Gregg Gillis is the musical Dr. Frankenstein. That metaphor works even better than you first think – because not only is Gillis (better known as Girl Talk) an expert at lacing together sample-based dance tracks, he was also (until recently) a biomedical engineer by day. Gillis’ talent is in mashing up pop tracks into frenzied, unrelenting mixes and

making it all seem easy – and Feed The Animals is his most seamless monster yet.

 

So you get The Velvet Underground’s ‘Sunday Morning’ smashed up against the theme song from Dawson’s Creek (‘I Don’t Want to Wait’), Grandmaster Flash segueing into Avril Lavinge, and a couple of cheeky Cure references for good measure. It sounds awful on the page, but I bet that’s what they said about Frankenstein (and that turned out okay, didn’t

it?).

 

The samples come so thick and fast that it is impossible to keep up with everything on first listen, and you’ll find yourself nodding along to one riff you half remember before that kicks into another and then another – and

by then you’re knee deep in Ace of Bass and you need to pause to collect yourself. Gaps between the tracks are nonexistent, and Feed The Animals plays out like one big cascading mix, a jumble of solid rap and R&B from everyone from OutKast to (don’t run away when I say this) Soulja Boy lathered generously over the top of the

dance hall beats.

 

There’s no way the whole mess would work without Gillis’ peerless skill in smoothing it all out and making sure the arrangements rise above their initial novelty value, so that you’re not listening just to discordant chunks of pop slung together but actual compositions. Wait – did I just hear Cat Stevens? Awesome.