Customer Reviews

Feed the Animals

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Greg Gillis wants to feed us: his "tigers", his fans. In May 2006, he bitch-slapped the summer into an early start by dropping the ~*pArTy AlBuM oF tHa YeAr*~,Night Ripper. Critical success was substantial, though the dubious legality of Girl Talk's artistic medium prevented the album from rolling on any major hype-machinery. Still, an underground following gave Gillis the success he needed to literally quit his day job (as a biomedical engineer no less) and tour in support of Night Ripper full time.

If Secret Diary and Unstoppable were products of a Macbook Geek's glitchy sample-obsession, ,Feed the Animals (technically his fourth "LP", if you can call it that) is a distillation of the unparalleled skill revealed in Night Ripper's mind-blowingly unexpected mash-ups. Like the hippest upstart chefs from Soho to San Fran, Gillis mixes unexpected flavors to astounding success; though it didn't seem possible to top the eclecticism of Night Ripper, Feed the Animals has in fact proven a more diverse entree, captivating the senses with mixtures of Daft Punk and Fleetwood Mac, UGK and the Unicorns (full sample list on Wikipedia).

Where Girl Talk's forebears DJ Shadow and The Avalanches went for cohesive combinations of samples from a variety of sources, Gillis takes a more streamlined approach: he tears up the entire pop canon. So instead of impressive, behemoth songs like "Frontier Psychiatrist", Girl Talk operates in "AHA!" moments, placing songs into new contexts that somehow sound more natural than their original structures. The album has you wondering whether Kanye didn't secretly conspire to produce "No Diggity" 11 years after the fact.

The endurance of Girl Talk's albums lies in the myriad opportunities to discover new dimensions of the mash-ups that are especially resonant. For now, the shining moment of the album for me is the midsection of "Like This" where the distinctive organ peels of Yo La Tengo's classic "Autumn Sweater" are paired with "Ghetto Superstar". Of course, I'll find another combination to blow my mind in a whole new way soon after posting this. Other highlights include "In Step", which spans forty years of pop history from Orbison to The Beach Boys to Michael Jackson to...Fergie?

Weezy having recently dropped the hottest album of the year with Tha Carter III (bitch!), it's only fitting that the slow-core grind of "Lollipop" would open the beginning of the end for Feed the Animals. That track (Play Your Part pt. 2) brings the album full circle, ending in a poignant comedown where Night Ripper ended in a vitriolic orgasm. And most importantly, it answers the question, "Is Girl Talk still relevant in 2008?"; this may seem an unnecessarily jaded pondering for a hot new star, but many wondered aloud if the kitsch "novelty" appeal of flavor-of-the-week singles like "My Humps" that peppered Night Ripper could sustain another album. The answer is a bass-thumpingly resounding "HELL. YES."

A friend told me on first listen that "Play Your Part pt. 2" made her tear up with joy. This unexpected, almost paradoxical [in an album sampling songs like "Put That Pussy on Me"] pathos that Greg G. can render lends an important insight: pop music can be transcendent. Favorite choruses can still evoke childhood elation, and favorite guitar riffs will still hit the heartstrings of romantic 20-something-year olds. Thank God for nostalgia. Thank Greg for "feeding" us this knowledge.

Rating: 85/100

(I translated it to a 5-star review for amazon, since there's so much grade inflation in these parts).

Though "mashups" are a relatively new phenomenon, the general idea behind their creation is not. As with most electronic music, there is a deep connection between the past and present, and this is certainly the case in Girl Talk's album Feed The Animals. Often known more for his piracy than artistic value, Gregg Gillis, or, Girl Talk, successfully places together music from many different genres and decades in a way that allows a multitude of people to appreciate the music in their own way. While appreciating the melodious verses created in Feed The Animals, I also intend to give it a sort of historical perspective in electronic music for a further appreciation of the music.

Being able to listen to only the catchiest or most inventive parts of various songs is one of the many reasons why mashups are so enjoyable. Perhaps my favorite song on the album, "No Pause", blends many of my favorite melodies and lyrics of songs by Jurassic 5, Heart, and Yael Naim, as well as many others. While each of these songs has a great amount of value from start to finish, there are certain parts that stand out above the rest, each of which is highlighted in "No Pause." Putting these different samples together reminds me of an almost modern day version of musique concrète, as the creators Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry were some of the first to splice together parts of electronic recordings. As pioneers of experimental electronic music, artists such as Gregg Gillis still use many of the same ideas as those found in many of the early musique concrète recordings.

