I love your post pseudonym. Clever.

I am very familiar with Kid606 and early Girl Talk. The title of the article is actually an allusion to Miguel’s remix of a Rapture song.

Are you familiar with the literary theory of anxiety of influence? It basically boils done to the idea that a true genius must over come the specter of artistic predecessors.

Milton set out to write the greatest poem in the English language, but how to throw off the weight of Shakespeare? Write the poem in the one style that Shakespeare neglected–the epic. And Paradise Lost was a “drama of the mind,” so they say, a play that could not conceivably be staged.

Early Girl Talk sounds so much like a Kid606 wannabe. Gregg could never truly succeed in that style, because he would have to one up 606 technically. He just didn’t have the chops to match 606, a man so diverse in the styles he can pull off–glitch, techno, gabber, ragga, ambient–as a producer.

Instead, to escape his influence Girl Talk turned to the one area neglected by 606–selling out.

I recently spoke to a former Tigerbeat6 artist, who also happens to be on the Illegal Art (Girl Talk’s label) catalog. He said he can’t release on Illegal Art anymore, as they have changed their format to more mainstream/pop friendly material. This is a direct result of Girl Talk’s success. Not very experimental, but probably a better business model.

BTW, if you are into Illegal Art, and mash-ups, then check out Steinski’s “What does it all mean?” Artistically it smashes Girl Talk into as many samples as he uses.

On a previous encounter with one half of an extremely forward thinking American electronic music group, the said individual had no idea who Girl Talk was. If you’re gonna claim an underground experimental electronic Bay-area pedigree, this man should at least be aware of your existence.

As for the Loyola bit. Yea…it’s flimsy. It can’t come up aces all the time, but I think my point it valid.

If I am to believe Girl Talks own words (said in the Aural States interview), he doesn’t do the mixes in real time. The samples are aggregated ahead of time into clusters, and he simply transitions between them.

You have a point about the party aspect of Girl Talk. He drives the kids wild. If I knew the how and why of this feat, I’d replicate it for myself. Like I said, I’m awed by the response to the party, but not the artistry.

Girl Talk is extremely successful operating inside his niche. It just so happens his work amounts to parlor tricks rather than the grand oeuvre worthy of the artist he name drops.

I was one of those 24 people at the Sincronicity tour as well and was pleasantly supprised with the tempo and styles. The lower tempo allowed us to get in deep and stay there for a good duration. I even heard a track from one of the first Rave Till Dawn comp. CD’s I bought way back when I was just discovering electronic.(‘93 maybe?) I would normally be embarrased to wip out this track but when Mox Mull played this record, and dug in deep, it took me way back and put the biggest smile on my face. How did he wipe all the cheeze from that record? And to follow it with an equaly cheezy D-Lite record (What is Love?)of the same ear? All the cheeze was in my grin. What a fabulous night that was. I had to leave way too early though so thank you for the follow up.
It’s funny. When I walked into the Windup Space and saw the drum kit on the wall under a painting I thought it was part of the exhibit untill someone dragged it all out onto the floor.

Really dug the theme in this post: “How does one make genuine Pop coming from an underground mentality, but without irony?” Very good question. This was a good read. Thanx.