Gorillaz: Damon Albarn is literally making this stuff up

The new Gorillaz single hit the airwaves last night - a collaboration between Damon Albarn, James Murphy and André 3000. Do Your Thang splutters into life with a meandering organ pattern, the sort of thing Albarn could knock off in his sleep. Principally because it sounds like someone rolling over top of a keyboard in the middle of the night.

Things really kick off with André 3000's stream-of-consciousness rap, one of the most exciting things you'll hear this side of lunchtime, and potentially the first time the word onomatopoeia has been used so prominently in a pop song.

"André just wouldn't stop," Albarn told Zane Lowe last night. "It literally just took off and we just ran with it. He's fantastic."

Apparently, the Outkast rapper then sent Damon off to try a bit of freestyling of his own. "My bit at the beginning was the last thing that came on," he said. "It just was whatever came out of my head. One take, just done." Damon's bit isn't quite as thrilling as André's but you have to give him credit. If I'd been challenged to record a verse under those circumstances it would have ended up going:

"I'm doing a rap.
On a song.
Something something.
Mic-ro-phone.

Rap. Rap. Rap. Rap.
Rapping!
(Word to your mother.)"

In summary: Do Your Thang is better than Blur's under-rehearsed Brits performance by approximately one gazillion percent.

Gorillaz - Do Your Thang (Radio Edit)


The song is available as a free download on the Converse website right now.

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Old song, new video: Gorillaz

Hello, do you want to buy my album? It is not a brand new record but it did come out this year and I am worried you might have forgotten about it because of tuition fees and the party you are no doubt organising to celebrate the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

To jog your memory, I have recorded a "music video" for one of the songs on my album. Although it is not really a music video in the commonly understand format. It is in fact a tour visual featuring my good friend and former bete-noire of the so-called establishment, Snoop Dogg.

My album is called Plastic Beach and it is basically a Damon Albarn solo record about the environment, but with some rap bits tacked on at the last minute because I realised I always sell more records when I pretend that I am a cartoon, even though I have not been a cartoon since the early days of Blur (satire).

Plastic Beach is available at a supermarket near you, but I urge you to boycott the Tescos and Asdas of this world and buy it from your local grocer instead.

Power to the people,
Damon Alba... I mean Murdoc
xo

Gorillaz - Welcome To The World Of Plastic Beach

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A very nice Gorillaz remix for you

Gorillaz' new single Doncamatic continues to be all kinds of amazing - not least because people incorrectly assume that the singer, Manchester vocalist Daley, is a woman. I wrote to him (I didn't) and he got back in touch (he didn't) to say: "Hey. Whatev the haterz say, my dude bits r 100 PER CENT intact. Ask my mum." (this quote is completely made up).

Anyway, it's remix time now, and Dubstep boy genius Joker has given the song a delicious hyperspace makeover. Keeping the disco-fied vocals intact, the remix repaints the disco beats of the original in an altogether more sinister light. A fully animated remix video would be awesome.

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New Gorillaz single - The Interweb speaks

I wasn't a fan of The Gorillaz' Plastic Beach album, which strayed too far into "Damon Albarn mumbling aimlessly into a microphone" territory to live up to the band's lofty heritage of pop-indie-hip-hop crossover.

But their brand new, non-album single Doncamatic gets a full-on Fab Macca double thumb salute for its laser blast of Daft Punk synths and smooth, androgynous vocals from Mancunian newcomer Daley.

The song's groove and title were both inspired by the DoncaMatic, one of the world's first drum machines - released in 1949(!!) Much like the Mellotron - the instrument you hear at the start of The Beatles' Strawberry Fields - it used loops of quarter-inch tape to reproduce pre-recorded drum sounds. That's a picture of one at the top of the page.

Musical geekery aside, this is a sparkling return to form for Damon Albarn's cartoon band. Don't just take my word for it. Here is what everybody else on the internet has to say in their charmingly illiterate way.

:: "The jumpy beat sounds like it could have came straight from your favorite 8-bit video game." [Idolator]

:: "Damon Albarn is almost not on it except for a few backup vocals in the middle of the track." [JP's Blog]

:: "It features guest vocals from new British R&B singer Daley. I’ve never heard of him before, but it doesn’t matter. She’s a perfect fit for this effortlessly chill song." (???) [We All Want Someone]

:: "It really gets your mind into the music and puts you in that feel good trance." [It's A Rap]

:: "Watch as your head starts to bob as UK based electro singer Daley starts singing over the beat that I'm pretty sure will be remixed by the end of the week." [Rock It Out]

:: "Trupa a inregistrat piesa acum cateva saptamani si vor lansa single-ul pe 22 noiembrie." [Metalhead]



Gorillaz - Doncamatic (All Played Out)

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Glastonbury 2010: The view from the sofa

Another year, another weekend spent in front of the television going "why didn't I buy tickets for this?" Next year I will be tweeting up a storm from Worthy Farm. Mark my words.

