Before Girl Talk, before DJ Shadow, before Cut Chemist, before Coldcut, way back in 1983 a guy named Steinski, along with partner Double Dee, started making insanely hot cut-up mixes. With the audio editing skills Double Dee's picked up in the world of advertising, the two assembled immaculate hip-hop collages of familiar songs and beats. The whole thing got started for the sake of a contest, which they won of course, but continued on for a total of five mixes as as a duo, and Steinksi kept on with it and is still going strong, eventually moving digital and being embraced by all the aforementioned names and many more as a pioneer in the art of sampling and cut-up.
This Illegal Art retrospective is a 2-CD set featuring a first disc with 14 tracks of the original Steinksi and Double Dee mixes and Steinski solo tracks and a second disc with a long-form 28-track mix for the BBC called Nothing To Fear. The original tracks are amazing and are like listening to Girl Talk circa 1983. Lots of classic songs and instrument juxtapositions. Later on the tracks get a bit more conceptual at times, like great tributes to the Kennedy assasination and the September 11, 2001 attacks.
If you love classic old school hip hop you'll love hearing the old songs in these crazy mixes. And if you're a fan of cut-up, collage and DJ stuff this is like mixing 101. Really choice stuff. Awesome!
