastic collection of a few decades worth of pop hits, shoved into a tiny space. The live shows are a lot of fun, probably bolstered by the energy of the rabid fanbase, but definitely something worth seeing (once).

zix: Are we really 12 days from Since I Left You's 10th anniversary? WHERE IS THE NEXT ALBUM DAMMIT?

Wikipedia has a good summary of the rumors to date, with the latest news being:
In June 2010 a message was posted on the Avalanches forum saying "i hear ariel pink is recording some guest vocals for it and once those are done, the album will be finished", indicating the second album will get a 2011 release.
I'm not sure how that is an indication of a 2011 release date, but there you have it. And that message was posted by the site admin for the Avalanches site (or maybe just the forum), not some random member.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:24 AM on November 15, 2010


There's a sort of genius to it. He's like one of those deejays who only plays the most popular songs, and people love him for it because they recognize absolutely everything, and they know how to dance to it, and it's always a party when he shows up, even though there is nothing remotely unexpected or challenging. And there's a million of the ddejays, and they mostly work weddings and those bars where scantily clad your women serve you Jello shots by putting a shot glass in their cleavage.

But this guy has figured out a way to play every single one of those songs at the same moment. It's like a magic trick.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:27 AM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


young women, rather.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:28 AM on November 15, 2010


I don't really have any opinion on Girl Talk worth sharing, but in regards to the irony complaint, I believe I've heard him say that he really, sincerely loves everything he samples.

He mentioned this during an interview with Pitchfork in 2008, and it seems easy enough to believe -- he's a pop culture aficionado. Despite my other feelings toward the guy, it's a great interview:
At this point I feel like I've graduated beyond guilty pleasures. I sample everything on this because I like it. Going back to my high school band experience, the bitter teenage years, back then I would sample the music almost to mess it up. Even on the first Girl Talk album, I don't want to say I was approaching it ironically, but I was taking songs that I maybe didn't listen to as much, like [Joan Osborne's] "One of Us", and completely mangling it. But [now], that's not really interesting to me.

Kind of taking a step back, I appreciate almost every form of music. If I'm not really getting it, oftentimes [it's because] I don't like something on the surface. There's probably a fan base for it, but I just don't understand why they're into it. There's a crowd out there who hates everything Pitchfork reviews, and there's a crowd who hates every jam band release out there. No one's really right or wrong in my mind, it's just a matter of your influences and your experiences growing up. All that factors into my never wanting to sample anything ironically-- I'm totally behind everything. Especially pop; it's so sincere and up-front, making a song everyone's going to enjoy. It's impossible for me to hate on that.
Derail: This is a perfect segue into the fact that John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats) is a huge power-metal geek, despite the fact that his music is about as far away from the metal genre as you could possibly get.
posted by schmod at 9:29 AM on November 15, 2010 [2 favorites]


Musings:

A. Girl Talk is fun as fuck. Dude knows how to blow up a dance party. That's the mission and the point of it. No more, no less.

B. Girl Talk is terrifically efficient bait for pissing off snobby and often boring DJs. It's always fun to piss off the humorless chinstroke EDM set.

C. Sly Players sound incredible and I'm glad this thread made me aware of that project. I am on board with this.

D. I would like some tacos.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 9:30 AM on November 15, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'll say this for Girl Talk: The first time I actually heard anything by Soulja Boy was on the Girl Talk album before this, and I was enthralled. I started looking his stuff up on YouTube... and of course, it was all terrible. But for thirty seconds, by speeding it up a hair and adding some other stuff by decent musicians, Girl Talk had managed to make the guy sound good.

(Also, this is brilliant.)

But yeah, beyond the thirty second mark it gets a little stressful to listen to. The best moments are really just moments; they don't fit together into songs in any coherent way. (I'd probably enjoy one of his shows, though, if I could make room on my lawn for that many kids...)
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:32 AM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


This isnt bad but some of these tracks are tired and obvious even for a Girl Talk mix.
Beyonce's "Single Ladies" and Skee Lo's "I Wish"? "Mr Blue Sky"?
Kinda threadbare, yo.
Still, your head will nod and your seat will bounce. There's some inspired moments.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 9:42 AM on November 15, 2010


Senor Cardgage: I realize I may have come across as a snobby and boring DJ when I made my statement, as well as when I make the following statement -- Here's the thing: It's not that we're trying to be dicks when we don't play the music everyone knows, we're just not that "kind" of DJ, I'll expand on this in a second.