Until then, here's a lazy person's view of what they saw on the television this weekend when they weren't treating picnic tables with Ronseal.

Gorillaz flopped. They just don't have the rousing, sing-along choruses of, say, Blur. Or U2.	When The Edge plucked out the opening riff to Where The Streets Have No Name, Muse's spine-tingling Glastonbury set reached its zenith.	Stevie Wonder brought mile-wide grins to everyone’s faces. Superstition, Uptight, Signed, Sealed Delivered. A masterful, remarkable end to the weekend.
In a massive breach of security, Kylie Minogue rushed onto the stage during the Scissor Sisters' set.	Thom Yorke gave us his best Bjorn Borg impression during Radiohead's "surprise" set.	Hot Chip must have built a nest under The Other Stage. How else do they get onto the bill every year?
Shakira presented her bottom to the world like a Baboon in heat.	Marina and the Diamonds did a very good Hammond organ version of Mowgli’s Road while dressed in a comfort blanket.	Phoenix looked very, very French and were very, very good.
Paloma Faith did something totally unpredictable and mad involving balloons.	At one point, the normally calm and measured Mrdiscopop exclaimed: “Kate Nash is as talented as a bucket of sick”.	Snoop Dogg looks like he’s wasting away. Someone should feed him a Bonio.

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Embedding disabled by request: Gorillaz

There's a sense in which The Gorillaz has always been about Damon Albarn living out his unrealistic childhood fantasies - I'm in a cartoon! De La Soul made me part of their band!! I am a hologram!!! And, let's be honest, who here wouldn't want to do any of those things? It's an infinitely more rewarding set of achievments than, for example, recording a concept album about London with the bass guitarist from The Clash.

You'd think that, by now, Albarn would have used up all the wishes the genie granted him - but no. The video for Gorillaz' next single Stylo allows the wiry young Essex Boy to "star" in a five-minute-long car chase with Bruce Willis. ZOMG, etc.



No embedding allowed - so watch it in glorious HD on Youtube (Youtube).

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New Gorillaz: Stylo

Rushed out onto Youtube after the promo CD was leaked on the Russian equivalent of Facebook, here's the first single from the new Gorillaz album (you have to watch it surrounded by adverts on Youtube, I'm afraid, because the record industry is ON IT'S KNEES).

Gorillaz - Stylo (album version)

As you can see, the song features vocals from Mos Def and the legendary Bobby "Across 110th Street" Womack.

If you can't be bothered to click on that YouTube link, but you're still interested to find out what Bobby Womack would sound like singing a track written by pasty white men posturing as hip-hop demigods, here is the masterful Get A Life, which he contributed to Rae & Christian's Sleepwalking album a decade ago.

Rae & Christian feat Bobby Womack - Get A Life


Both songs are, of course, amazing.

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Gorillaz escape

Damon Albarn was on Radio One last night playing what were billed as "new Gorillaz songs". In truth, the three tracks sound like home demos -- crammed with ideas, but lacking any structure or polish.

The first track he played, Broken, was the most fully-realized (and the only one with vocals). A hazy, trippy ballad, it continued with Demon Days' theme of imminent armageddon and the fall of man - while displaying the influence of Albarn's excursions into world music with Africa Express and the Monkey opera.

Electric Shock started off with pretty piccolo lines and a playful pizzicato string motif - but it exploded in about a hundred different directions, the highlight being a lo-fi electro drum loop which featured a Santogold-esque chant of "that's electric shock" over the top. This was perhaps the only song of the trio that fit conceptually with Gorillaz previous indie-hip-hop experiments.

Finally, we heard Stylo/Binge, which would make a good b-side on a Warp Records release (trans: It's a load of twiddly electronic bollocks).

Talking on the show, Albarn admitted the songs were "not finished by any means".

"It's really hard to know when something's done," he added. "If I haven't got it right, I'll throw it away."

Listen to them below (and hope that planned sessions in Syria later this year turn the demos into something a bit more hummable).

Broken

Electric Shock

Stylo/Binge


By the way, Albarn also displayed impeccable taste during his "take-over" of the Zane Lowe show, playing tracks by Dead Prez, Plastic Bertrand and Girls Aloud (Biology!).

