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After hearing the new album from mashup artist Gregg Gillis (aka Girl Talk), I was inspired to try my own bizarre mix of as many songs as possible.  While I have a huge passion for audio editing (and always enjoy finding creative ways of working music into anything I produce), I’m relatively inexperienced with dedicated mixing.  This seemed like a great opportunity to learn.

Note that this is purely a technical exercise; my first priority was to find out if I could actually do this.  As such, I ignored a couple of pretty major rules:

1) Don’t saturate your song. Girl Talk’s biggest strength is his restraint.  He picks every sample wisely, and will linger on a track as long as necessary.  Whereas I charged in with a very dense assault on the senses, just to learn what I could and couldn’t get away with.  Hopefully you’ll find it enjoyably chaotic rather than a complete mess.

2) Use well-known samples. 90% of the fun of listening to mash-ups is that rewarding moment of recognition.  You might find the first moment conspicuously lacking in these moments, as my first priority was simply to find songs that could successfully mesh together.  Hopefully the more accessible second half will redeem this.

With this first experiment out of my system, I’ll be more mindful with future mixes.  And there certainly will be more – this experience was so much fun that I have no choice but to continue.  From this point forward I’ll be using the not-at-all-pretentious stage name of Trop Blanc.  (It’s French for “too white” – a direct quote from my almost-wife that’s true on every feasible level.)

Here, god help us, is Technical Exercise Number One, complete with iTunes-friendly tags and album art.  Humour me.

Sample List
All are sampled briefly and purely for fun.  I will, however, respect the request of the original copyright owners if necessary.

James Brown – Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine

Billy Idol – White Wedding

Bon Jovi – You Give Love a Bad Name

Raymond Scott – Powerhouse

Lily Allen – Alfie

Tim Minchin – Ready For This

Aretha Franklin – Think

Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM

Daft Punk – Technologic

Glee Cast – Ice Ice Baby

Supergrass – Coffee in the Pot

The Cat Empire – Hello

Public Enemy – Bring the Noise

The Flaming Lips – The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song

Moby – Bodyrock

Justice – D.A.N.C.E.

Europe – The Final Countdown

Gorillaz – 19-2000

The Chemical Brothers – Hey Boy Hey Girl

The Beatles – Glass Onion

The Who – Won’t Get Fooled Again

Kaiser Chiefs – Spanish Metal

Muse – Knights of Cydonia

The Coral – 1000 Years

10CC – Une Nuit A Paris

The La’s – Calling All

Blur – Girls and Boys

Gorillaz – O Green World

Weezer – Buddy Holly

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit

The Beatles – Hey Bulldog

Sufjan Stevens – The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You’re Going to Have to Leave Now, or, ‘I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!’

The Polyphonic Spree – Section 2 (It’s the Sun)

AC/DC – It’s a Long Way to the Top

The Fratellis – Creepin’ Up the Backstairs

Cake – The Distance

The Backstreet Boys – Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)

Arctic Monkeys – The View from the Afternoon

Britney Spears – Toxic

Eagles of Death Metal – Miss Alissa

Tenacious D – Tribute

Green Day – Brain Stew

Fat Boys – Human Beat Box

Metallica – Fuel

Leonard Nimoy – Ballad of Bilbo Baggins

Limp Bizkit – Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)

Mort Stevens & His Orchestra – Hawaii Five-O

Beastie Boys – Ch-Check it Out

Spice Girls – Spice Up Your Life

Diana Ross – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

The B-52s – Love Shack

Franz Ferdinand – Do You Want To

Zack Hemsey – Mind Heist (Inception trailer music, based on the score by Hans Zimmer)

Bloodhound Gang – The Bad Touch

Basement Jaxx – Where’s Your Head At?

Spoon – Is Love Forever?

Propellerheads – Spybreak!

Allan Sherman – Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh! (A Letter from Camp)

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