The concept of the type of DJ I am, the DJ who reckons himself an artist was born from the Jamaican sound system where a Selector would be in charge of introducing the crowd to new cuts they've never heard before. There are many of us who subscribe to that philosophy, we specifically play music that you haven't heard because we want to introduce you to it.

Now, you may not want to be introduced to it. And that is the conundrum we face.

If you came to a club because you wanted to go to a club, not because you specifically wanted to see me play at the club, and you as the listener were unhappy with what I was playing then we have an interesting situation. It's a little bit like walking into a gallery and disliking the art being displayed on the walls. Do you then go to the curator and ask, "Do you have any Beatrice Wood?" -- Of course it's not quite like that because the music selection process is more dynamic, so it's in theory easier for me to put on the record you requested than it would be for the curator to locate and display a piece of art you requested. But if I see myself as a curator/collage artist and you see me as an entertainer-at-your-service then it becomes this weird tug of war.

Ultimately this has lead to me being more choosy about the gigs I accept because I dislike the situation as much as you do, so I really go out of my way only to accept gigs that are very specifically about either me as the artist or the music I play. That way I get to perform for the appropriate audience who in turn gets exactly what they are expecting.
posted by analogue at 9:54 AM on November 15, 2010 [4 favorites]


analogue I wasnt directing that specifically at you, don't worry.
And I was very much raised in the world of DJs that took on the responsibility of "introducing the crowd to new cuts they've never heard before. "

Sadly, in the last 15 years I've seen that turn into "just play boring shit that me and my other boring DJ friends like" with no interest in how their minimal tech house (or whatever ass they have their head up at the time) kills the dancefloor, save for a few people drug'd so hard they have no choice but to dance.

We've come a long way from guys like Levan tastemaking with innovative new stuff to knobby insular twats playing featureless, soulless "grooves to nowhere" and House-in-name-only plodding DOOSH-DOOSH-DOOSH (x 8 hours) big room doofus tracks.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:02 AM on November 15, 2010


Cardgage: I have to disagree; the Single Ladies/Ante Up pairing was one of the highlights of the album on my first listen.
posted by flatluigi at 10:09 AM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'll say this for Girl Talk: The first time I actually heard anything by Soulja Boy was on the Girl Talk album before this, and I was enthralled

This is why I love Girl Talk, and am immune to most snobby complaints. I did nothing in the 90s but listen to Zep, basically, so I am completely pop-illiterate (I heard my first Michael Jackson song last year). So Girl Talk samples are 90% new to me, which makes it *awesome*. Slightly less so on this album, since the last two albums turned me into a hip-hop addict.
posted by zvs at 10:30 AM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


Been enjoying this all morning, thanks for the post.
posted by PHINC at 10:36 AM on November 15, 2010


Senor Cardgage: In that case I agree. I actually fancy myself an opening DJ, even now when I do headlining slots, I still like to play what I consider to be "opening sets" - The opening DJ's job is to warm up the crowd and keep em happy - engage their ears and work your way down to their feet. I think art of opening has been lost, and more often than not many DJ's are playing music for the other DJ's in the booth rather than for the crowd pon de floor :)
posted by analogue at 10:37 AM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'll say this for Girl Talk: The first time I actually heard anything by Soulja Boy was on the Girl Talk album before this, and I was enthralled. I started looking his stuff up on YouTube... and of course, it was all terrible. But for thirty seconds, by speeding it up a hair and adding some other stuff by decent musicians, Girl Talk had managed to make the guy sound good .

