Fusing together samples, breakbeats, electro noise, hip hop, and techno core, Mash Up Soundsystem smashes the rules to bits and tramples them to dust.

“A Great Escape From Lunacy” could also have been written with a question mark at the end of the title. Offering an alternative lunacy to the one in which we live, Mash Up Soundsystem constructs a tower out of remnants from a Dadaist collage and stainless steel rejects from a modern architectural project. Intelligent and humorous, the music never fails to entertain.

“The copier broke down, but tonight you‘re a star“, are lyrics lifted from “Everybody Dance!” which kind of gives you an idea as to what you are in for. There are so many great tracks, such as “Plastic Bag”, “Sourpuss Suicide”, the brutal ”Domestic Violence”, the Capitol Hill party circuit song “Cocaine”, and the follow-up track “The Fast Lane”. There’s even a little Big Brother ambience on “Mikolaj”, thrown in, as a totalitarian voice repeatedly urges you to “Control Yourself”.

Mostly, what you have here is a full-scale onslaught of beats and noise and blender ethics, done supremely well, and culminating on the final track “Like Dynamite”. Not for the squeamish.

9 / 10

      Michael Casano - Virus Magazine

An antagonistic collective of noise anarchists, Mash Up Soundsystem has been leaving their mark on speaker systems and house parties with a series of 12" records. A Great Escape From Lunacy, their first CD, collects the best mind bombs from the underground vinyl in addition to some new noise grenades to toss onto your dance floor. The contributors -- aliases that further the collective's obscurative Singularity -- are Concrete Cookie, the Dog, Depth Error, the Maggot Farmer, Jism, Retrigger and Incredibad. Additionally, some tracks are collaborative efforts. This confusion is so you don't know who to blame when you slam dance your way into a body cast or head trauma.

Skewed vocal samples, blistering beats, acid trip hip-hop, noise-core filled with the sizzling percussion of bacon grease and ADD-fueled cut-ups are the styles of the day for Mash Up Soundsystem and these 23 tracks certainly play the field as they mangle and distort electronics. You'll get thirty seconds of vaguely sex-kitten moans (Jism's "Promenade") or a Merzbow-ian wash of noise for a little over a minute (Jism's "The World Pt2") before galloping off into chaotic splinter beat territory for four minutes with the Dog and Concrete Cookie stomper, "Reload." Retrigger, from Brazil, clevers sends up California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger by layering some of his cringe-worthy dialogue from a Rio travelogue video over a waterfall of electronics; while in "Tmnt vs The Sunset Riders," he captures a video-stream collision between animated turtles and sepia-toned westerns.

The Maggot Farmer's "Sourpuss Suicide" is a beat poet's febrile nightmare set to a stomping industrial Iszoloscope-style beat; while his "Domestic Violence" burns through the house like a techno party lit by flaming tribal torches. Concrete Cookie offers squelchy IDM punctuated by bubbling synths and tinny percussion ("Northern Lights") and rollicking street-party dance rhythms ("City Boy") filled with crowd noises and Rastafarian MCs hurling verses through decrepit megaphones. Depth Error's drum 'n' bass ("The Seeker") is charged with electrical current, guttering wires that make echoing sparks run across tautly programmed beats while "Please Reflect" groans with undercurrents of flexed rhythms, melody bending that lends menace to the caustic beats.

The organization of A Great Escape From Lunacy keeps the listener off-guard. You roll from the hard mechanical beats of "Please Reflect" to the more tribal rhythms of Concrete Cookie's "Shut Up! [PMF]" to the groaning, mumbling ambience of Jism's "Mikolaj." Expectations are meant to be destroyed, much like all preconceptions of music. Mash Up Soundsystem's guerilla assault will leave you dazed and confused, often within the same song. Heads wrecked. Mission accomplished.

      Mark Teppo - Igloo Magazine

Mashup Soundsystem is a genre defying collective of electronic noisecore activists from Southern California. After releasing several 12" singles in the UK they release their debut full-length album for US label Hive Records. Having worked with acts such as Doormouse and Duranduranduran, Mashup Soundsystem call on services of Concrete Cookie, The Maggot Farmer, Incredibad, The Dog, Jism, Depth Error and Retrigger to lend a hand with their debut.

Uncompromising from the start, Mashup Soundsystem hit with a barrage of high octane beats from the outset and keep up the onslaught at a relentless pace. Slipping in selected samples as required, their music is indefinable. Bringing in elements of breakcore, noise, hard techno and hip-hop (amongst others) their music doesn't fit into one specific genre but draws from several others. From time to time things do slow down a little, like on the slow bassy grind of 'Pablo Steals', but it isn't long before they wind the beat back up to breakneck speeds. Nothing is sacred where these guys are concerned, samples are twisted and manipulated, electronics fractured and deconstructed with a BPM level that can be off the scale it is so intense and fast paced. They aren‚t without their fair share of humour too, albeit in an equally subversive and twisted manner. Which, quite honestly, can only be a good thing right? Another slightly slower interlude comes in the form of 'Mete Bronca No couro do Cabrito' which is basically a Latin glitch deconstruction followed by the hip-hop bastardisation of 'Everybody Dance!'. Then we have the breakcore madness of 'Please Reflect!' and the grinding drone and then cinematic tension of 'Mikolaj'. It's almost impossible to know what these guys are going to do next; such is the diversity of the music from track to track. Take 'Northern Lights' for example; a smooth electronic track with rapid fire beats and an assortment of TV samples including Homer Simpson. Then there is the totally addictive 'Cocaine' (pun intended) which is a hip-hop track with joyous breaks which is followed by the destroyed hip-hop of 'The Fast Lane'.

