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Gorillaz, D-Sides

by Glenn Fullington
11/06/2007

D-Sides is an aural trip resurrected from the back burner. The virtual band Gorillaz is behind the melodic mayhem.

In here is a double album, the first of which is a collection of b-sides. Those familiar with Demon Days (2005) will recognize a few beats and loops that are recycled on a few of the tracks, but nearly all of the 13 songs are fresh.

Spaced-out melodies and a trance inducing musical cadence carries through the first album as if a mad producer was binging on drum beats and synth tones.

The album starts out as just plain fun with song titles like “Hongkongaton” and “We Are Happy Landfill.” Then comes the beautifully enchanting gem, “Hong Kong,” enhanced by one very gracefully played stringed instrument (what I believe is the traditional Chinese guzheng).

An original demo version of “Don’t Get Lost in Heaven” falls in towards the end of the album, but the heart of the album comes at the very end. Saving the best for last seems to have been the thinking here.

“Stop the Dams,” the 13th and final track, will be playing in my head for the next week, and if not, it will be queued on my iPod in order to refresh my cranial jukebox. The song drifts surreally through somewhere I desperately want to be. Quietly proclaiming errs of humanity, 2D seems to pine that the “Sun will shine again.”

This first album is solid by itself, but there is more.

Remix people will be happy.

Ear assaulting ballistic waves congregate on disc two, waiting in ambush for the unprepared listener. This is definitely not your grandmother’s easy listening, unless she is hip to the noise-funk craze of modern dance music.

The album consists of mixes by various groups, including DFA and Soulwax. All the collaborators bring a little different style and approach, giving the record a rare amount of variation. There are nine songs on the album, as some are made over more than once.

The popular hit “DARE” from Demon Days is remade three times as is “Kids with Guns.” “Kids with Guns (Jamie T Remix)” offers a particularly fresh take, telling a side story as a part of the original song.

This side offers many more danceable tracks. Granted, your intentions must be to crank the bass and instigate a no-drink-on-the-dance-floor policy; otherwise all hope is lost.

Fans of Gorillaz should not hesitate to obtain their copy of D-Sides. If the musical offerings of this animated band are unfamiliar to you, then maybe the freshman self titled album, or the later released Demon Days should be your introduction into the Gorillaz universe.

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