By Aaron Calvin
Since Greg Gillis, or his moniker, Girl Talk, released his first pulsing wonderland album of mash up music, the album's legitimacy has been questioned. With his new release, "All Day," Girl Talk proves once again that his Frankenstein is too creative and too well crafted not to be considered music.
The album starts off with the eponymous riff of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" layered beneath the shout of Ludicrous' "Move Bitch." This is generally how the album operates, layering rock riffs beneath popular music vocals or hip-hop verses, then reversing them. This formula is upset now and again throughout the album with rock-on-rock layering and subtle layering of four to five tracks on top of each other in transitions. Each track on the album flows into one another and encompasses numerous different samples within each one, creating a flow of music from all different genres.
Girl Talk's talent ultimately lies in his ability to create congruency from the seemingly incongruent. It is a testament to his objective ear, or perhaps his tenacity in finding what tracks work together, that he is able to combine such artists as Ol' Dirty Bastard and Radiohead. The extremity of this is the pitched whine of Lil' Wayne's voice over the folk harmony of Simon and Garfunkel's "Cecelia" and the indie riffs of Arcade Fire's "Wake Up."
Though he brings a very signature format to the media age genre of mash up, Girl Talk suffers from extreme shallowness. Like much of the genre, he functions as an interesting post-modern experiment, but is too polymorphous to be anything more than dance music. Girl Talk is often touted as the pinnacle of mash up music, but while the music adheres to the natural attention deficits seemingly inherent to the genre, it will not be able to overcome the stigma of being nothing more than a copyright lawsuit waiting to happen.
That being said, "All Day" displays not only surprising dynamic movement, but a smart and creative structure to it. If you're looking for something more interesting than the usual radio fodder to play at the next party, or simply want something to jam out to in your car to, Girl Talk will do the job all day and night.
(Sean M. Gates/The Chronicle)