Danger Mouse

Born July 29, 1977 DJ turned beatsmith, Brian Burton, was pretty much non-notable until in 2004 he attempted to release a mashup that would shake the entire music industry. “The White Album,” as the Beatles double album is often miscalled, “The Black Album,” Jay-Z’s third(?) studio album. While putting one away with the other one playing it struck him: “[he] decide to see if [he] could take those two albums and make one song, just because of the names of the two albums and because they're perceived as being so different.” Like a scientist stumbling upon a surreptitious discovery, he decided to test the idea with one track. So he fired up ACIDPro and, using only material from those two albums, started to mix Jay-Z and the Fab Four’s forced collaboration. Working two weeks straight in his basement studio, Danger Mouse emerged with “The Grey Album,” a perfect amalgamation of unlikely worlds. He had however, managed to break (or rewrite as some suggest) the rules of sampling in many ways. Traditional sampling would capture a musical phrase or drum loop lasting a certain number of bars. For “The Gray Album” Danger Mouse combed “The White Album” for Ringo’s individual drum hits where they could be isolated and would stitch together drumbeats one hit at a time. The same steps were repeated for every track on “The Gray Album.” The second rule of sampling Danger Mouse broke was failing to get permission to use any of the Beatles material. This blatant disregard for the status quo paved the way for sampling sensation Girl Talk.
Although his sampling propelled him into notoriety it is not a defining characteristic of his production. One common thread is a preference towards a darker sound, and influences from Italian film soundtracks of the 70's. He often enlists the help of Daniele Luppi to arrange Ennio Morconniesque string parts for tracks he produces. The work he did on Gorillaz album "Demon Days" shaped the direction and sound of the band in their latest release "Plastic Beach". In addition to his success producing large collaborations he also thrives in smaller producer+musician settings. With Cee-Lo Green he formed Gnarls Barkley, and with James Mercer became the duo Broken Bells. As a listener I love the "future-retro" sound of Danger Mouse's productions. The thick string sections combined with bouncing synth lines all settling below a sub-pop vocal draw me in to the song. Any Danger Mouse production makes for perfect driving music.

Sources:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1485693/grey-album-producer-explains-how-did-it.jhtml
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/magazine/18barkley.html