"A Great Escape from Lunacy" is insane, humorous and diverse. The sometimes relentless onslaught of breaks may be too much for some but for those that stick with it this album is a rewarding listen. Worth listening to for the crazy but brilliant 'Cocaine' alone.

      PRL - Aural Pressure

Mash Up Soundsystem's full-length debut mixes slaughterhouse electronix by underground beat wreckers like Concrete Cookie, Depth Error, and Maggot Farmer into a mutant hour-long set of techno-hip hop-breakcore ferocity. Strap yourself down for the chainsaw beats of “Reload,” the decimating roar of “Plastic Bag,” and twenty-one other tracks of noise-punk madness, ghoulish voices, and throbbing breaks.

Retrigger contributes warped Mexican glitch (“Mete Bronco No couro do Cabrito”) and arcade collage insanity (“TMNT vs the Sunset Riders”) but, based on the evidence of industrial dance burners like “Shut Up [PMF]” and jittery electro-pop like “Northern Lights,” it's Concrete Cookie's star that burns brightest. Though the proudly over-the-top and brazenly politically incorrect (“Cocaine”) mix careens over the cliff in “Everybody Dance!” the album's nadir arrives with Maggot Farmer's merciless grinder “Domestic Violence,” its screeching howl about as calming as its title suggests. A Great Escape From Lunacy? More like an immolating plunge into it.

      Textura . org

The opening sample on this album asks "what's there to smile about?" Well, if you apply that question to this album then the answer would be "plenty"...

M.U.S.S (for abbreviations sake) are a collective of artists out of L.A who dabble in a variety of electronic styles and as a result are impossible to pigeonhole yet I think it can definitely be agreed that this collection of both old and new tracks is most definitely "drinking music".

The album spans twenty three tracks, this may sound excessive but considering most of the tracks barely exceed the two minute barrier it's far from overkill and give M.U.S.S plenty of space in which to experiment with styles from hip-hop to rhythmic noise, gabba to ragga and industrial soundscapes to breakcore. In fact that is nary a subgenre that remains impervious to the M.U.S.S treatment. The album tracks run into each other seamlessly and their short length means that (in this age of short attention spans) the listener does not have a chance to get bored at all.

Particular tracks of note are the MC-led "Everybody Dance" (previewed on Hive Records "FUCK" compilation), "Fast Lane" and ode to the party drug, "Cocaine". Power Noise luminaries are given a run for their money with "Domestic Violence" and M.U.S.S prove they are at the best when doing something a little different from the norm with the wacky "Mete Bronca No Couro Do Cabrito" and "TMNT Vs The Sunset Riders".

My only real criticisms of this album is that it is sometimes lacking in direction which was always going to be a slight problem given the variation on display and that the stand out tracks by far are the ones that incorporate MCing into the mix. Given that there are only three tracks like this I think it could be something for M.U.S.S to exploit more next time around.

8 / 10

      Rivetmike - Connexion Bizarre

Mash Up Soundsystem, a politically conscious collective around a.o. the Dog, Concrete Cookie and the Maggot Farmer, has made quite some name with a series of 12 inches on their own label Mash Up Records. They mix industrial noise, hard techno, idm, hiphop, gabber, breakcore and more styles and with this are comparable with DuranDuranDuran and Doormouse.

This cd is a compilation of their best tracks taken from the previously mentioned 12 inch releases and complemented with new tracks and tracks that have been released on the Fuck compilation of Hive, and i can assure you that this record is a total sonic mindfuck. Great broken beats, ambientgabber, hardcore idm, breaks, punknoise and clashing electronics. It doesn’t matter, since it is all techno!

The tracklist counts as much as 23 tracks. Contributions from Concrete Cookie, the Dog, Depth Error, the Maggot Famrer, Jism, Retrigger [Brazil], Incredibad and more. This cd is limited to 1000 copies and available via Hive records in the USA.

      TekNoir - Gothtronic

"A Great Escape From Lunacy" happens to be my first experience with Mash Up Soundsystem and I'm sure will leave a long lasting impression. From the beginning of the album to about "Sourpuss Suicide" you get aurally pulverizing hardcore Noise. This of course being the kind of Noise you can't help but want more of. Uniquely layered and relentlessly eclectic in character. With "Everybody Dance" the album begins to pick up and unleashes Mash Up's pop sensibilities. Soon you realize why they sport the term "mash up." Breakcore, Drum and Bass, Ragga, Industrialized Hip-Hop (see "Cocaine" and "Fast Lane") and hardcore tracks remain through out.

