Animals: Fed

Girl Talk performed at Andrew's Lane Theatre last Friday and, despite their best efforts, Ticketmaster failed to prevent me from attending.

Girl Talk, Gregg Gillis to his mum, is an American musician who specialises in 'mashing up' other artists' tracks. Mash-ups, of course, are nothing new but Girl Talk's tracks could hardly be described as bog-standard bootlegs. Drawing elements from tracks by Hip-Hop, R'n'B, Chart, Indie and Dance acts (Christ, Sinead O' Connor even gets a look in), he combines hundreds of samples to produce monster mixes that are seamlessly constructed.

His most recent album 'Feed The Animals' was a favourite of bloggers' last year so it's likely you've encountered his music before. If not, click here for a sample.

However much you might enjoy his mixes, Girl Talk's music is even better appreciated in a live setting. Seconds after his performance on Friday night kicked off, swarms of enthusiastic punters invaded the stage. Gillis seems to expect, even encourage, this sort of behaviour and, over the course of his ninety minute set, he provided a barrage of unfathomably brilliant beats that gave even the stimulant-free in the audience no option but to big fish, little fish, cardboard box.

I suspect Girl Talk will make appearances at some of the big European festivals this summer (Electric Picnic perhaps??) If you happen to find yourself in his vicinity at any point, do yourself a favour and check out his set.

[Image: Seamus Walsh]