2007年 Sep 22日 Saturday, 9:37

Opinions vary as to the artistic validity of mash-ups, those hybrid tunes where two or more apparently unrelated tracks are jammed together to create something at once comfortingly familiar and bracingly novel. Personally speaking, they rock my socks. The first time I listened to As Heard on Radio Soulwax, Pt. 2 by 2 Many DJ's I actually laughed aloud with glee. This is what pop is supposed to sound like: witty and clever without being chin-stroking, and danceable as all get out.

One of the most successful practitioners of the art is Mark Vidler, a DJ from Watford who produces mash-ups under the name of Go Home Productions. Or rather, he used to: Vidler recently decided to bow out from bootlegging. As a parting gift, however, he has made his entire output from the last five years available for free from the Go Home Productions website. This is a whole alternative pop universe for us to download and excitedly run around in.

To be honest, some of the clunkier mixes probably sounded better in the conception than in the execution: Work It Out With a Foxy Lady is especially clumsy. But they are never less than interesting, and the best of them have me beaming like a simpleton at the sheer audacity of Vidler's musical imagination.

I can particularly recommend Abba & The Bunnymen, wherein the swirly disco-pop of Voulez Vous grabs The Killing Moon by the lapels of its raincoat and french kisses it into submission, and Velvet Sugar, which marriesThe Velvet Underground's dark cynicism with The Archies' cartoon sunniness to winning effect.

You can get it all from here: http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk
Go fill yer boots.