"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> The Death Set
Artificially Sweetened
By Tyler Vile
How crazy a mixtape get? Well, the Sydney(Australia)/Baltimore/Philadelphia/Brooklyn based trio The Death Set has an answer. With not a track that passes the two minute mark, the boys go around the world, do what must be done, and do it quickly. Unexpected mashups like Ol’ Dirty Bastard vs. The B52’s drive this diverse musical collage and give it mass appeal. The Death Set being as fun to listen to as they are, I would have enjoyed hearing some more of their own tracks instead of a majority of mashups and filler songs. Even the filler songs, though, are gems in their own right. Excerpts from old favorites like Bad Brains, Fugazi, Suicidal Tendencies, Descendents, and an electronic take on Angry Samoans are welcome faces in this monolithic mix. It has the feeling of all being one forty-five minute long party, but some things just don’t gel. Specifically, the random talking bits don’t really add or take away from anything. The Death Set do have an ability to cross genres seamlessly and hopefully turn new generations on to many different types of music.