Good work, Mr Blur.

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Public service announcement

Will someone please tell Madonna to stop wearing leotards?

Holy Moly has the new video (alert: old woman's gusset!)

Youtube has last night's Grammy performance with the Gorillaz
(alert: old woman's gusset!)

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The discopop directory totally unbiased top ten albums of 2005

Ooops - took a bit of an unscheduled 2-week break there!

Anyway, as promised a fortnight ago, here are our top 10 albums of 2005. Again, this is based on the number of times we've played each record (as revealed in our itunes playcount). We've applied a small amount of mathematical correction so that recent albums don't get left out - but it's still totally honest. Although we're keeping quiet that number 11 would have been Coldplay...



10) Fijacion Oral vol 1 - Shakira
Sounds like: Latin-tinged soft rock, only good

The critics said: "There's a light touch to ballads like "En Tus Pupilas" that's a world away from the Ricky Martinizing of Latin pop." (Rolling Stone)

We Say: The English-language sequel to this album has been delayed in the UK, but it hardly matters when you've got this stunning Latin-pop album to be getting on with. Twisting sensuous guitar ballads around spiky electro-pop, Shakira sounds completely in control of her (self-written) material. Because of our inability to speak Spanish, we haven't a clue what she's on about on these 10 tracks, but we're willing to guess that a lot of them are about the men in her life. Shakira's expressive delivery veers between two characters: one a sweet, melodic temptress, the other a deranged, shouty vixen. Either way, she sounds like a high-maintenance girlfriend.



9) Come and Get It - Rachel Stevens
Sounds like: Goldfrapp for children

The critics said: "It's very much a labor of love by some record executives, some faceless writers, and the pretty one out of S Club 7" (Stylus magazine)

We say: Poor old Rachel. No-one really seems to care about her unless she's in her pants on the front of FHM. Which is a shame, really, because she has persuaded some of the world's best writers to make a solid-gold pop album for her. Picking up cues from Goldfrapp and Britney, it combines camp glam-rock grooves with shiny sing-a-long melodies.

Particularly worthy of note is Richard X's "Crazy Boys", which sounds like a vintage Pet Shop Boys song and was scheduled to be the album's fourth single. Somehow, we don't think that will ever happen - even though Polydor bravely stuck with Rachel while this album and its singles missed the top ten places they deserved. We blame the lack of success on the current anti-pop snobbery at Radio One.

Expect to see Rachel devoting more time to her 'film career' in 2006. She'll be on "I'm a Celebrity" by Christmas.



8) Chemistry - Girls Aloud
Sounds like: Every pop single ever written has been thrown into a blender, loaded into a pink firework and launched above the Astoria by Judy Garland. On poppers. (plus a cover of See the day).

The critics said: "You could spend the rest of your life listening to albums by critically acclaimed Americana artists and hear fewer new ideas and less creative daring than you would in three minutes of Chemistry" (The Guardian)

We Say: Vexingly, considering the treatment meted out to Rachel Stevens, this album has appeared in almost every serious music paper's "Best of 2005" list. To be honest, we think it's a bit hit-and-miss compared to "What Will The Neighbours Say" but it does contain the year's best pop single (Biology, in case you're interested).

The laws of the girl-band dictate that GA are due one more album before they split and release a greatest hits, so enjoy them (and their fake-tan) while you can.



7) You Could Have It So Much Better - Franz Ferdinand
Sounds like: Franz Ferdinand's last album

The critics said: "They've gotten unmistakably louder and unmistakably gayer" (Village Voice)

We say: The second phase of Franz Ferdinand's global domination plan shows remarkably little progress from phase one. But maybe that's for the better, as the tracks where they mess around with the template misfire quite badly. However, it's great to see a band as popular as Franz Ferdinand follow up a successful album so quickly.

And they clearly had a good time doing it: if you head over to their website, there are some cute video diaries of Alex & co recording waterfalls and showing off their antique guitar amps (they're also available on the special CD+DVD edition of the album). That sense of enthusiasm, if not experimentation, is perfectly captured on the best of their new songs - Do You Want To, Walk Away and Eleanor Put Your Boots Back On.



6) Anniemal - Annie
Sounds like: Someone's been eating too much sugar

The critics said: "Like floating, high on oxygen, just above a dancefloor" (Pitchfork)

We say: She may be the least charismatic pop star ever (yes, even if you count Rachel Stevens), but Annie has the best tunes. Working with Royksopp and Richard X, Annie spins sugary melodies into a pink pop candy floss that'll get stuck in your hair for days. But it's not too sickly - the production is crunchy and dark, often carrying the less substantial songs along.

