Without a doubt, one of the biggest acts to shake up modern music has been Girl Talk. Drastically reshaping the ways we listen to music given the shortened attention spans of general culture as well as their dependence on iTunes shuffle, Girl Talk and the increasingly popular trend of mash-up are changing the game for rappers, remixers, and electronic musicians.No longer are radio-trash pop songs relegated to the FM dial; by taking the acapella of any horrid rap or pop song and placing it over background music familiar to hipsters, indie elite, et cetera, these artists are given new life in the blogosphere and soon thereafter the greater music press. In this genre, the DJ is the true artist, not the musicians or songs sampled.
Quite simply, the art of mash-up is altering the way we digest music, introducing rap or electronic to those into indie or popular rock and vice versa, while at the same time feeding out attention deficit disorder.
However, this post isn't meant to be a dissection of mash-up or a debate of where it belongs within the musical landscape.
It's an introduction to one of the up-and-coming artists in the genre. Dare I say, the next Girl Talk? His name is E-603. He's released two albums so far that are as good as anything on Night Ripper and he's a twenty year old kid named Ethan Ward from New Hampshire.
His sound combinations are more fun, his transitions are incredibly smooth and succinct, and he samples from sources that are far more interesting than most of the background of Feed the Animals.
E-603's first album, 2008's Something for Everyone, functions best when digested all at once: as a supreme 38-minute mash-up mixtape of the some of the trashiest rap I grew up with in conjunction with choice samples of pop music from the late 90s and recent indie darlings.
Torn Up, which was released this June, is a far more advanced project. Extending his song lengths, letting samples play out with greater frequency, and toying with time signatures and tempo far more often, E-603's latest effort is an artistic achievement that meets or surpasses any other prominent mash-up work out there, from the now-legendary Girl Talk to the frustratingly mediocre Super Mash Bros.
Torn Up was available on his website, www.e-603.com, in the In Rainbows pay-what-you-want format alongside Something for Everyone, which you could download for free.
For some reason, hopefully not legally related, his website is down. Because of this unfortunate circumstance, I'm offering ZIP files of both albums if the sample MP3s below aren't enough to whet your appetite.
Right Click + Save Link As:
Crunk Colony - E-603
Hey Shorty - E-603
Still Riding - E-603
ZIP Files via Mediafire:
Something for Everyone ZIP
Torn Up ZIP
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