GIRLTALK at the Sydney Lanesway festival

So I went to see girltalk (http://www.myspace.com/girltalk) at Lanesway cos apparently he is the best  mash ups since well sliced bread.

I had listened to his stuff before I went – yer I liked it. But I think I liked it because it was all familiar. I think this is why people rave about him. He basically mashes together all your favourite songs.the more I think about it, he is a just an ipod.

I have since discovered that is part of the process that creates these easy listening dance tracks. After roaming through a couple of interviews with the man I found things like this When most people flip on Top 40 radio, they hear universal, catchy songs that are difficult to forget. When 24-four-year-old Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, listens to Top 40 radio, he enjoys them like anybody else at first. And then he filters the best of the bunch through his brain, searching for loops, phrases, and sounds that he can later combine into new sample-based compositions. (Ryan Dombal, 08.03.06, http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/37785-interview-girl-talk)

The shows have been great recently because I’ll play a plush dance club and then I’ll play someone’s living room for 40 people on a Saturday night and then I’ll play an art gallery. I’m blurring the lines as far as where this music is appropriate. (Girltalk in Ryan Dombal, 08.03.06, http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/37785-interview-girl-talk)

in reagrds to my last post about protocols and spaces or more to the point audicenes knowing how to interact with live sound – is it a success in all these spaces because the samples are familliar an d liked?

With a seamless flow that transcends the simple two-track mash-up, Girl Talk (aka Greg Gillis) weaves instrument or vocal tracks from several sources at once, but never stays on one idea long enough to get used to- or tired of- it. He mixes Jay-Z with Radiohead, Busta Rhymes with the Police, Outkast and The Jackson 5, Mary J. Blige with The Guess Who. And that covers about a minute and a half of one song. (10.08.2008, Johney Firecloud, http://www.antiquiet.com/interviews/2008/09/mixin-it-up-with-girl-talk/)never stays on one song long enough for you to get tired of it or used to it….we listen to his performances just as we listen to our ipods. Furthermore, when I saw him perform this was the extent of his interatcion with the audience. It was like a game where you had to work out what he was playing and then guna mix next and once you worked it out he moved onto another sample. 

Before he was popular he also speaks of the need to create spectcle to get listeners interest. In earlier days, like most lap top based mixers, he would everntually end up pretty must naked at the end of the gig. He also used a dance troop. Now he just grabs people from the audience to dance. Now this is expected at his performaces – that is, that memebers of the audience will be invited onto the stage to dace around him. The protocols have been established and the audience likes that – now we know how to perform at his performances.  

 What also interests me is the formulas involved in the construction of his tracks. It’s all very mathimatical – refer to the videoentitled “Girltalk creates a mash up”.