Fans of free music, copyright violation, four-on-the-floor dancing and mind-altering chemicals got a treat this morning when Girl Talk's brand new album All Day made its way onto the Internet. For those not in the know, Girl Talk (know to his mother as Gregg Gillis) is a dude from Pittsburgh who has made a career out of being the single greatest sampler in the history of electronic music. Through a handful of albums (most of which have been released himself and for free), Gillis has turned dance music, hip-hop and the mash-up genres on their collective head.
How does he do it? Using only a laptop and his boundless energy, Gillis mashes up artists you wouldn't normally associate with one another (the Notorious B.I.G. next to Journey, Metallica up against Hall & Oates and Method Man). Every song sounds like a hit because they're all nothing but already-familiar hooks. It's a foolproof method.
All Day expands on the promise he created with his 2008 album Feed the Animals, which further streamlined his skills as a producer. All Day still has a ton of huge high-profile samples (look for drop-ins from Black Sabbath, Jay-Z, Eminem, Jane's Addiction, Slick Rick, the Ramones, the Doors and Missy Elliott — and that's just the first track), but it melds much better with Gillis' original backbeats and juxtapositions.
Now that he has a new album, that hopefully means that Gillis will get back on the road. He's an incredibly dynamic live performer, and most of his shows usually end with the crowd on stage with him (they tend to be wet and/or covered in confetti as well). He even lends his energy to just kind of hanging around live music — witness his golf cart ride with MTV News' James Montgomery at Lollapalooza 2008.