I thought I hated mashups. Even the especially good ones only seem worth listening to a couple of times. There's a novelty factor to these that is interesting for a short period but often an exercise in gimmickery or mad DJ skillz. And that's cool, I mean, it's important; having a sense of humour and cheekily reworking music from the past and present. It's just that it's rare that one actually works as well as it should. The Grey Album was stupid. Did anyone else not like this? actually, probably lots considering the foreseeable audacity of appropriating The Beatles into a rap context. Maybe I'm just not a fan of Dangermouse, stylistically, even if the two musicians being mashed are terrific.
Anyway, a while ago here on RQ I was directed to a mysterious remixer by the name of ABX who combined Black Rob and Panda Bear to ridiculously good effect. If the point of a remix is to make a song new (putting yr own spin on it) or to further the original ideas into something better then putting two artists side by side would have similar reasons and effects. M.I.A. vs New Order is amazing, shiver-sending, mostly because both of the two songs are already amazing and the peaks and climaxes of each ride over top of eachother and double up. I want to learn how to mash things, too.
Like the other ABX Panda Bear/Black Rob, 'Blue M.I.A. Day' is from The Hood Internet. Elsewhere on this site is GZA vs Sonic Youth, Clipse vs Catpower, Edan vs Stereolab and M83 vs Rhianna (fuck yes!). I guess there could be a novelty factor to a lot of these combinations but the main concern is on good songs turning into even better songs.
Also, 'Blue Monday' has been remixed and fucked up in a variety of ways over the years.
