[dubman]

the proper mash-up, containing two or three peices of music, is a limited process that holds up its value mainly in what it's doing but is sonically a novelty and consumer-oriented style of creation (not that there's anything wrong with that last phrase). hearing a lust for life/will smith clash is kind of thrilling at first, but once will smith gets into his second wind we become painfully aware that the creator merely put two and two together in a brief flash of great association, but imagination soon gave way to technique in an endeavour where the initial idea doesn't have the gas to last longer than that first minute or so.
i think girl talk takes that initial experience and augments it, gives it depth, by not only being oriented towards a culturally aware audience but directly engaging with it by moving at speeds that render many of its parts indecipherable, sometimes refusing a focused or deliberate style, forcing a majority of listeners to constantly feel a familiarity with what they're hearing without being able to place it (but also reaching checkpoints that are easily identifiable). in a sense this one-ups even sampling, since we now have the benefit of relevantrecontextualization, having source material for which we were around to for and know being mangled in this way. i think girl talk explicitly transcends being clever and connecting things by how its discordant nature connects nothing at all, but to me seems like a coherent and enthusiastic work.