Review Summary: I'm a creep (oh baby I like it raw) I'm a weirdo (oh baby i like it raaaaaaaaw)
Girl Talk is essential for the sampling world. With a modern music scene dominated by bedroom artists, creating bastardized songs stealing from the pop world that revolves around them, Girl Talk is the center-focus of the style. From his inspiring, open live shows to freely giving away his music, Girl Talk is undoubtedly the hero of plunderphonics in the mainstream. Greg Gillis started off under the moniker while studying biomedical engineering in college, creating his earliest mash-up projects, which involved heavily glitched and tortured samples of a clusterf
uck of hip-hop and pop songs. His first two official albums are forgetful, loose mixes that while involving way too much experimentation and awkward electronics, showed potential and much energy on Girl Talk's part.
Night Ripper was Gillis' breakthrough album, an epic DJ instrumental album that flowed with perfection, professional syncing of songs from genres so varied that it kept the listener in their seats wondering what Girl Talk could drop next.
Feed The Animals showed much progression, Girl Talk creating longer tracks that came off as self-sufficient songs.
All Day opens shining with character and personality, mixing Ludacris' chanting over the classic metal track "War Pigs". From there on, the first several tracks continue with the best flow heard yet from Girl Talk, tracks fading into each other in an elegantly musical format. It's immediately noticeable that on this new LP Gillis has brought out his best, successfully mixing his most complex techniques with his earlier, funner side. The very first few tracks contain more eye-opening samples combos than most of
Feed The Animals, creating his most interactive record in a while. Track after track Gillis keeps interest, from the highly melodic mix of Joey Ramone's signature vocals over a keyboard loop stolen from The Doors, to Girl Talk's most triumphant mix yet of ODB toasting over Radiohead. The production techniques further the improvement made on
Feed The Animals, including Gillis' most impressive, pitch-perfect use of vocal sampling as well as a peak of rhythmic syncopation, using endless sources for creating live and energetic percussion. However what keeps
All Day together is its flow akin to
Night Ripper, creating a solid mix, leaving the album meant to "be listened to as a whole" as Girl Talk said himself. Due to its length, the later tracks on the LP don't interest as much as the opening few, but its endless sampling of new-wave synths and small quirky moments leave the album with a lasting impression.
To complain about
All Day's similarity to previous Girl Talk albums or the lack of innovation is missing the point; Girl Talk's music is not about progression, but a celebration of style. The waits for his releases are always fun, wondering what he'll mix next and always throwing us off. Girl Talk is revolutionary in the sense that his music has no limits to objectification. Devout fans embrace themselves in the technicality of the samples, while simultaneously his music can be summed up by a youtube link sent to friends in awe. It may not be the most original or rewarding release of the year; however,
All Day is Girl Talk doing what he does best, at his funnest and most technically proficient.
