AWmusic

Everyone loves mashups. From The Grey Album to Girl Talk to DJ Earworm’s annual ‘United States of Pop’, we can always count on bootleg artists to provide a fresh take on popular music. The White Panda is the newest group to break onto the mashup scene, scoring top ten popularity on The Hype Machine for their mix of T.I. and Passion Pit, ‘What You Know About Little Secrets’. The group consists of Tom Evans and Dan Griffith, students at Northwestern and USC, respectively. A few weeks ago, the duo released their debut mixtape, Versus.

In the intro, a computerized voice introduces the mixtape and mentions the band’s website, then signs off by promising that “In the words of Lil Jon, ‘we gon’ all get real drunk tonight’.” It then dives headfirst into the aforementioned breakout mashup of T.I. and Passion Pit. The mixtape progresses fluidly over an hour, the majority of the songs transitioning smoothly into the next mix. It seems almost like a sampler of The White Panda’s talent, as none of the songs top three minutes. Indeed, the band has released full versions of some of the mashups since the release of the mixtape. If you took a kid with raging ADD and a great ear for music and put him in front of DJ equipment, he might churn out something like this mixtape. Danceable, fast-paced, bite-sized bootlegs dominate throughout the hour in a mixtape that’s sure to get the party started.

As with all mashup albums, there is a variety of success within the bootlegs. Some are immediately awesome, Like Katy Perry’s ‘Hot N Cold’ layered on top of Fat Joe’s ‘Make It Rain’ beat. Others didn’t strike me immediately, but after a week of continuous play in my car, they grew on me. ‘Throw Some Tik On That Tok’ a mix of Rich Boy and Ke$ha, was one of those. Though I initially felt like the vocals had been sped up too much for comfort, I eventually got over it. However, in an hour-long mix, some mashups aren’t going to work out. For example Putting Dr. Dre over Earth, Wind & Fire was bold, but not extremely successful.

For the most part, however, the mixtape is a consistent stream of quality mashups. Everyone’s going to have a different favorite, which means that almost all the songs will appeal to someone. Many of the mashups have arguably improved on the original song, and others have spurred me to revisit the original. Either way, the Versus mixtape has provided me with a new interpretation of different songs.

Note: These mp3′s are all mixtape-version mixes. Some of these are available as full mixes on the band’s website, along with the entire mixtape, all free for your enjoyment.

The White Panda – Hypnotic Echo
The White Panda – Bizarre Flirt
The White Panda – Hustlin’ Pirates
The White Panda – Hot N Cold Rain