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Gorillaz
Gorillaz
(Virgin Records)
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Words by Jen Kriesel
Bonanzaradio.com
May, 2001
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Gorillaz
Gorillaz
Some attempts at transition between animation
and real-life have worked remarkably well (X-Men: The Movie, The
Jackson 5 cartoon series), others have met with less success (Josie
& The Pussycats, Tank Girl). Visual interactions between humans
and animated characters - films like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit,"
"The Mask" and "Space Jam" serve up whiz-bang
special effects trickery, but lack compelling characters or content.
Labelled as "the world's first animated urban rock band,"
Gorillaz are a new super-fresh co-mingling of flesh-and-blood
with ink-and-paper, pixel-and-screen. A band of four ingenious
characters (2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel), they're a mix of ages
and ethnicities, with an impressive kaleidoscope of personalities
and musical influences. 2D is a scruffy, lanky beanpole boy with
a serious bent for keyboards, Murdoc is a grungy, sullen, gritty
cynic rocker bassist. Russel's the ham-fisted drummer with real
music training and a heart of gold (looks like a grizzly bear,
is actually a teddy), and Noodles is the 10 year old radio-head
guitarist uber-imp whose sole English word is her name. Together
they're a stylistic tornado, a jumble of talents that just totally
works, especially with the enhancement of human contributors.
Among those collaborators exists quite the 3D talent posse in
the human realm side of Gorillaz: Damon Albarn of Blur, Dan "The
Automator" Nakamura (producer and remixer extraordinaire),
Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto, Ibrahim Ferrer of Buena Vista Social
Club, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads/Tom
Tom Club, and the illustrator/animator who conceived of the aforementioned
Tank Girl comic book series, Jamie Hewlett.
Gorillaz music is a stellar blend of all these cultural angles.
It is everything, it's no one thing. It's brit-pop, hip-hop, trip-hop,
asian, cuban, electronic, funky wicked smart tunage with a heaping
bit of "other/none of the above"-ness to it. Tracks
like "Clint Eastwood" and "19-2000" are already
hits in the U.K., charting, selling and accompanied by MTV airplay
of the "Eastwood" video. CD singles for "Clint
Eastwood" and "Tomorrow Comes Today" are available
in the States on Parlophone/EMI via import, and will join the
domestic release of the Gorillaz album on Virgin in June. The
excellent Gorillaz web site (http://www.gorillaz.com) gives a
virtual tour of their Kong Studios home base, with peeps into
the members' rooms, computers and extensive interaction with their
bizarre surroundings. All the singles tracks are listenable via
the lobby groove. I know of no other bands who offer fans such
intimate access to trek through and interact with their personal
lives and environment.
Another aspect of the Gorillaz brilliance that will soon hop the
pond is the live show. Having played their first gig in London
this past March, and booked for more U.K. dates at the end of
June, Gorillaz live are rumored to be as multi-faceted as the
album work and web site. The animated band members share the stage
with their biological back-up band via front screen projection.
Regardless of the format, Gorillaz give visual entertainment with
a backbone foundation of musical respectability and genius. The
only potential risk is that it's too savvy and conceptual for
American audiences to easily grasp and understand.
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