Mochipet
Combat
(Violent Turd)
Mash is dead! Long live mash!
Although I swing back and forth between those two opinions, hearing this new release by Mochipet leads me to believe that there's still a bit of life in the old horse still (so I should refrain from kicking it for a little longer at least). Although he has released some decent original music under the name Mochipet, it's pretty evident by this quick release that digital tomfoolery with the songs of other people is what he excels at. Although there are a couple saggy spots, this release mostly hits the mark with both hilarious and well put together tracks that all have a common theme.
That common theme is that he has taken artists with at least one word in common and mashed songs together by them. Therefore, Barry White bumps up against The White Stripes and White Lion while Captain Beefheart flops against Captain And Tennille. Did I mention that this release is hilarious? After opening with a fun track that pulls bits from tons of songs and replaces key words with his own moniker (ie 2 Live Crew's "Hey Hey We Want Some Mochi," Rod Stewart's "If You Want My Mochi, And You Think I'm Mochi" and Queen's "We Will Mochi"). It's silly as can be, but things get started for real on the hyperspeed Wang Chung Vs. The Real Wang in which flaming guitar solos glint off the edges of "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" and the whole thing is run through a frenetic breakbeat hyperspace.
The late, great Johnny Cash is paired up with Cash Money Millionaires as country collides with hip hop (in a surprisingly well-done way) while the proggy Yes are cut up and turned into bubbly breakbeat quartets as speed metal riffs from NoMeansNo pump underneath. In another hilarious hip hop skewer, The Lyrical Giants are glued together with They Might Be Giants for a hilarious track that actually works. That's not the end of things, though, as one of the best tracks on the entire disc is Aphex Twin Vs. Thompson Twins. The 80s pop group gets put through the digital blender, ripping out the other end over Mr. Richard D James frenetic beats and some other splattercore programming from Mochipet himself.
As mentioned above, there are a couple tracks that don't work quite as well (the short Thundercats Vs. The Stray Cats is novel but not much else), but this is fun release that gave me a bit of hope in musical mashups again. 12 tracks fly by in only 35 minutes and make you wish there were a few more (how about Cream Vs. Korn or MC Hammer Vs. Nine Inch Nails in a future installment?). If you're not a fan of speedy breaks and don't mind hearing artists get skewered, this one's for you.
Rating: 7.25
