Milkman delivers fresh mash-ups and music meshes

Music mash-ups have been around ever since The Beatles and The Rolling Stones began multitrack recording in the late 60s; as many as 12 songs were recorded at once and then were mixed together to create a more complex song.

Since then, mash-ups have become an Internet sensation through both acclaimed and amateur DJs mixing their own tracks.

From DJ Earworm, who takes Billboard’s Top 100 songs and mashes different segments of the songs to form a common theme, to Milkman, who creates mash-ups in the same manner but goes beyond Billboard songs, mash-ups aspire to fabricate a broader perspective of musical style than individual songs fused together.

Milkman is the stage alias of music producer Gregg Luskin from San Diego, Calif.

Luskin’s music encompasses a fusion of hip-hop, techno and rock. Only after he was introduced to glitch-pop DJ artists in college did he begin making his album Algorithms.

Glitch pop and hip-hop define this album. The two styles complement one another; prolonged pop songs are made more up-beat with hip-hop/rap instrumentals.

Milkman even makes Justin Bieber sound better by adding a Rockafeller Skank background to the pop artist’s whiny “One Time.”

Likewise, hip-hop songs are mixed with a dance/techno instrumental. Tupac’s hard rap becomes more fluid and pop-like with the Jackson 5’s “ABC” in the background. Luskin adds the “glitch” to the mash-ups, whether it is rap or pop, with techno and electronic synthesizers.

Another similar mash-up artist is The White Panda, comprised of Procrast (Tom Evans) and DJ Griffi (Dan Griffith). The two complement pop and hip-hop elements in their signature album The White Panda.

The difference is that they infuse dubstep, a type of electronic music with heavy bass, especially in songs like “Fire Dust.”

“Fire Dust” incorporates Lil Wayne’s “Fireman” with techno beats and not-so-hardcore dubstep. The White Panda is able to make generic rappers like Lil Wayne and Gucci Mane more tolerable with an alternative hip- hop instrumental.

Both mash-up artists are able to fuse polar musical perspectives to create a universal musical style. The great thing about mash-ups is getting to hear different songs you never thought would mix together sound so beautiful with one another.

Typically with poorly done mash-ups, the song sounds out of sync and, to say the least, destructive to each individual original song.

When you come across mash-ups that are in sync like Milkman and The White Panda, you will want to hear the others and discover each song’s complex composition in conjunction with its broad musical perspective.

There are certain songs that always make you feel good when you listen to them. When you take multiple songs you really like and merge them into one song cohesively, there is no contest as to whether the mash-up is better than each of the individual songs. The mash-up should go first on your playlist.