Girl Talk – Feed The Animals

Girl Talk is the work of former biomedical scientist turned mashup DJ Gregg Gillis. His fourth album, Feed The Animals features about 274 samples from popular Hip Hop, Rock and Pop tracks. Everyone is supposed to think mashup is annoying and rubbish but this is isn't. It's awesome.Some people seem really keen to make the not-particularly-inspiring point that Girl Talk is a 'product of what our culture has become', presumably pointing towards the way that each album spends about an hour flitting rapidly through an ocean of hooks, unapologetically throwing the concentrated highlights of hundreds of songs at the listener and interpreting that as an illustration of how the media (and hence the World) operates at large.They're right about one thing. Girl Talk is pure entertainment, shameless repeated gratification. If I was inclined to torture a gastronomy metaphor, I'd say that while some albums are like savouring a nice glass of wine, Feed The Animals is the equivalent of knocking back a cinema size bag of Skittles until you can't fit any more in your mouth and then shouting 'Fuccckyeaah!,' spraying coloured flecks of sugary spit everywhere. It might be idiotic, but deep down you know how pleasurable it is.Feed the Animals caters to the listener with the attention span of a toddler on speed, which suits me fine and apparently relates significantly to an aspect of popular culture. You know what? Life before the 1960's was probably boring as hell anyway. Feed The Animals is Soulwax, stuffed with e-numbers, spitting cheesy hip-hop lines, ripping guitar solos and climbing the walls, dancing on the bed like Christina Aguilera. Actually, that sounds horrific. I mean to say that it's really good.There might be a point that isn't quite being picked up with Girl Talk sometimes: and that's how firmly that tongue is shoved into Gillis' cheek. Obviously his work exudes an infectious wide-eyed adoration for hip-hop and pop music and it's key to the charm of the whole concept, but there's glimpses of a knowing personality creeping through that is consciously relishing the absurdity of the whole thing. It's the slightly cheeky choice of mixes (Nothing Compares 2 U and Blowjob Betty to name but one) that really sparkle, inviting the listener in on the joke, reminding us that it's all in the name of fun. And once you understand that, it's pretty impossible not to enjoy this record.For example, at 00:35 of track 3 'Still Here', when I heard Blackstreets' 'No Diggity' and Kanye West's 'Flashing Lights' come together with Radiohead's '15 Step' to create some sort of pop song super-mutant, I did that click and point thing that The Fonz does, but instead of 'Aaeeey' I said "Oh SHIT! Yeaaah!'. I reacted in a similar fashion to the Bohemian Rhapsody solo over ABC and Jay Z rapping over the riff from Paranoid Android.On and at 2:55 on track 5 'Set It Off' when Bubba Sparxx's 'Ms New Booty' runs into Dexy's Midnight Runners' 'Come on Eileen' I laughed, threw myself back into my chair and broke it. £29.99 please, TLOBF.For those moments when your fickle inner child wont let you decide what to listen to on your mp3 player, you need something as fun and indulgent as this. It's not out on physical release just yet but you can still download it from the Illegal Art website for a flexible price. It's the definition of a cheap thrill, and well worth a punt. 80%