For those of you wondering: this is a pretty good reason not to like Girl Talk.
posted by codacorolla at 10:41 AM on November 15, 2010


Like it. Also been enthralled the past few days by Kutiman's SueYou and Blog Party.
posted by fungible at 10:50 AM on November 15, 2010 [4 favorites]


the new record is AMAZINNNNNG.

taters gon' tate. that is all.
posted by beepbeepboopboop at 10:54 AM on November 15, 2010


Where are you people dl the album from? The main link keeps crapping out and the torrent doesn't work.
posted by dobbs at 11:09 AM on November 15, 2010




Thanks, flatluigi!
posted by dobbs at 11:12 AM on November 15, 2010


The Avalanches just stuff a bunch of teenage crowd pleasing shit designed to evoke pavlovian listener recognition into a sack and call it a track. "Oooh, there's that Wayne and Shuster psychiatry bit!" "Oooh! That's a sample from Polyester!" "El Negro Zumbon! I love that song!".

Fucking populists.
posted by benzenedream at 11:25 AM on November 15, 2010 [5 favorites]


Nebulawindphone: It's funny you said that about Soulja Boy, because as I'm listening to the new Girl Talk album, his little stretch of lyrics is the first one that I felt the need to google; it sounded really intriguing.
posted by redsparkler at 11:40 AM on November 15, 2010


I like putting Girl Talk, DJ Z-Trip and Kleptones on shuffle. It's like a meta-mashup!
posted by iamkimiam at 11:58 AM on November 15, 2010


Thanks for the attempt, flatluigi, but for some reason your zip file kicks hell out of both Archive Utility and Stuffit on my Mac. I will have to practice (ugh) patience.
posted by Shepherd at 11:59 AM on November 15, 2010


What analogue posted sounds suspiciously to something I would say, except for 2 points:
1) I don't think DJs are artists.
2) I always have stuff ready to play a total crazy pop-heavy retro cheese set. It's really fun.
posted by Theta States at 12:05 PM on November 15, 2010


sparkletone: yeah.. ever since dfp did that it's been a bit crazy because we never meant for something that was so illegal to get so well known. slim, my partner in the sly players is the head of goodgroove records, so if you're into that sound you should go check out their other releases.

Indeed! Already checked out that stuff when I was initially googling around trying to find out about Sly Players.
posted by sparkletone at 12:28 PM on November 15, 2010


Girl Talk creates some hooks and sounds that I wish he'd build whole songs out of. The frenetic nature of it is interesting, but there are certain parts that just sound so, so good, and I'd love to hear whole songs built around them. One that comes to mind is on Feed the Animals, the beginning of "Hands in the Air" with "In a Big Country" mixed with "Whoomp There it Is" before the Whoomp chorus comes in. It just sounds fantastic (of course that "In a Big Country" hook probably sounds fantastic with most anything over the top of it).
posted by haveanicesummer at 12:32 PM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


dobbs: here's another torrent that's working for me.
posted by progosk at 12:47 PM on November 15, 2010


I appreciate Girl Talk on a technical level. That is: it takes a lot of time, effort, and expertise to mashup so man albums and samples into just one of these songs.

But, I don't much care fore mainstream rap, which Girl Talk albums are full of. There are moments during Girl Talk albums that I wish would last longer than 30 seconds, at points it seems like he doesn't have much of an attention span.
posted by hellojed at 12:51 PM on November 15, 2010


I don't think DJs are artists.

That's silly. Inasmuch as an artist is somebody who creates something that doesn't already exist, and (optionally) something that further is in some way attempting to be better/different/more moving than any arbitrary assembly of things, then every DJ is some kind of artist. Some are better; some are worse; some keep their art in the clubs; some publish their mixes for future preservation; but certainly they're practicing a sort of art.
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:53 PM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


One that comes to mind is on Feed the Animals, the beginning of "Hands in the Air" with "In a Big Country" mixed with "Whoomp There it Is" before the Whoomp chorus comes in.

