DV Info Net - The Grey Album

Danger Mouse used to live here in town a few years back; we used to work at the same record store and later on I would always make sure to cover his activities during my tenure at the local "alternative weekly." I think he does some great stuff; back in the day he used to put out "mix CDs" -- party discs which included rare and/or unreleased tracks from popular and up-and coming rappers, alongside his own remixes of both rap songs and popular music -- from Edie Brickell's "What I Am" to Hall & Oates' "Maneater" to the requisite "Tom's Diner" remix. He put out about 3 or 4 volumes of these mixes; they were just fun collections of music.

Some of his best stuff, though, was the work he did under the moniker "Pelican City" -- he put out at least two CDs under that name. These CDs showed that DM (nee Brian Burton) truly had some musical talent as he combined his production skills with his ability to play honest-to-goodness instruments and create instrumental landscapes.

For those of you who don't know (and I must admit that I'm as white as they come, and most of my music collection could be summed up as "white guys with guitars") in the rap world, the "producer" is usually the main music talent -- unlike, say, a rock producer like Butch Vig who might help cement the sound of a band, a rap producer will create the entire musical track for a rapper to rap over.

In my opinion, DM is not only one of best "indie" producers, he's also getting better by the moment. If you go to www.djdangermouse.com and download "The Only One" from his debut album with rapper Jemini, you'll hear his skill at creating what was one of the best rap tracks you probably never heard in 2003. It's fun and bouyant, and think what you will of Jemini's lyrics, but I love the line, "dip it in egg whites and bread it."

He worked with some people here in town, and was at the center of the scene, but I don't feel like he ever found a crew locally that could meet his talent. He eventually moved to England for awhile and now resides in LA, I believe.

All that said, I think the Grey Album is pretty interesting mix -- Encore, 99 Problems, and Dirt Off Your Shoulders are particular good meshings of the Black and White albums. I honestly think that he never imagined the weight that would become attached to his experiment. A lot of other DJs were making their own remixes of the Black Album, and I think DM was just flexing his creative muscles a little bit and having some fun. It's really no different than the fun he was having with those Hall & Oates songs back near the end of the 90s. I don't think he expected it to be dissected as an artistic statement or even critiqued for it's value. I haven't spoken to him in a couple of years, but I don't think he ever expected The Grey Album to be as widely discussed as it has become, and I'd imagine that he's pretty surprised, even if he doesn't admit it...