Rather depressingly, most people will only have heard the album's standout tracks, Chewing Gum and My Heartbeat, sung in gibberish on the soundtrack to The Sims 2.



5) Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple
Sounds like: An explosion in an ideas factory.

The critics said: "This album is not immediate; it takes time for the songs to sink in, to let the melodies unfold and decode her laborious words" (Billboard)

We say: Fiona Apple's long-delayed third album sat on the shelf for years. Recorded around 2001, Sony returned the album with a note reading "where are the singles"? After that, Fiona went into hiding, the original album leaked onto the internet, and fans started a massive campaign to get the songs released, Sony eventually capitulated, on the condition that Fiona re-record the whole lot with a new producer.

At least, that's the story that went around when Extraordinary Machine came out. In recent interviews, Apple seems to be suggesting she wasn't happy with the original recordings herself…

Never mind, because the end result is stunning. Bookended by two quirky, orchestral songs that sound like Doris Day in therapy, the album ventures into rock, jazz and hip-hop played on the marimba. It's a little uneven, but constantly rewards over subsequent listens. And the heartbreaking ballad "Red Red Red" is our favourite album track of the year.



4) Be - Common
Sounds like: What Kanye West's album should have sounded like

The critics said: "A sprawling, varied disc that's as laid-back as a cool summer afternoon" (E! Online)

We say: Starting off with a lone, rubber-band double bass, this album deliberately sets itself apart from the psychedelic overload of Common's last CD (2002's Electric Circus). Clean and simple production, courtesy of Kanye West, ensures the Chicago rapper's thoughtful and provocative rhymes are pushed to centre stage. In a year when Hip-Hop imploded, this was the only album to sound fresh and funky.



3) Demon Days - Gorillaz
Sounds like: The best album by cartoon characters since The Muppet Babies

The critics said: "Demon Days is unified and purposeful in a way Albarn's music hasn't been since The Great Escape" (Allmusic.com)

We say: Allmusic's review is a trifle unfair. This is much, much better than The Great Escape. Instead of cockney barrel-boy pianos and Ken Livingstone, we get post-apocalyptic drum loops and Dennis Hopper.

You'd have to be deaf to have missed Demon Days' trio of hip-hop tinged singles, which seem to have been the soundtrack on every "coming up later on BBC One" trail we've seen this Christmas. But those upbeat tunes are just half the story. Damon Albarn has things he wants to get off his chest, too, and the darker album tracks like "Kids With Guns" are what make this album magnificent. If only he could make bold, political statements like this without having to hide behind a bunch of monkeys.



2) Confessions On a Dancefloor - Madonna
Sounds like: An album made by someone twenty years her junior

The critics said: "One of the few pop singers whose albums are best appreciated in their entirety" (Slant Magazine)

We say: Madonna is always at her best when she talks about the redemptive power of dancing. Songs like Into The Groove, Vogue and Music are milestones in her career - so it should come as no surprise that her first full-on dance album is another one.

Admittedly, we didn't like it at first. The commercially released 'continuous mix' becomes a bit of a drone, with no space for the individual tracks to breathe. But once we tracked down the unmixed version of the album (try iTunes), we fell in love with it.

True, the lyrics were written by a sixth-former with attention deficit disorder, and Hung Up is a poor song built around a fantastic sample, but tracks like "Get Together", "Sorry" and "How High" will magically transport you to the inside of a glitterball. Even if you're listening to them, as you inevitably will, on the tinny PA system at B&Q.



1) Supernature - Goldfrapp
Sounds like: A spaceship built out of vintage synthesizers

The critics said: "If Rachel Stevens is bubblegum, Goldfrapp are crème brulee" (Pop matters)

We say: Purists will sniff that this is a re-tread of 2003's "Black Cherry" album, but so what? That album was fantastic, and this one refines the formula, before riding off on a massive horse made out of mirrors (see the video for Ooh la la for more on this).

Supernature obeys all the rules of perfect pop albums: no longer than 45 minutes, no more than eleven songs, no fewer than fourteen allusions to filthy sex. In common with Madonna's album, it was recorded in a living room in England - which just goes to show that you don't need a bags of money and a constant supply of cocaine to make a great album these days. In fact, all you need is tea (as the Beatles used to say).

Being traditional types, our favourite songs are the ones with proper choruses - Ride A White Horse, Koko, and Number One - but in all honesty, any of these songs could be a hit single.

Oh, and Alison Goldfrapp has excellent hair.

