Someone on facebook liked or added or friended or whatever this guy, which caused his bio to come up. Something about "Ample Mammal is quickly becoming the West Coast, more sophisticated version of Girl Talk" but uses primarily original materials - I have some suspicions, but ok, I'll bite.
Having heard the album, I call bull shit on that. Whoever wrote that thing has no idea what they're talking about. First of all, saying you're kind of like Girl Talk, but you use original material is like like saying you're like Jackson Pollock, but instead you create meticulously detailed landscape paintings. Let's run down the checklist:
- Leverages pop culture familiarity to create emotional impact? Nope.
- Combines the best hooks of rock with the rhythms and impact of hip hop? Nope.
- Expertly controls pace and flow on a record-long scale? Nope.
I don't see it.
Ok, what is this then? On paper I should like it. Squonky synths, high-energy synths, and chopped vocals are all hot points for me. Chopped vocals especially, but this guy does it so hackily, using the same basic accelerating chop / pitch bend trick over and over again. See Mouse on Mars' Actionist Response or Prefuse 73's Plastic for this trick done right, his variation on it just gets one note and annoying, sticking out like a sore thumb on nearly every track.
One last difference with Girl Talk illustrates the problem with this album. Girl Talk knows exactly what he's trying to achieve, and crafts his music to accomplish it. All his tricks and samples and structures are just means to the end of rocking bodies. This guy seems to think that the tricks are the point, slathering tracks with samples, IDM burbles, midi arpeggios, and chopping things up seemingly just for the sake of it. I'll keep an eye on this guy, maybe he'll settle down and decide what he wants to do, and he'll do it. For now, this is too amateur to spend time on when there's so much better, similar stuff out there 2.5/5
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