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Night Ripper

by

Girl Talk

 
Night Ripper
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Average: 4.0 (158 ratings)

The most bonkers mash-up album ever

  • We Say...

    Review by Michaelangelo Matos

    Most of the time, blend-mixes, beat collages, mash-ups or whatever they're being called this year are made more or less straightforwardly: Lay the vocals of one song over the music of another — an A-B mix, as it's sometimes called — and bang, instant culture-clash. Slightly rarer are mixmasters who array a whole bunch of snippets in rapid succession not to disjunctive effect but to build a groove. That's where Greg Gillis, a.k.a. Girl Talk, comes in. On Night Ripper, his third album of plundered sonics, Gillis makes off with pretty much every corner of the Top 40 from the past three decades, with special emphasis on recent stuff, as when he mixes M.I.A.'s "Galang" with Amerie's "1 Thing" on "Summer Smoke" or drops Lady Sovereign atop Nikka Costa's funkiest track on "Friday Night." And if you get sick of any of it, just wait about ten seconds, because Gillis seems to have designed his tracks for maximum ADD-addled enjoyment. But his cuts-and-pastes are crafted so meticulously that they move even after you've gotten past the initial shock value of a cut like "Bounce That" (Annie meet Fergie — and say hello to your cousins in Kansas). Gimmicky? Sure. Fun? Hoo-boy, yes.

  • They Say...

    Review by Marisa Brown, All Music Guide

    Gregg Gillis has been cutting up and gluing bits and pieces of songs together as a DJ in Pittsburgh since his 2002 debut, Secret Diary, an album that, though a lot of easily identifiable samples (the Price Is Right theme, for example) were used, was so delayed and skipped and glitched that it was too obfuscated to do much in the mainstream. Such is not the case with Night Ripper, however, which, thanks to Gillis's ability to draw from a myriad of musical sources (the names of the artists used, though not their songs, are listed in alphabetical order inside the liner notes, and in fact make up the entirety of the liner notes), can appeal to anyone who's heard the radio (particularly rap radio) in the past few years. Because of the recognizability of the pieces used, Night Ripper is a good tool for showing listeners unfamiliar with the art of sampling what a talented DJ can actually do; Gillis' favorite trick on the album is to play a long vocal track, preferably something from the Ying Yang Twins or Ludacris, over rock (be it classic, indie, or grunge) beats, which he speeds up or slows down as necessary. It's pretty impressive, and at first listen, it's pretty fun. On the opener, "Once Again," Luda's "Pimpin' All Over the World" moves into the Twins' "Wait (The Whisper Song)" over the Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony," which then turns into Slim Thug's "I Ain't Heard of That" plus the acoustic guitar of Oasis's "Wonderwall," all of which ends with the Five Stairsteps' oft-sampled "O-o-h Child." Actually, "ends" is not really the right term, as the whole album works as one piece, the track titles only serving to help those more song-inclined not feel as if they are in foreign electronica territory, with its 50-minute sides and incomprehensible blips and bleeps. The thing is, this openness to pop culture, while it may increase and amuse his audience, also serves to make the album a fleeting affair. How many times do you really want to hear Fleetwood Mac's "Little Lies" trade off with the 69 Boyz's "Tootsie Roll?" Or Sophie B. Hawkins mix with Panjabi MC and Better Than Ezra while the Game's vocals from "Hate It or Love It" play over? The very thing that makes Night Ripper entertaining, its basis on current hits and long pop-song breaks, is also the thing that kills it, that makes it lose its appeal after a few spins; good for one party, one car trip, one afternoon at the beach, and that's all. Which isn't to say, however, that that one hour can't be a whole lot of fun.

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