The mark of a truly great mashup artist is found not in the choice of songs they work with, but in their skill putting them together. The successful mashup should work in such a way that the listener can a) barely spot the join, and then b) begin to doubt the nature of any previous actual reality. We'll explain.
One of the masters of the format is the great DJ Cummerbund, whose latest adventure in sonic skulduggery finds Motley Crue's Dr Feelgood wedded to Was (Not Was)'s Walk The Dinosaur, with The Gap Band's legendary I Don't Believe You Want To Get Up And Dance (Oops Up Side Your Head) tossed into the mix.
Throw in snippets of Pantera's Walk, Soundgarden's Spoonman, a bit of Jeff Goldblum, the cast of the film Dinosaurs, plus "some jerks from Miami Vice", and the end result is Dr Dinosaur, a mashup that isn't so much the sum of its parts as it is something thrilling and danceable and possibly revolutionary and also entirely ridiculous. It all sounds like such a natural fit that we're having trouble remembering the originals without the new parts attached. See what we mean about reality?
"I'm playing God," says Cummerbund, "and I like it."
So do we, DJ. So do we.
Previous bootleg brilliance from the bafflingly talented Cummerbund includes Metallica vs Stevie Wonder, Rammstein vs Beyonce and Tool vs Justin Bieber, Old Staind Road featuring Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus, Staind, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Nirvana, Alice In Chains vs Katrina & The Waves, Rammstein vs Wild Cherry, Kiss vs B-52's, Eagles vs Dragonforce with bonus Beyonce, Zeppelin vs Greta Van Fleet, Metallica vs Earth, Wind & Fire, Ozzy Osbourne vs Earth Wind & Fire, the Foo Fighters vs funk king Rick James, Twisted Sister vs Blind Melon, and Rush vs R&B superstar Kelis.