Perhaps the only thing better than listening to the best parts of various songs played in one song is when they are layered over one another. Another basic idea of mashups, it is always a treat to hear the voice of one of my favorite vocalists sing to one of my favorite beats. For this reason, my favorite part of the album is the approximately forty-three second interval that "No Diggity" is being played over the beat of "Flashing Lights" in the Feed The Animals song "Still Here." Even though listening to mashups is exciting because uniquely different songs are interweaved into one, it is especially interesting when certain rhythms or beats of individual songs can noticeably play and feed off of each other once they are put into direct communication. Oftentimes songs that are not always noticeably similar become surprisingly alike once certain beats and keys are highlighted, and this layering technique allows this to happen easily. Or, in other cases, the combination of similar sounds and rhythms can create an entirely new and different musical experience. Regardless, again channeling the methods of the innovators of electronic music, the layering of different samples reminds me greatly of Edgard Varèse. A pioneer in composing musique concrète with elektronische Musik, Varèse's work "Poeme Electronique" remains as one of the preeminent examples of layering samples with electronic music.

Whereas other mashup artists such as Negativland often create music to make a point, Girl Talk seems to concentrate on simply enjoying the music of many different artists in one album. Whether the music should be labeled as plunderphonics, mashups, or simply experimental music is debatable, though there are many good reasons for each. The fact of the matter is Girl Talk's Feed The Animals is an extremely enjoyable album to listen to that can appeal to people who appreciate any popular music over the past few decades. While also taking into mind the historic perspective of the piece, Feed The Animals can be appreciated to an even higher degree and can only make us wonder what will come next out of experimental electronic music.

i hope you all know that he offers his albums online for free download. so. um. you shouldn't be paying for his (amazingly ADHD filled) albums

Greg Gillis wants to feed us: his "tigers", his fans. In May 2006, he bitch-slapped the summer into an early start by dropping the ~*pArTy AlBuM oF tHa YeAr*~,Night Ripper. Critical success was substantial, though the dubious legality of Girl Talk's artistic medium prevented the album from rolling on any major hype-machinery. Still, an underground following gave Gillis the success he needed to literally quit his day job (as a biomedical engineer no less) and tour in support of Night Ripper full time.

If Secret Diary and Unstoppable were products of a Macbook Geek's glitchy sample-obsession, ,Feed the Animals (technically his fourth "LP", if you can call it that) is a distillation of the unparalleled skill revealed in Night Ripper's mind-blowingly unexpected mash-ups. Like the hippest upstart chefs from Soho to San Fran, Gillis mixes unexpected flavors to astounding success; though it didn't seem possible to top the eclecticism of Night Ripper, Feed the Animals has in fact proven a more diverse entree, captivating the senses with mixtures of Daft Punk and Fleetwood Mac, UGK and the Unicorns (full sampling list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_the_Animals).

Where Girl Talk's forebears DJ Shadow and The Avalanches went for cohesive combinations of samples from a variety of sources, Gillis takes a more streamlined approach: he tears up the entire pop canon. So instead of impressive, behemoth songs like "Frontier Psychiatrist", Girl Talk operates in "AHA!" moments, placing songs into new contexts that somehow sound more natural than their original structures. The album has you wondering whether Kanye didn't secretly conspire to produce "No Diggity" 11 years after the fact.

The endurance of Girl Talk's albums lies in the myriad opportunities to discover new dimensions of the mash-ups that are especially resonant. For now, the shining moment of the album for me is the midsection of "Like This" where the distinctive organ peels of Yo La Tengo's classic "Autumn Sweater" are paired with "Ghetto Superstar". Of course, I'll find another combination to blow my mind in a whole new way soon after posting this. Other highlights include "In Step", which spans forty years of pop history from Orbison to The Beach Boys to Michael Jackson to...Fergie?

Weezy having recently dropped the hottest album of the year with Tha Carter III (bitch!), it's only fitting that the slow-core grind of "Lollipop" would open the beginning of the end for Feed the Animals. That track (Play Your Part pt. 2) brings the album full circle, ending in a poignant comedown where Night Ripper ended in a vitriolic orgasm. And most importantly, it answers the question, "Is Girl Talk still relevant in 2008?"; this may seem an unnecessarily jaded pondering for a hot new star, but many wondered aloud if the kitsch "novelty" appeal of flavor-of-the-week"singles like "My Humps" that peppered Night Ripper could sustain another album. The answer is a bass-thumping, resoundingly resounding "HELL. YES."

