Too many cuts spoil the, er, broth

Girl Talk, despite sounding like one of those magazines full of stickers and posters and girls worrying about being pregnant because they kissed Stuart Dobson during a full moon, is actually the name of Greg Gillis’ sampletastic hip hop/rock patchwork project.

His ‘new’ (it’s actually two years old) album, called ‘Night Ripper’, is made up of over 300 samples, ranging from popular-with-Americans indie (The Verve) to classic slacker rock (Weezer) to obscure tracks of yesteryear, all served over a bubbling bed of hip hop, dance, R&B and pop.

This sounds like the basis for The Best Thing Ever, particularly if you’re a fan of the sort of cut-happy ADHD madness served up by the likes of Pirate Soundsystem et al. However, Gillis’ execution doesn’t quite do justice to the idea, and things often fall a little flat.

Perhaps with fewer samples, and more thought given to their overall synergy, ‘Night Ripper’ would have been a much better album. It’s not without it’s moments - there a clutch of audaciously exciting and/or humour-filled moments - but you wouldn’t buy a vomit-coloured duvet because someone had attached some sequins to it, would you?

Ultimately, the whole thing sounds considerably less than the sum of its parts, and more like someone flicking through the radio stations too quickly on Grand Theft Auto than a groundbreaking sample album.

.