Night Ripper

Girl Talk

Modern mashups these days are generally done for a laugh. I'm willing to put money down that right now, somewhere on this beautiful planet, a wise guy is trying to ruin a perfectly good song by mashing it with Smash Mouth's All Star. And that's a wonderful thing, don't get me wrong, but when people think of mashups, I imagine a great majority of people think of these silly novelty tracks. If you are one of those people, then I need you to pay attention because Girl Talk is not that. In 2006, Greg Gillis, otherwise known as Girl Talk, released his third album Night Ripper, and it was quite revolutionary for sample based music. A 42-minute, non-stop mix created (almost) entirely by chopped up samples of popular songs spanning multiple genres and decades. 2000s pop is represented through the likes of Britney, Black Eyed Peas, and Gwen Stefani. The Pixies, The Breeders, Pavement, and The Rentals samples pop up providing a little dose of weirdo alternative. Grunge (Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins), industrial (Nine Inch Nails), classic rock (Fleetwood Mac, Boston), 90s jock jams, and of course a heavy hip-hop influence from the prevalence of their vocals and beats; every piece of popular music from the past 60 years is referenced here. It's an absolute party hit that will get everyone dancing, or if dancing is not your thing, trying to identify and pick out the source material Gillis is using at any given moment is also an incredibly fun game.

How cohesive, detailed, and layered these creations are is an incredibly testament to how amazing a producer Gillis is. A producer's job can be tough, trying to imagine what the finished product is going to sound like and then carefully selecting the right sound palettes for each instrument, the effects, and getting the right performances in order for a particular song to be fully realized exactly the way it was intended. For Girl Talk, it isn't that much different, scrounging his library of collected sounds in order to find a handful rhythms, melodies, and vocal performances that work perfectly together. Sometimes the results are breathtaking; examples being when Biggie's iconic verse from Juicy is joined together with the pianos from Elton John's Tiny Dancer, or hearing the collision of soft pads (Sophie B. Hawkins'Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover) and flirty whistles (Juelz Santana's There It Go) as the backdrop to The Game's verse from Hate It Or Love It. There's sections that are very overwhelming, like on the first few moments of the opening track. The prog rock symphony of Boston's Foreplay is dog-piled with the rhythmic breathing at the beginning of Ciara's Goodies, a vocal sample from a Fabolous track, and Gillis knows what else was added to make it sound so huge. There's also something kind of rage inducing hearing the guitar freakout from Nirvana's Scentless Apprentice support a grimy verse from Jeezy.

Gillis doesn't just simply lay one sample on top of another. There are moments where he chops things up so meticulously that it is hard to figure out what the source is, especially during moments where things get quite glitchy. I love the way the distorted guitar lead from The Pixies' Where Is My Mind? gets cut up in an interesting pattern, adding a little tension to Nas' already aggressive Hate Me Now verse. That's My DJ has a few neat glitchy sections as well, most notably cutting up the already time stretched and stuttered vocal hook from Three 6 Mafia's Stay Fly over some skittering glitchy beats who's origin is unknown to me. Of course, it wouldn't be a mashup album if Gillis didn't throw in a few laughs. Hearing The Ying Yang Twins whisper "wait 'til you see my dick" over the classic strings from The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony will always put a smile on my face, and same goes for a filthy David Banner line being repeated over that one Spandau Ballet song; you know the one.

There are so many mind blowing moments that it would be impossible to catalogue every single joyous moment. You really just need to experience it for yourself. Throw it on when you have no idea what you want to listen to because Night Ripper encompasses everything popular music has to offer. Even when you find that two things don't necessarily belong together - which does happen, albeit infrequently - Gillis always has something else queued up seconds away to get you back on board. To quickly summarize, Night Ripper is a musical celebration and none other than Greg Gillis is the master curator. This album is currently available for free (if you choose) on the official label's website, so there is no reason for you not to experience this for yourself, at least once.