Girl Talk- Feed the Animals

Ok, it’s midnight and I just listened to the first few tracks of the new Girl Talk album Feed the Animals...

(speechless)

I’m not simply listening to this record, I am living it. My mind is saying, “I love these songs, no I absolutely worship that part of that song, that verse I’ve never heard before, not like that. Was that Ahmad- Back in the Day over Rod Stewarts- Young Turks??!! Man, I’ve always castoff the Birdman and Lil’ John until this moment.” I let out a Lil' John "Yeah! Okay!", my mind continues to get blasted, “The Police with Busta Rhymes! That shouldn’t sound as awesome as it does.” I’m flooded with pure sensations of nostalgia, excitement, but mostly I’m in complete awe.

3 Reasons Why This is Brilliant.

1. It is a slap in the face to the tried and true, scratch that- the tired way music has been created. For the past 40 years there is no way you could have heard this album. It couldn’t have been legally made or distributed in any way shape or form. The perfect storm has collided and Gillis has made it and distributed it worldwide with no major backing and no royalties paid out. Gillis has already cornered the market as a mash up master and with his growing popularity Feed the Animals will be propeled into the pop culture stratosphere, something that hasn’t really been done by a mashup artist at all save for Danger Mouse’s Grey Album. This is a “supermix” as Gillis has put it. It’s a style some have attempted (Gillis credits Kid 606 and John Oswald as influences), but the book has now been written on what can be done. 300 samples into 50 minutes of music. Realistically, in any other modern music era it would cost him well over $100 million to go around and pay each artist for these samples.

2. This is a masterpiece, both technically, sonically(?), nostalgically, and any other way you want to put it. Catering to tight assed music aficionados, the ever disappearing indie world, those who live in a field and are relegated to hearing only what corporate radio puts out, and the casual urban listener who buys music based on what they heard at the club on Friday night. His technique is original and his selection of samples is spine tingling perfect.

3. It’s not “ripping” off the original artist. It’s elevating them. If I was a big time, crunktastic artist I would die to have a sample on this, because Gillis makes everything sound amazing. He’s spent the past two years patching this “supermix” together through trial and error, testing it on himself and live audiences at the numerous house parties he DJ’s. He’s paying homage and revolutionizing with every sound bite he samples, and yet it’s definitely “his” piece of art.

I'm on track 5 or 6, going to bed already knowing this is my favorite album of the year by a mile.

If in twenty years, a kid asks you what the music of the 00’s was like, just hand over a copy of Feed the Animals and walk away.

To download the album using the “pay what you want” system, go here.

To check out a list of all the samples he used for the record, go here.