V the Viper’s latest release, Rip Van Winkle, is a Buffalo treasure. I took a chance while browsing bandcamp’s latest releases and was immediately hooked after stumbling onto V’s page. I initially thought the release was Girl Talk’s new album, either as an alternate name or someone wanting to share it for free, but upon listening to it, I realized that this was it’s own entity.
In this close to an hour masterpiece (yeah, I said that), Viper proves that he is on par with the very best mash-up artists in the game. There are multiple reasons why Rip Van Winkle stands out. First, the one hour mix reads like a story, with the audio only as support to the tale of Rip Van Winkle’s friends -- V the Viper, his ex-wife and a time machine. Although the story is confusing and I can’t really wrap my head around the connection with the audio, the one hour mishmash of songs stands for itself. This mix contains spliced up indie favorites like Bright Eyes or Owen, to 90’s favorites from Cher, Shaggy, Ja Rule and J-Lo, with contemporary hits from Icona Pop/Daft Punk and even something for Mom and Dad with some splices from The Beatles sprinkled in there.
Another tidbit I found interesting was the last track’s (“Games High”) final fifteen seconds flow seamlessly into the beginning of “High Five,” the first track. Not only does the album loop itself, but the individual songs seamlessly transition into itself or the next track. It’s sort of like a choose your own adventure Goosebumps novel. V compares this transition to a snake eating itself. All six of the tracks are around ten minutes long and each track name’s first word shares the second word of the previous song title. It took me four listens to figure this out. “High Five” into “Five White,” into “White Girls” followed by “Girls Parlor,” with “Parlor Games,” and “Games High” carrying the back end of the release.
V the Viper is a skilled listener and producer with a wide range of influences. It takes talent to recognize song potentials and turn two separate pieces of work into a combined piece of art, which has what V has created.
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