Pitchfork

William Flegal built his reputation on outrageous live performances filled with self-abuse and mayhem. Shows by his former band, Meat, were as much performance art as rock concerts, as this modern day GG Allin would do everything from carving his flesh with razor blades to drinking his own urine. It's this same sort of disregard for wholesome entertainment that fuels the music on This Is Stunt Rock Volume Three, his latest album under the Stunt Rock moniker. Layers of samples from every imaginable musical genre, programmed beats, and snippets from movies and television create a mish-mash of electronic party music that's just as likely to make you laugh as dance.

The 16 seamless songs are essentially without titles. The accompanying booklet refers to each as simply "Audio Selection Number One" through "Audio Selection Number Sixteen", and a table of contents lists the page for the lyrics for each selection. As a de facto title, each song has a quote assigned to it that offers insight into the track itself, Flagel's opinion of the music he's created, or a simple blast of self deprecation. A sample, from what we'll refer to as "Audio Selection Number Five", reads, "I will make up for a lifetime of fucking chicks poorly by having the most diverse CD collection in the world." The center of the booklet features 12 "Life Achievement Badges", each with a description. The badges cover things like mortgage, female shapes, smoking, and masturbation. If all of this sounds a little pretentious, it is, but Flagel makes it clear that little of what is contained on this record is meant to be taken seriously.

The very fact that a lyric sheet is included is impressive, since all of the lyrics are samples. The subject matter is often aimed at mankind's futility and weakness, whether mocking those who feign revolutionary while seeming to live solely for the purpose of consuming ("Audio Selection Number Four"), or painting a portrait of teenage rage-filled apathy ("Audio Selection Number Five"). In addition, there are enough bawdy one-liners here to make Sarah Silverman blush. The disc's various rants come from a wide variety of speakers, including Axl Rose, Bruce McCulloch, and Anton Newcombe, among others, but as with many sample-based, mash-up discs, part of the fun is trying to identify the source material.

The music samples are just as varied. Bizarre showtunes sidle up next to funky bass lines; heavy-metal guitars blast behind horns and chopped up dance beats. The sources range from Public Enemy to the Dead Milkmen, and there's plenty of soft rock, 1980s metal, and old- school soul thrown in for good measure. The final product is a dizzying dance record where Stunt Rock places an equal emphasis on both the stunt and the rock, never pushing either over the limit.