Milkman

"I wish the milk man would deliver my milk, in the morning"

Rather than reviewing an album, I'm going to review an up and coming artist.  Gregg Luskin, aka Milkman, is a glitch-pop remix artist (in laymen's terms, a mash-up artist) from San Diego, CA rocking a tight Jew fro.  His first album "Lactose and THC" was released on January 22, 2008 and he released his second album, "Circle of Fifths," on March 29, 2009.  

Milkman was originally introduced to me by a friend of mine and I really like his creativity and the variety of samples he uses.  He uses samples of artists ranging from Journey, Tiesto, Beck, Jay-Z, No Doubt, Eminem, Outkast, Lupe Fiasco, Britney Spears, Daft Punk, and Missy Elliot among several others.  What I want to do is compare his two albums and talk a bit about what he does and where he's going.  So, here goes:

"Lactose and THC"

Although this was his first album, I listened to this one after I listened to "Circle of Fifths" which was bit of a mistake.  While "Lactose and THC" has received some high praise, being called the second best mash-up album of all time by DJ Forum, it is extremely rough.  The first song "All About It" didn't exactly set a good tone for me to want to listen to the rest of the album.  I actually could not listen to the song all the way through and had to skip it because it was just too much.  It is quite possibly the worst, most obnoxious mash-up I have ever heard in my life.  It wasn't bad up until about three minutes in where Milkman decides its a good idea to include a siren... a sire that will not stop.  The siren is mixed in with some sort of bass beat, with "Call on me" being repeated in the background incessantly.  On top of that, he adds Pitbull's "Go Girl" and later Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback" followed by 50 Cent's "Candy Shop."  That's upwards of four different things going on at one time.  Not to mention that the only part of "Sexyback" that is played is "I'm bring sexy back (Yeah!)" and the only part of "Candy Shop" that is sampled is "I let you lick the lollipop/ Keep going til you hit the spot (Woah!)," each of which is repeated over and over and over and over.  I'm listening to it as I write and am trying to write faster so I can skip the damn song. 

Another problem is that Milkman not only reuses samples from his first album in his second album (such as "Ms. New Booty" by Bubba Sparxxx and "Bring 'Em Out" by T.I.), but he reuses samples within the album.  There's more than enough material out there for him to do sample something else, not to mention that his mass amount of creativity shouldn't lead him to reuse old materials, no matter how much he likes them.  Milkman also tends to ruin certain moods he sets up.  In "Dreams" he sets up a very laid back sort of gangsta lean song using samples from The Ying Yang Twins, Hot Chocolate (totally gangsta), and Lil Wayne.  This attitude is only to later be ruined by the back beat to Daft Punk's "Digital Love."  Don't get me wrong, that's a great song, but its more of a light hearted, lovey-dovey beat which does not work with what Milkman set up in the first half of the song.  Also, last thing, in "Light It Up" he alters Jay-Z's voice to be higher in his sample of "Dirt Off Your Shoulders," which is a little irksome.  

"Circle of Fifths"

This album is significantly more successful than his first.  There are very few awkward mash-ups and Milkman has really learned how to set up a mood and keep it.  Even if he does decide to change the sound of a song later on, its a subtle transition, nothing awkward.  It seems as though he's really figured out what goes together and what doesn't.  This isn't as much genre matching as you would think, seeing as how he mixes Snoop Dogg and Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's cover of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and it works incredibly well, but also matching rhythm and musical count.  Certain songs have the same rhythmic count and others don't (musicians will know what I'm talking about); trying to put a song that is in 6/8 and one that is in 4/4 together doesn't work out as well as putting two 4/4's together. 

His two most successful tracks have to be "Good Sex" and "Rap Is Beneath Me."  Each has its own sort of attitude that it keeps throughout the song.  Its incredible how in "Good Sex" he combines the Ying Yang Twins rap from "Get Low" over Maroon 5's piano line from "This Love."  You would never think they would work, but they create an amazing sound.  Now, not every track on here is incredible, there are definitely songs I tuned out for, but the two aforementioned songs definitely have that WOW factor.  Its a lot of fun to be able to pick something like Maroon 5 out of a song or No Doubt; stuff like that really shows how various his samples are across "Circle of Fifths."  Milkman does, however, lose points in reusing "Ms. New Booty" and "Bring 'Em Out" in this new album.  Unfortunately, those are only the two I can recall off the top of my head, as far as I know, he reuses somewhere in between five and eight samples from his first album.

Overall, Milkman has a lot of potential, but he really needs to smooth out his rough edges.  He needs to bring new material to the table especially when he is working within an album.  As far as I'm concerned, and maybe I'm being a little harsh, using a sample two or three times within the same album is a big cop-out.  It makes me think that Milkman is lazy and really didn't want to look for a sound that could fill that certain gap.  He still has some mash-ups that really do not work, but he has gotten better about his layering, keeping his songs to about three samples at a time and rarely more than that.  I would definitely give him a listen though and definitely download "Lactose and THC" if you're interested seeing as how its FREE off of his website.  If you want to take a listen to either album, you can check them out at his website as well.

"Lactose and THC": 56/100

"Circle Of Fifths": 78/100