MID-WINTER MASH-TERPIECES

Some excellent music industry-baiting audio collages have come sledding down the hill lately:

When you've got a French/polka/female-rap mashup from someone whose name means "DJ Disgusting" featuring accordions mixed with a song that translates to "dance of the shit," you know it's got to be good. And it is:

DJ Dégueulasse: "Danse Sur La La La Polka" (Prototypes "Danse sur la merde" avec Guy Broucher "La la la Polka")

I Cut People's latest album "The Inside Story" is 30 minutes of hysterical media cut-ups, somewhere between the outrageous humor of Wayne Butane and the morally righteous satire of Negativland. He claims that over 100 movies were sampled and I'd believe it. Great collage artwork and funny stories makes for an all-around handsome package.

I Cut People "The Latest Distractions"

I've raved before about Ireland's Phil Retrospector, and the release of "Introversion," a full length, er, retrospective of his mashups should convince any holdouts. There's a powerful emotional pull to these nearly beat-less meditations on melancholy, often injecting highbrow sources like Philip Glass and soundtrack musics into pop cheese, giving it unexpected depth.

Phil Retrospector "Bluebird Blackout" - Harry Dean Stanton reading Charles Bukowski, mixed with Muse and a bit of Bob Dylan.

The Kleptones have come straight outta the UK with another master- class on mash mixing, with "Uptime / Downtime," a flawless two-disc collection of free awesomeness - the first 76 minutes is a pumped-up party, the second set gets downtempo. It's all enough to make you wonder why people make such a big deal about Girl Talk...