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Danger Mouse

Brian Burton didn't get much sleep last night, and it's all Beck's fault. On a Wednesday morning in early March, Burton is trudging toward a Starbucks near his Los Angeles recording studio, where he wrapped up a session for the next Beck album just a few hours earlier. "Some of it was fun, some of it wasn't," is all he will say about the evening's work. Inside the coffeehouse, Burton — who is better known as the virtuosic, boundary-breaking producer Danger Mouse — orders a ham, egg and cheese sandwich but no coffee. He never drinks it. A caffeine boost "seems too easy," Burton says, eyes bleary behind aviator shades: He has been working almost nonstop for the past few years, only recently starting to take weekends off.

Danger Mouse is the perfect hitmaker for Obama's America — a hip-hop fan whose life was changed by the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. "Hip-hop was what I knew really well," Burton says, drinking Vitamin Water back in his studio's control room. "But it's not what inspired me to make music. It was the older rock stuff I started to hear." His sound blurs the line between samples and live instruments, slipping warped hip-hop beats under the orchestral twang of Ennio Morricone, the analog punch of the Beatles and the unhinged freedom of psychedelic rock. Singer-rapper Cee-Lo and Burton just released The Odd Couple, their second album as the experimental rock-R&B duo Gnarls Barkley. The album may not spawn a hit on the order of 2006's smash "Crazy," but its futuristic combination of fractured robo-beats and go-go-booted Sixties textures does manage to sound like no other music in recent memory. "My initial audience is Danger, and Danger alone," says Cee-Lo. "He has impeccable taste. I aspire to impress him." Read More...

Ten Essential Danger Mouse Tracks

Pelican City Remix of Neutral Milk Hotel's "The Fool"
On one of his earliest projects, Danger Mouse takes a horn-packed track from his Athens, Georgia pals and drops a rolling beat behind it.

Danger Mouse & Jemini's "Ghetto Pop Life"
In 2003, Burton released his first production under the Danger Mouse moniker: an indie hip-hop collaboration with experienced New York MC Jemini.

The Grey Album, "Encore"
Danger Mouse became a household name in 2004 for blending the Beatles' White Album with Jay-Z's The Black Album. The results were stunning, though litigious.

Danger Doom's "A.T.H.F. (Aqua Team Hunger Force)"
In 2005, Danger Mouse teamed up with MF Doom for The Mouse and the Mask, an experimental hip-hop album inspired by the Cartoon Network's stoner-friendly Adult Swim lineup. LISTEN

Gnarls Barkley's "Smiley Faces"
Danger Mouse demonstrates his love of Sixties-style production on this organ-heavy track from St. Elsewhere, his first LP with Cee-Lo as Gnarls Barkley. LISTEN

Gorillaz's "DARE"
Danger Mouse replaced Dan the Automator in Damon Albarn's Gorillaz project, and on the 2005 album Demon Days he proved he could work up a damn fine disco groove. LISTEN

The Rapture's "Pieces of the People We Love"
Danger Mouse provided dance-punk band the Rapture with a few tunes for their 2006 album Pieces of the People We Love, including this moody title track. LISTEN

The Good, the Bad & the Queen's "Herculean"
Damon Albarn enlisted Danger Mouse's talents once again, for 2007's The Good, the Bad & the Queen, where he conjured a dark, dubby mood for the first single. LISTEN

The Black Keys' "Oceans & Streams"
In 2008, Danger Mouse helped Akron, Ohio two-piece blues punks the Black Keys amp up their sound on Attack & Release. LISTEN

Gnarls Barkley's "Charity Case"
Danger Mouse steers Gnarls Barkley towards Sixties psychedelia once again on their 2008 release The Odd Couple. LISTEN

Photo: James Dimmock

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