Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Gorillaz, Parlophone 2018.
Gorillaz is a fascinating group.
They exist as a virtual act, (in fact they’re in the Guinness Book of Records as the planet’s Most Successful Virtual Act), they don’t perform live or tour.
Their videos are usually cartoons and yet they have a huge world-wide following.
The band consists of a core group of blue haired 2D on vocals; Japanese shredder Noodle on guitar’ Brooklyn born Russel Hobbs on drums; and for this album, with their usual bassist Murdoc Niccals temporarily indisposed, bass duties have been taken up by Ace from Gangreen Gang.
On this album the band have largely moved away from their recent practice of including numerous guest stars and they have instead taken it back to the core crew.
Only two of the 11 tracks include guests – Humility with George Benson and Hollywood with Snoop Dog and Jamie Principle.
The album was produced by Gorillaz with James Ford and Remi Kabaka and recorded in its entirety at Studio 13 in London in February this year.
This is also a departure from their recent albums that have been recorded in studios all over the world.
I like the variety on the album.
It’s still mostly electronica but it’s certainly not trance or house.
Tracks like Idaho or Fire Flies are so different that you wonder if they’re from the same album.
They’re slow and dreamy and largely eschew the almost obligatory synthetic rhythm tracks found on most other tracks.
Vocals are mostly sung, as opposed to rapped, which is a nice change from many similar albums I’ve listened to recently.
A band that consists of cartoon characters is quite a point of difference and it’s hard to come up with a comparison.
The cartoon Beatles band was based on the Beatles as was the Monkees cartoon.
There was Klaatu (did we ever find out who was behind that concept?) but they weren’t cartoon characters.
Anyway, back to this album. If you’ve wondered what electronica is all about then this Gorillaz album is a good way into it.