That's one of my favorite moments on the album, and I agree that All Day is missing a lot of the amazing hooks from Feed The Animals. My favorite Girl Talk moment is the Jackson 5's "ABC" paired with "Bohemian Rhapsody," which I think is just fucking brilliant, and there's nothing as good on this. Some stuff comes close - the "Layla" section of "Down for the Count" is pretty great, and so is the "War Pigs" bit that kicks off the album, but I think, overall, All Day is less interesting. Maybe it's just because I don't recognize as many of the samples, but a lot of the samples I do recognize don't hit me as much as I thought they would - "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," "1901," and "Wake Up" are three of my favorite songs, but their corresponding sections on the album aren't NEARLY as cool as they could've been - they're fun, but Iunno, something seems missing compared to FtA.

It's also twenty minutes longer than Feed The Animals, which hurts it - Girl Talk is way too frenetic to hold my attention for this long. Basically every song is too long - there's not a single one under 5 minutes, which is sort of ridiculous.
posted by JimBennett at 12:58 PM on November 15, 2010


Since we're talking about the notional new Avalanches record, I should mention their website has a cryptic "stay tuned for future announcements from us" message up and yesterday they just started a Twitter account. So maybe 2011 will finally be the year I can use that spot in my year-end best music list that I've had them pencilled in for the last five years.

As for Girl Talk, I listened to it once and the best part is where he drops "Ante Up" and that's because he basically plays the whole song. I think at this point I'd rather listen to one Hood Internet song than an entire Girl Talk record.
posted by jackflaps at 1:21 PM on November 15, 2010


flatluigi: The download worked perfectly. Thanks! I'm now having a dance party in my cubicle.
posted by youngergirl44 at 1:23 PM on November 15, 2010


Personally I'm secretly hoping the new Avalanches record will be a like downtempo shoegazer album with the occasional power pop ballad, just so everyone who's been looking forward to it for so long will be hopelessly confused.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:27 PM on November 15, 2010 [2 favorites]


Some DJs are more artists than others -- Sasha at his best, for example, wasn't just mixing, he was producing, he was commissioning new work, and so on, he spearheaded an entire movement of dark, sophisticated progressive house.

And then on the other end, you have Paulie D.
posted by empath at 1:29 PM on November 15, 2010


I get that "turning people on to Soulja Boy" is not exactly doing a mitvazh. This isn't some kind of egalitarian "Everything is art, up is down, Beethoven and Vanilla Ice are interchangeable, you just need to lower your standards and open your mind" thing.

But I do think there's something brilliant about how he uses the guy's voice. He treats it almost like it's a drum sample — like, "here's this odd kind of repetitive rhythmic thing; now let's leave that going and I'll throw something more interesting on top of it." And that's cool. It's a clever way to use a sample, it's interesting that it works, and it does ends up sounding good. Putting all that together does take some musical skill or at least musical insight on the DJ's part. I think it shows that he's not just slapping hooks together at random, he is thinking or at least trying to think about the ways those hooks could function to make an interesting bit of music.

And that's all the plating those beans are gonna get out of me. Yeesh.
posted by nebulawindphone at 1:55 PM on November 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


i used to like girltalk 3-4 years ago when nobody knew who he was.

Woah, really? Do you have some anecdotes to share about that forgotten time? Here's the props you're mugging for: ★★
I gave u two :)
posted by p3on at 2:03 PM on November 15, 2010




But, I don't much care fore mainstream rap, which Girl Talk albums are full of

From your phrasing, it sounds to me like you judge the rap generally used by GT by the same criteria as non-mainstream rap, which is why I used to dislike the same stuff. But really, 'rap' is a really really big term nowadays, and a lot of what's popular is basically just dance music, and it can help if you think of it in those terms. It's not cerebral or even necessarily about the lyrics, it's just something to bounce on.
I don't mean this as a dis on you or anything, just hoping to ~expand your perspective~ in a way that I found beneficial.
posted by p3on at 2:08 PM on November 15, 2010


That's silly. Inasmuch as an artist is somebody who creates something that doesn't already exist, and (optionally) something that further is in some way attempting to be better/different/more moving than any arbitrary assembly of things, then every DJ is some kind of artist.

Right, but so are most cooks, then.
DJing offers you such a limited range of expressing yourself in any revolutionary and/or honest capacity.