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The discopop directory totally unbiased top ten singles of 2005

Well, we promised it, so here it is! Our top ten singles are free from any editorial bias or attempts to seem 'cool'. They are based solely on our itunes play-count, which cannot lie. So without any further ado...

1) 1 Thing - Amerie
Key lyric: "You did this one thing and I was so with it"

But the question remains: What was that one thing that Amerie's man did to get her 'tripping'? We don't know for sure, but we think he's cooked her a Shepherd's pie.

Anyway, this song sits deservedly atop our list. Proof that, if you have a magnificent sample, you can't go wrong by looping it for four minutes and getting some woman in hotpants to scream over the top of it.


2) Biology - Girls Aloud
Key lyric: "The way that we walk. The way that we talk"

On the other hand, if you have five fantastic choruses you should stitch them all together in a ProTools orgy and let them fight it out to see who's best.

As is the Girls Aloud tradition, this is an unbelievably brave single for a band who should be producing production-line pop. The main hook doesn't arrive until after the 2 minute mark, and it manages to squeeze four distinct musical genres into its tiny Top Shop boob-tube. True, it's not Xenomania's best work, but it is the highlight of the third Girls Aloud album without a shadow of a doubt.

3) Ooh La La - Goldfrapp
Key lyric: "Switch me on. Turn me up."

A.K.A. The one that made everyone go: "Oh, Goldfrapp? They're quite good, really".

Like the band's previous single, Strict Machine, we have the vague idea this could be about a vibrator. Or a transistor radio. It's so easy to get those two mixed up.

4) Number 1 - Goldfrapp
Key lyric: "I'm like a dog to get you"

If this hadn't come out a couple of weeks after Ooh La La, we suspect the final positions of these two songs would have been reversed. Nevertheless, this is a fantastically moody synth ballad, with even more pervy lyrics. Alison wants it 'up and on', apparently.

5) Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz
Key lyric: "Watch me as I navigate, a-ha ha ha haaaa"

Although it's embarrassing to listen to Damon Albarn's attempt to rap at the beginning of this track (he actually uses the word 'wack'), De La Soul soon take command and rip the song to shreds. But in a good way.

This single has been recognised by the national institute of old-people's metaphors as "a real foot tapper". Oh, and apparently the band are all cartoons. How post-modern.

6) Every Day I Love You Less And Less - Kaiser Chiefs
Key lyric: "I can't believe once you and me did sex"

Did you know that, by law, all Kaiser Chiefs songs have a bit where they go "woahhhhh" just before the last chorus? This one is no exception, which only goes to show how canny Kaiser Chiefs are: Building up to a crescendo is a lost art in pop, and they are one of the few bands who've got the musical nous to realise the importance of a big climax (missus). Aside from that, listen carefully to the drumming in this track - there's a lot of very clever hi-hat work going on there, which punctuates the jerking guitar lines. Top marks from the Royal Academy of Music.

7) Cool - Gwen Stefani
Key lyric: "Circles and triangles, and now we're hanging out with your new girlfriend"

I literally have no idea why this is in the top ten. Is that lyric a playstation reference?

She's up the duff now, apparently.

8) My Heartbeat - Annie
Key lyric: "Feel my heartbeat drumming to the beat like a symphony"

Annie's genius is making sugary strands of pop confectionery that are just the right side of sickly sweet. This song's paper-thin melody would be vomitous in the hands of Britney or Kylie. Annie, however, locks it to a thumping drum loop that transforms the song into a wondrous dancefloor stomper. But only if you live in Europe. Apparently the UK would rather listen to McFly. Fuckers.


9) I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need To Be Nicer - The Cardigans
Key lyric: "Baby you're foul in clear conditions, but you're handsome in the fog"

Why is it that Swedes can write better English lyrics than any British pop band? Quite aside from the fantastic title, this song has a proper narrative about a relationship killed by drinking and indifference. It also has a metaphor about dogs.

Forget Dido and James Blunt (and believe us we will... as soon as radio stops playing that fucking song every ten minutes), this is proper mature pop from some of the most interesting and creative musicians in the business.

10) Do You Want To? - Franz Ferdinand
Key lyric: "Doo doo, doo da-doo da-doo do"

Another one of those songs that's either too inventive for it's own good, or three different ideas badly stuck together with a tempo change and some reverb. Never mind because, either way, this is utterly superb spiky guitar pop.

Franz Ferdinand are grittier and tighter than they were this time last year, but they can still toss in an homage to Kylie and a naughty blow-job reference. Thank heavens for that.


So that's our top ten singles of 2005. The top ten albums will be published next week... just in case Santa delivers any real stonkers on Christmas Day.

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