I really like how loopy they let their drums go, which I'm sure makes it impossible for people to refrain from dancing in the club, bedroom, rooftops, or Uranus.

8 / 10

      Justin Mathew Mooney - Re:Automation Webzine

Freeform electro mayhem that goes from zero to drill-press in under a second.

The promo materials included with this CD shone no light whatsoever on what exactly this is, but Hive — a Jersey label specializing in promoting modern noise conundrums ranging from Tricky-on-downers melancholia (Leaf) to droid-romance navel-gaze albums (Pneumatic Detach) decked out with jewel case inserts starring pleasant motifs of no-kiddin-around cow hearts laying in all their bletchfulness on white tables — was eager to explain. It’s a collaborative effort of producers/artists from Mash Up Records, you see, a brand name that would lead the culturally ambivalent to believe they’d be hearing things like Russell Crowe’s Gladiator lines turned into vocal tracks over “ABC” by The Jacksons, but instead it’s a buffet of experimental laptop-noise Morse codes, post-hip-hop and inescapably trance-danceable hard techno. Includes contributions from Incredibad (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Shaffer from Saturday Night Live), who tag-team with Concrete Cookie for three rounds of MC Hammer-like spazz-rap.

      Eric Saeger - Hippo Press (NH)

Mash-Up Sound System are simply brutal. The US collective, who lurk behind names like Depth Error and Jism, have ravaged industrial dancefloors with their 12”s and ‘A great escape from the lunacy’ brings together their brightest moments as a relentless barrage of physicality. It moves from IDM to Industrial, relentless and abusive dance to blurred walls of distortion, and while it devolves somewhat at the conclusion with old-school rave jams ‘Tiburcio’ and ‘Like Dynamite’, otherwise ‘A great escape from the Lunacy’ is a pure headfuck of an album. You can go crash your car. Go engineer a trainweck. Go collapse a skyskraper. But your wrecking ball will never be as big as that wielded by the Mash-Up crew.

8 / 10

      Alex Whitehead - Rocksound Magazine (UK)

Mash-ups are more or less a novelty, with too-clever-by-half DJs doing parlor tricks by mixing Madonna and Depeche Mode together in a recipe that becomes even more boring than the sum of its parts. This has little to do with LA's Mash Up Soundsystem, a collective of DJs, producers, and party promoters that takes this concept beyond the realm of musical tomfoolery into sheer surrealism. Instead of mixing bland pop songs together, a Mash Up Soundsystem track might consist of arcade game clips in point/counterpoint, as on Retrigger's "TMNT vs. The Sunset Riders," or cut-up speech from an old Arnold Schwarzenegger appearance (extolling his "favorite body part: the ass") with distorted beats and tropical organs on "Mete Bronca No Couro Do Cabrito." A lot of it is pretty funny; Concrete Cookie and Incredibad bring over-the-top offensive hip-hop to the power noise scene with "The Fast Lane" and "Cocaine," and the clips on "Everybody Dance!" are hilariously deadpan. At times it can also be quite creepy, as on The Maggot Farmer's "Sourpuss Suicide," which alternates a darkly psychedelic narrative from Derek Jarman's short film, Blue, with sudden bursts of high-BPM snare drums. The blistering pace, rapid pitch changes, and black humor are reminiscent of the '90s hardcore techno of Ron D. Core and DJ Tron, but A Great Escape From Lunacy is even more frantic and unpredictable. While it's tempting to ascribe this schizophrenic impression on the fact that the Mash Up Soundsystem consists of over a dozen artists, there's more to it than that. Concrete Cookie and The Dog's "Plastic Bag," for example, crams enough different effects into just a few minutes to power an album's worth of longer, more conventional songs, and Depth Error's "Pablo Steals" brings together everything from cut up and sped up conversation to bass-heavy trip-hop. Instead of hypnotizing you with minimalism, Mash Up Soundsystem overwhelms you with short bursts of sonic violence in an approach that merges the confrontational attitude of hardcore punk with the technology and playfulness of DJ culture. This is the kind of party music that gives you migraines; joyously loud but painful, listing to Mash Up Soundsystem is like doing shots of bottom-shelf tequila in a crowded video arcade. Enjoy with caution.

4 Stars.

      Matthew Johnson - Re>Gen Magazine

Mash Up Soundsystem: A great escape from lunacy CD For those that don't know Mash Up Soundsystem from several 12" releases on their own label (same title), the name from the band might give an implication what to expect.

Mash Up Soundsystem present a debut album featuring 23 short tracks. Most of them are high-speed noise anthems, ranging from hard-core techno to noise-punk. A rich collection of strucured energetic tracks, larded with vocal samples, inerchanged by an occasional calm, grinding piece. Conrtibutions from Concrete Cookie, the Dog, Depth Error (aka Matt Green) and others garantee the diversity. For those that like it fast and extreme this is recommended.

      Paul - Phosphor Magazine