A DJ is an artist in the least relevant sense of the word.
posted by Theta States at 2:36 PM on November 15, 2010


You think chefs consider themselves as artists?

Is curating an art show an art form?
Is hosting a good party an art form?

I remember watching Top Chef Masters and the chefs there laughed at the idea of being an artist. They were working on a craft with love and passion. If someone wants to call them an artisan at their craft, they were ok with that. But they weren't going to call themselves an artist.


Everything can be an art form, but is there any relevancy in claiming that people who work in random medium x are artists?
posted by Theta States at 2:54 PM on November 15, 2010


But more to the point, I'd love for someone to explain what their creative interface is with DJing, and how you utilize the tools to create a unique artistic vision.

With DJing, especially in the 21st century, you're really not taking any grandiose risks of artistic sensibilities. It's mostly just programming a playlist, and then using a few simple techniques to weave tracks together.
posted by Theta States at 3:03 PM on November 15, 2010


Theta States: I think there's an art to programming a night just as there's an art to curating a gallery show or a museum exhibit, or a good nine course meal. I think maybe it would be easier if you told us what your definition of the word "artist" was.

My art is in taking the records in my bag and creating a unique acoustic experience for the attendees. Many of the records in my bag are extremely limited editions, some are test pressings of records that have yet to (or maybe will never) come out. When you come to see me play you are getting collage of music, most of which you will have never heard before, arranged in a unique fashion that changes dynamically with the audience's reaction to it.
posted by analogue at 4:30 PM on November 15, 2010


I'll give it a day, and see if a (non-torrent) link is working. Right now it just times out on me.
posted by Forktine at 5:41 PM on November 15, 2010


My art is in taking the records in my bag and creating a unique acoustic experience for the attendees. Many of the records in my bag are extremely limited editions, some are test pressings of records that have yet to (or maybe will never) come out. When you come to see me play you are getting collage of music, most of which you will have never heard before, arranged in a unique fashion that changes dynamically with the audience's reaction to it.

Meh, that's what my performances are too. I still submit that what we are doing is following a rather minimal technical framework and that while we are indeed creating something, our input isn't as unique and special as we'd like to think.

If you prepare me a lovely 3 course meal, at what point is it a work of art?

The irony of that is that there is art made from cooking-as-performance, but that exists in a broader theoretical body of work from the artist.


50% of DJing used to be all about scarcity. But now that doesn't really matter, we all have tonnes of obscure music the crowd and other DJs won't know.
If you feel artistically challenged by mixing tracks together and building a set, good on you. But I remain skeptical.
And of course I think we both know more than enough tech/house/minial/electro DJs that consider themselves masterful artists for mixing up the Beatport top 10 over the course of an hour, but I'd rather focus on the fringe of the argument and figure out how a DJ can actually produce art.
posted by Theta States at 7:07 PM on November 15, 2010


Hooray for the dropbox link! Man, this album is so. much. fun. (I just finished knitting a scarf at warp speed. Thanks, Girl Talk!)
posted by iamkimiam at 7:14 PM on November 15, 2010


Theta States: This one's for you.
posted by analogue at 7:52 PM on November 15, 2010


Theta, haven't you been running an mp3 blog highlighting particularly awesome songs -- and remixes -- for well over a year? I've been subscribed to your blog for months now and I would have never guessed that you thought none of them were artistic.
posted by flatluigi at 8:16 PM on November 15, 2010


I f'n love how he worked Portishead's Glory Box into the Jump on Stage track. Ah, repeat.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:30 AM on November 16, 2010


flatluigi: Theta, haven't you been running an mp3 blog highlighting particularly awesome songs -- and remixes -- for well over a year? I've been subscribed to your blog for months now and I would have never guessed that you thought none of them were artistic.

Yes, I've been running an mp3 blog for 3 years and have been DJing and releasing mixes for 12 years.
Don't get me wrong, I think the music itself is art, as I've posteed up some of the most beautiful things I've ever found. But I think everything that I have been doing is more just skill and craft, and hasn't expressed enough to be considered art.



analogue: well played!
posted by Theta States at 4:20 AM on November 16, 2010


Theta, have you ever played a live set or are you just releasing DJ mixes online? I can't imagine that anyone who has ever dj'ed for a large crowd and felt the intense emotional connection it can produce would say that what they were doing wasn't art.

