Danger Mouse

As you might expect from the classic movie star poses in Danger Mouse's magazine spreads, the uberproducer is a man of many faces — one of the most innovative beat-conductors on the planet. An auteur if you will, telling his tales through a cracked lens of decade-spanning samples and loops, from the chart conquering spaghetti western '70s soul collision of "Crazy" to "Feel Good Inc.", a post apocalyptic spin on old school hip-hop. Yet Damon Albarn (Gorillaz, The Good, The Bad & The Queen) isn't the only alt-rock icon who's asked Danger Mouse for a creative jolt: Beck tapped him to help craft his 2008 album Modern Guilt, a collection of '60s psych inspired time capsule cuts featuring "Chemtrails".

If that's not enough to spark a riot in your stereo, our Next Steps are bound to leave you breathless.

For four straight albums, the Black Keys were a bruised blues duo that did everything on their own — drums, guitars, and a whole lot of attitude. Then they met Danger Mouse, a producer masquerading as a third member: listen to the spacey G-funk synths and beyond-the-grave vocals of "Strange Times". Danger's studio presence is felt all over our Next Steps tracks, including the wailing Strat samples and warm-blooded organ hum of "Going On", the funky fresh Adult Swim inspirations of The Mouse and the Mask, and the shimmering psych pop undercurrent of the Murs collaboration "To a Black Boy".

"(Danger Mouse) has impeccable taste," said Cee-Lo when asked about the priceless dynamic that fuels Gnarls Barkley. "I aspire to impress him." The twist? Danger Mouse has aspired to impress us ever since his bedroom beat-maker days — a reputation-building period that set in motion a seemingly endless string of praise and projects, all of which feature Danger Mouse's widescreen approach to sampling and songwriting. That includes the scorched earth soundscapes of Gorillaz, the disco inferno direction of the Rapture, the Technicolor blues of the Black Keys, the '60s psych vibe of Beck's Modern Guilt, and Danger Mouse's pride and joy: the stunning rap/soul/psych vignettes of Gnarls Barkley. What's next? A minimal techno album? We wouldn't put it past him.