Gorillaz - Plastic Beach.

Another belated post due to 40th celebrations. It's been a busy time.

Plastic Beach did not get the commercial success of it's predecessors. Perhaps it was due to its varied sound or because it was trying to cram a lot of ideas. Shame really, I think it’s quite underrated. I’m quite fond of it but that may be to this tour being one of the best concerts I have been too. A sore spot for some when I share.

During the making of documentary, Damon describes the concept to Bobby Womack about the world periling close to overload and the parallels with social realism and love. Channel that into the song Bobby - Damon looks with expectation and glee. Bobby sure as hell does!

There is the obvious envioro-political arc from the art work and lyrics. However Damon further describes the idea of albums in the modern age being lost due to playlists on streaming and wanting to craft an album that flows like a playlist in our plastic culture. You can hear that on this. Overall it’s a high concept album that packs a lot into it, not just musically but the social political themes, art, and humour like in the future we’ll all be eating jellyfish.

This album must have cost a fortune to make let alone the tour. You’ve got Bruce Willis in the film clip, and then you have the star studded line up including Snoop Dogg, De La Soul, Bobby Womack, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Mos Def, Lou Reed, Mark E. Smith, Little Dragon, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble just to name a few...arf.

Released in 2010 this now seems quite ahead of it’s time both musically and politically. They travelled to Beirut to meet the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music and collaborate. They also took them on tour. A huge political statement in the middle of the war occurring at the time and the racism surrounding it.

I saw this show on the December 8th 2010 at the Entertainment Centre. It was my first concert at the Entertainment Centre in many years and one of the handful I’ve been too there since. A long time Blur fan I was excited to see Damon but was not prepared for what was going to happen. Opening with Little Dragon, then a surprise set from De La Soul, then the full Syrian National Orchestra on stage, brass ensemble, then Bobby Fucking Womack came out on stage amongst others. Unfortunately Mos Def didn’t join our tour but to be honest I didn’t mind with everything else going on. I just remember being in complete awe throughout the whole concert and the vibe in the crowd was electric.

It’s been a good chunk of time since I’ve dug this album out and it sounds so fresh.

*Since giving this a spin I since watched the live concert from this tour in Paris on Youtube and have been thinking about this album a lot.

#nowplaying #nowspinning #vinyl #records #Gorillaz #Damonalbarn

Appropriately titled record for this week's political events. Democrazy was completely canned when it came out in 2003 with criticism of both the DIY sound but also Damon personally for choosing to release this. Over 20 years later, this vinyl only EP with it's spectacular packaging has been getting a lot of appreciation. Recorded during Blur's US tour for Think Tank, several of the songs on this would feature on later albums and become hits including I Need A Gun, which turned into the Gorillaz song Dirty Harry. Half a Song 20 years later became The Ballad on Blurs latest album.

Maybe it's because I was listening to a lot of DIY and outside folk stuff in the early 2000s that I found something quite intimate about this record and couldn't understand all the negativity. But then as a long time Blur stan perhaps I was biased.

The raw demo of Half Song is heartbreakly exquisite and the full version on The Ballad is just stunning, one of my favourites.

#Democrazy #blur #Damonalbarn #Gorillaz #vinyl #records #music #coffeeandvinyl #nowplaying #nowspinning