Category: Gorillaz

I have something of a bad habit of buying vinyl copies of some of my favourite albums that I had previously only owned on CD.  I say bad habit, but that’s only because I sometimes blind side myself as the pressings of quite a few of the albums have left a lot to be desired with the sound quality of the CD proving to be superior.

I’m delighted to report that the self-titled effort by Gorillaz, reissued as a double album in a gatefold sleeve back in 2015, has a very full and rich sound, offering a great deal of enjoyment and pleasure.

The original CD, which dates back to 2001, lists 15 tracks, but the final song extends to almost eleven minutes in length thanks to a substantial gap before a ‘hidden’ track starts to play.  The vinyl effort sort of pulls off a similar trick in that there is what is described as a ‘locked groove’ between the final two tracks on Side 4, meaning that the stylus has to be lifted and placed back down again to enable the last song to be played.

It’s a bit of a gimmick, but I suppose it does ensure that the thought-process behind the CD in that the listener has to make something of an effort to hear track 16, is maintained.

Where it does annoy me, but only to the tiniest extent, is that Side 4 of the album in its entirety is up there as providing one of the strongest ends to any album in my possession where none of the final few tracks is a well-known single, and it would be better if it flowed smoothly and with interruption.

mp3: Gorillaz – Starshine
mp3: Gorillaz – Slow Country
mp3: Gorillaz – M1 A1
mp3: Gorillaz – Clint Eastwood (Ed Case/Sweetie Irie Refix)

Starshine is a languid number, possibly the most post-Coxon Blur-type song on the album and then its closing notes seam perfectly into Slow Country whose opening few seconds always catch me out as I think Ghost Town is about to come out of the speakers, before the most sunniest dub sounds imaginable have me closing my eyes and dreaming of those old holidays I used to take in Barbados in the pre-COVID era.

There’s a slight pause before what I’ve learned is film dialogue and samples from the zombie movie Dawn Of The Dead provides an unsettling first half to M1 A1, before the kitchen sink is thrown at then tune, and it descends into the sort of noise that would get any mosh pit working up a fair bit of sweat. The one thing I would have liked is for the thrashy second half to have maybe extended for another couple of minutes, but then again to have done so would have been out of sync with the length of all the other tracks on the album.

Finally, there’s the fun-filled and energetic two-step remix of one of the album’s hit singles to round things off, and like all the very best end tracks it makes you want to go back to the beginning and start all over again.

JC

Jonny‘s recent ICA on Sideshows was very timely as it dovetails nicely with a piece that I had written up, just looking for the right time to post.

Gorillaz is one of the many sideshow collaborations involving Damon Albarn. I knew that I hadn’t kept fully up to speed with everything that the virtual band has released over the years, but I was surprised to find that it’s now ten years since I last bought any of their music.

Plastic Beach was the group’s third album, following on from the excellent self-titled debut in 2001 and the 2005 follow-up, Demon Days. It’s an album that leaned very heavily on guest appearances, with no less than ten of its sixteen tracks featuring another well-known name from the worlds of pop, rock, rap and soul music. It’s an album that really did some getting used to as it was different in tone, texture and flow from its predecessors. Even now, it’s one that I really need to be in the right sort of frame and mindset to give it a listen as it demands a degree of undivided attention – for instance, I’ve never been able to sit and listen to it all the way through while travelling on a bus or train; it sort of feels as if the i=pod is on shuffle such is the coming and going of lead singers and the ever-changing genres across the tracks. It’s also a concept album, of sorts, which itself always demand as a level of concentration and buy-in than most.

Looking back at the reviews of the day, there was clearly a lot of love among the critics for the album, welcoming its ambition, diversity and the fact that Albarn & co. weren’t resting on their laurels. There was a divided opinion on whether or not all of the guest contributions worked, but it’s also interesting to note that where there is criticism of the way that say, Snoop Dogg or Lou Reed have contributed, there’s another opinion in another publication which says these are among the best bits of the album.

My favourite moment on comes on track six, when Gruff Rhys and De La Soul combine superbly, surely I’m not alone in wishing they had collaborated previously on a Super Furry Animals album?

mp3: Gorillaz – Superfast Jellyfish (with De La Soul and Gruff Rhys)

Here’s a few more of the guest appearances

mp3: Gorillaz – Welcome To The World Of The Plastic Beach (with Snoop Dogg)
mp3: Gorillaz – Stylo (with Mos Def featuring Bobby Womack)
mp3: Gorillaz – Some Kind of Nature (featuring Lou Reed)

The guests who I haven’t featured today include The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Kano, Bashy, Little Dragon, Mark E. Smith, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, sinfonia ViVA and the Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music. Feel more than free to go check them out in the usual places….

JC

Lazy post time.  Got too much to be getting on with preparing for the Simply Thrilled event, taking place from 11pm-3am after The Cure, supported by Mogwai and The Twilight Sad, play an outdoor gig in Glasgow, their first in Scotland for 27 years!

Plastic Beach was the third studio album by Gorillaz, released back in 2010. It featured numerous guest appearances by a diverse range of artists. One of the best tracks featured vocal contributions from De La Soul and Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals.

mp3 : Gorillaz – Superfast Jellyfish

Marvellous stuff.

JC

This popped up on shuffle the other day and I thought to myself that it makes for a great tune to slowly get your day in gear…one when you have no need to rush out of bed and race down to the railway station in a state of dishevelment.

And seeing Sunday is a day for lazing (although I’ve got to get myself round to the golf course for a competition that starts this side of 8am), I’ve decided to cut’n’paste from the first time the song got featured at the old place, but given that was five years ago I’m hoping most of you will have forgotten by now.

One night back in late 2000, while suffering from insomnia, I caught a glimpse of a cartoon video of on MTV. It must have been around 3am or something. My ears immediately picked up on a great tune and what sounded awfully like the vocals of Damon Albarn. But quite clearly, this was not anything by Blur.

Unusually, no information on the video came up at the end. But I was determined to track it down. By pure chance, I was in a favourite record shop in Glasgow a couple of days later and amidst my browsing, I saw something which had a title that was awfully like the mystery track.

So, I asked the guys in the shop to let me hear it. And I was right. So I bought it, and waited on it becoming a massive hit. But nothing happened. And just when I thought Gorillaz was simply going to be a one-off single, other stuff came out maybe four or five months later, and they did go on to become a worldwide phenomena.

But in my view, they have never bettered this:-

mp3 : Gorillaz – Tomorrow Comes Today

That was the only song I shoved up in September 2008 so to bring it up to date, here’s what else was on the CD single:-

mp3 : Gorillaz – Rock The House

mp3 : Gorillaz – Latin Simone

mp3 : Gorillaz – 12D3

Enjoy!!