Or even just being in the crowd. I mean oakenfold is a hack now, but holy shit, ten years ago, when he was running perfecto records and putting out massive track after massive track and breaking one new producer after another, he was a genius.

There is nobody who is going to be able to tell me that what he was able to make me feel in 1999 wasn't art. Same goes for Paul van dyk and Sasha, and Carl cox, etc, etc.
posted by empath at 5:21 AM on November 16, 2010


empath, I DJ in front of large crowds frequently. (check the "live for Original Plumbing and Toronto Pride set on my site for an example of a party set) And sure it is a rush and there's an intense emotional connection, but I am not sure how that makes it art...

I feel like considering myself anything more than a skilled curator takes power and respect away from the people that actually made the music.
posted by Theta States at 6:07 AM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]


Sorry for the derail everyone. My jaded lack of faith in DJing as an artistic endeavour doesn't have much relevance here. :)
posted by Theta States at 6:22 AM on November 16, 2010 [1 favorite]


there's an intense emotional connection, but I am not sure how that makes it art

If you're making someone feel something, then you're doing art, imo, no matter what your tools are. Call it sound collage, if you like.
posted by empath at 7:04 AM on November 16, 2010


But wouldn't that experience be more of a happening? A result of the synergy between the event designer, people who worked on the space, the energy brought by the crowd, the lights, the DJ providing music, the artists that made that music, etc?

I think that's where I have a problem. When there is a magical moment live, I really don't think the DJ should get all of the credit, as they are only part of the equation.
There's just been a long history of DJs taking full credit for the energy of the crowd, and for playing other people's music. As a DJ I prefer to just be thankful for that experience, recognize it as a wonderful privilege, but not point to it and claim that it was art that I made.
Perhaps it was art we all made, and got to experience.
posted by Theta States at 8:24 AM on November 16, 2010 [3 favorites]


After two full listens I think that this is by far the most fun of the Girl Talk releases. And I also think it's the one that will most likely stand up to repeated listens. I know I already want to play it again.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 1:51 PM on November 16, 2010


If you're trying to figure out some of the samples, this site walks you through the source material on All Day.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 10:43 AM on November 17, 2010


I think that's where I have a problem. When there is a magical moment live, I really don't think the DJ should get all of the credit, as they are only part of the equation.
There's just been a long history of DJs taking full credit for the energy of the crowd, and for playing other people's music. As a DJ I prefer to just be thankful for that experience, recognize it as a wonderful privilege, but not point to it and claim that it was art that I made.


Funnily enough, I've got an auteur theory of party throwing, in that I don't think the music is the actual art produced by the party, but the crowd and the vibe is, and that the promoter for a good party is the primary artist.

However, much like a movie has many more artists involved than the producer, a good party will have many artists involved as well, from flyer design to decor to lighting, and what have you. A good DJ is at least as much an artist as a cinematographer or an actor is.
posted by empath at 12:01 PM on November 17, 2010


Slack-a-gogo: "If you're trying to figure out some of the samples, this site walks you through the source material on All Day"

It takes its data from the unfinished wikipedia page cataloguing the samples, unfortunately. Guy should've waited a bit.
posted by flatluigi at 12:21 PM on November 17, 2010


A good DJ is at least as much an artist as a cinematographer or an actor is.

I'd argue that if I worked with any competent english-speaking adult that enjoyed music, I could teach them to be a highly skilled DJ after 3 months of working with them. (a generous yet arbitrary number)

Conversely, being an actor seems like a much more difficult task. What portion of the population could be good at acting after 3 months of working with them? I'd imagine for most it'd still be unattainable to be competent after years and years of work.

Even when DJing was just 2-4 turntables and a mixer, it wasn't that hard to do really well. Getting 3 records of the same genre beatmatched didn't take too much time, and you could pick up the most functional scratch tricks after 2 months of practice.

