DJ Z-Trip w/ Kid Cut Up, Glori and DJ Serkus

Mash-ups, those bastard children born of two or more non-consenting songs, are pop art at best, low art at worst, but genre pioneer DJ Z-Trip is one of the few artists to create mash-ups with appeal beyond mere novelty. Years before Danger Mouse or Girl Talk attempted similar blends, Z-Trip was pairing classic rock songs with punchy breakbeats, producing the trendsetting record Uneasy Listening Volume 1 in 2001. His best tracks are simply conceived and boldly uncluttered. A 2007 re-imagining of Nirvana’s “Lounge Act,” for instance, strips the song nearly naked to better emphasize Kurt Cobain’s emotive growl, which sounds particularly vicious against Z-Trip’s sparse, drum-clap beat.