A friend told me on first listen that "Play Your Part pt. 2" made her tear up with joy. This unexpected, almost paradoxical [in an album sampling songs like "Put That Pussy on Me"] pathos that Greg G. can render lends an important insight: pop music can be transcendent. Favorite choruses can still evoke childhood elation, and favorite guitar riffs will still hit the heartstrings of romantic 20-something-year olds. Thank God for nostalgia. Thank Greg for "feeding" us this knowledge.

Rating: 85/100

(this doesn't translate well to Amazon's 5-star rating system...lots of grade inflation here)

Greg Gillis wants to feed us: his "tigers", his fans. In May 2006, he bitch-slapped the summer into an early start by dropping the ~*pArTy AlBuM oF tHa YeAr*~,Night Ripper. Critical success was substantial, though the dubious legality of Girl Talk's artistic medium prevented the album from rolling on any major hype-machinery. Still, an underground following gave Gillis the success he needed to literally quit his day job (as a biomedical engineer no less) and tour in support of Night Ripper full time.

If Secret Diary and Unstoppable were products of a Macbook Geek's glitchy sample-obsession, ,Feed the Animals (technically his fourth "LP", if you can call it that) is a distillation of the unparalleled skill revealed in Night Ripper's mind-blowingly unexpected mash-ups. Like the hippest upstart chefs from Soho to San Fran, Gillis mixes unexpected flavors to astounding success; though it didn't seem possible to top the eclecticism of Night Ripper, Feed the Animals has in fact proven a more diverse entree, captivating the senses with mixtures of Daft Punk and Fleetwood Mac, UGK and the Unicorns (full sampling list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_the_Animals).

Where Girl Talk's forebears DJ Shadow and The Avalanches went for cohesive combinations of samples from a variety of sources, Gillis takes a more streamlined approach: he tears up the entire pop canon. So instead of impressive, behemoth songs like "Frontier Psychiatrist", Girl Talk operates in "AHA!" moments, placing songs into new contexts that somehow sound more natural than their original structures. The album has you wondering whether Kanye didn't secretly conspire to produce "No Diggity" 11 years after the fact.

The endurance of Girl Talk's albums lies in the myriad opportunities to discover new dimensions of the mash-ups that are especially resonant. For now, the shining moment of the album for me is the midsection of "Like This" where the distinctive organ peels of Yo La Tengo's classic "Autumn Sweater" are paired with "Ghetto Superstar". Of course, I'll find another combination to blow my mind in a whole new way soon after posting this. Other highlights include "In Step", which spans forty years of pop history from Orbison to The Beach Boys to Michael Jackson to...Fergie?

Weezy having recently dropped the hottest album of the year with Tha Carter III (bitch!), it's only fitting that the slow-core grind of "Lollipop" would open the beginning of the end for Feed the Animals. That track (Play Your Part pt. 2) brings the album full circle, ending in a poignant comedown where Night Ripper ended in a vitriolic orgasm. And most importantly, it answers the question, "Is Girl Talk still relevant in 2008?"; this may seem an unnecessarily jaded pondering for a hot new star, but many wondered aloud if the kitsch "novelty" appeal of flavor-of-the-week"singles like "My Humps" that peppered Night Ripper could sustain another album. The answer is a bass-thumping, resoundingly resounding "HELL. YES."

A friend told me on first listen that "Play Your Part pt. 2" made her tear up with joy. This unexpected, almost paradoxical [in an album sampling songs like "Put That Pussy on Me"] pathos that Greg G. can render lends an important insight: pop music can be transcendent. Favorite choruses can still evoke childhood elation, and favorite guitar riffs will still hit the heartstrings of romantic 20-something-year olds. Thank God for nostalgia. Thank Greg for "feeding" us this knowledge.

This album is a work of genius. If this is Girl Talk now, I can't even imagine what the future holds.

Listen to the album for free first...I wasn't even sure I would like it. Right after listening to this album at work, I donated $10 right away. This album is excellent. Anyone who can make even Avril Lavine sound good needs to get paid for their work!

I quickly fell in love with this composition. The talent required to create such a complex piece is really unique: creating such an evocative experience under the constraint of using pre-recorded music is a work of genius.

i listen to this every time i run at the gym. it always makes me smile, push harder, and never gets old! love it

I love Girltalk and love this album. I have Night Ripper as well and if you like that you will love this!