Meh, maybe I'm just underselling it because it's easy for me? I don't know.
But you never hear stories of people training their whole life, working hard, to be a professional DJ. If you want to be one, you just do it and it's not hard to make it work. The bar is set pretty low, but it's great because it's such a populist thing, now more than ever.
But for people that act or play instruments or paint, the bar is so much more insurmountably higher to be considered an artist and a professional.
posted by Theta States at 12:36 PM on November 17, 2010


I used to throw a weekly party in DC where we'd book 5 local djs a week, and I'm pretty sure we booked hundreds of them in that time frame. Believe me, there is a difference, and there is such a thing as a bad DJ. The vast majority of them don't make a living at it. Some of them struggled at it for years without finding a niche or getting paid. At a minimum, I'd say it takes 6-7 years of gigging, before most DJs I know got good and stopped playing beatport top 10 shit or whatever. The only ones I knew that had instant success at it were trained musicians or had spent a lot of time producing before they started DJing.

It takes 2-3 months to learn how to beat match, but that's like learning how to hold your fingers on a piano. Everything after that only comes from practice and experience.
posted by empath at 1:27 PM on November 17, 2010


Do you (or you analogue) have any mixes online that you can link me to? I'd love to hear stuff from others that are obviously very passionate about wha they do.
posted by Theta States at 1:42 PM on November 17, 2010


Here.

(Ignore the space fantasy mix, that was intentionally cheesy and bad)

A bunch of older ones here. Alpha is probably the most 'serious' one of the bunch.
posted by empath at 1:54 PM on November 17, 2010


Thanks, I'll check those out this weekend.
For my own, try Moonchild (in memoriam), ineedaghostship and No One's Around, There's No Need To Fake It for different speeds. (100, 126 and 60/80 bpm, respectively. That last one is very very old.)
posted by Theta States at 2:13 PM on November 17, 2010




And here's the sample list!
posted by flatluigi at 6:17 AM on November 18, 2010 [1 favorite]


GirlTalk is the mashup equivalent of Busta Rhymes.

I like to think of Girl Talk more as a Mid-day Power Workout Mix, but yeah, I get your point. This is the kind of shit you get at KRAP Power 102, but much better. And yet if you found yourself at a club, it would sound sorta silly.

Which is disappointing--Night Ripper is good in parts, but Feed the Animals is pretty much a solid party from beginning to end.

Amen. I'm not a huge fan, but it's hard to deny Feed the Animals.

The best moments are really just moments; they don't fit together into songs in any coherent way.

I disgree, and my opinion likely diverges from most people here. I think of his albums as one big song, and I think they work very well as larger pieces, e.g. the way Play Your Part I and II bookended Feed the Animals.

If we're picking out favorite moments/mixes, mine has to be Still Here from Feed the Animals:

Procol Harum's "Whiter Shader of Pale" vs. Youngbloodz' "Damn," which then shifts into Blackstreet's "No Diggity" ... which then picks up Radiohead's "15 Step" beat, which then takes on The Band's "The Weight," which eventually transforms into mashup of Ace of Base's "The Sign" (that whistle is really one of the only "Oooh oooh" moments for me) with Cassidy's "Drink and my 2 Step" ... and eventually ends with the Beasties' "So Whatcha Want" vs. 50 Cent's "I Get Money" vs. "We Will Rock You" ... PHEW! Great stuff.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:51 PM on November 19, 2010


Also, jeez, no mention of osymyso in a DJ/curator thread? I always think of him as a pioneer in the popular-sound collage space.
posted by mrgrimm at 2:53 PM on November 19, 2010


Don't forget cloeburner, you have one more day!
posted by flatluigi at 3:35 PM on November 21, 2010


Mreh, Girl Talk played at a local uni and they paid him what I figure is an excessive amount of money (30K+) for him to stand onstage and doubleclick on mp3s. He played all the tracks off his albums verbatim while pretending to "mix". Of course, shooting toilet paper into the crowd was awesome, but 30K awesome? Watching the crowd and the pretty folks he pulled up on stage was all that made the night bearable. Oh and the frosh beer-bonging out of a lawn flamingo. But I digress.
posted by some chick at 8:23 PM on November 24, 2010


Are you sure you aren't putting the cart before the horse? He commonly tries out new material at live shows before sticking it on an album -- you can hear quite a few bits and bobs that were cleaned up for Feed The Animals in this show, for example.

Also, I think you misunderstood the audio software he's using -- of course he's not straight-up editing tracks up on stage, since that would take ages and would mess with the flow of the show. Instead, he's got a huge collection of pre-prepared loops, samples, vocals, and the like that he puts together up on the stage live. He can still jump around and mix things together like a turntablist while keeping his own style that way.

[Either that or you're trolling, but I like to give the benefit of the doubt :) ]
posted by flatluigi at 10:30 PM on November 24, 2010


He can still jump around and mix things together like a turntablist while keeping his own style that way.

Are you Girl Talk or are you paid by him?
posted by Threeway Handshake at 10:18 PM on November 29, 2010


He can still jump around and mix things together like a turntablist while keeping his own style that way.


Considering how little actual computer controlling he does in a live performance, I imagine that most of it is pre-assembled before the show.
If you are going to do a crazy dense mix live, it doesn't leave a lot of time for the jumping around.
posted by Theta States at 6:00 AM on November 30, 2010


I have not seen Girl Talk live, but from the bootlegs I have listened to, the live shows sound a lot like the albums. I didn't hear a whole lot of different samples/mixes.

you could do what he does in Ableton in a matter of seconds.

...

If there are still holdouts, the arguments against Girl Talk are getting slimmer. All Day is a reminder that, despite the number of party DJs and bedroom mashup artists, nobody does it better than Gillis

Ian Cohen, Pitchfork review (8.2)

Pretty good review, imo.
posted by mrgrimm at 8:42 AM on December 1, 2010


you could do what he does in Ableton in a matter of seconds.

It just occurred to me what the problem with this is.

Any decent organ player can perform a Bach piece in a few minutes.

Any decent guitar player can run through Stairway to Heaven in 7-8 minutes.

It might only take me a couple of minutes to type out The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock.

It's kind of easy to do something again after someone does it the first time. You are kind of skipping over the hard part.
posted by empath at 8:58 AM on December 1, 2010 [2 favorites]


The hard part was doing it on turntables. :)
posted by Theta States at 10:16 AM on December 1, 2010


Yet that level of mixing would surely be impossible on turntables, no?

I would disagree that he's a pioneer of any sort. Megamixes have been around forever. He's just really good at it. No joke.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:16 AM on December 1, 2010


It'd be impossible for 1 person to do on just 2 turntables since there are parts with more than 2 sample sources, but much of the mixing could be done by 2 people on 4 turntables.
Mind you, some tracks would have to be prepped in advance, with the right filtering and preprocessing.

Coordinated 2+ DJ ensembles are still pretty amazing to see.


This all has me nostalgic for my old Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers cassingle.
posted by Theta States at 11:23 AM on December 1, 2010


(as opposed to the more recent Jive Bunny cassingles, I suppose...)
posted by Theta States at 11:23 AM on December 1, 2010


I've seen house DJ's pull some pretty amazing shit on 3-4 turntables by themselves... I'm thinking of DJ Dan, Carl Cox, Bad Boy Bill and Eddie Halliwell... But not so much mashups as just complex layering and beat juggling. Mashups (and turntablism in general) are kind of like meh in terms of club music. You can't really dance to them like you can straight up house and techno. Or at least you can't get lost in the music. It's all very Pay Attention To Me!, which is death to any kind of vibe on the dance floor.
posted by empath at 11:32 AM on December 1, 2010


Though I have to say that this last mix has a really good flow and doesn't really stop the beat just to show off, which is good.
posted by empath at 11:33 AM on December 1, 2010


Looks like Wikipedia's working on deleting the sample listings on the article for All Day, the other Girl Talk albums, and possibly every other album with sample listings on the site.
posted by flatluigi at 6:53 AM on December 2, 2010 [1 favorite]


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