The Gorillaz B-sides and remixes collection D-Sides just emphasizes that Demon Days could have just as easily been called Damon Days. Even though Damon Albarn worked with collaborators like Danger Mouse on the second Gorillaz album, Albarn was its main sonic architect, and this is made even clearer by the songs that didn't make it onto Demon Days. Where the album honed a paranoid, melancholy -- but always accessible -- vibe, D-Sides is charmingly loose and eclectic; the stoned, rag-tag shuffle of "Don't Get Lost in Heaven (Demo)" is far more engaging, or at least immediate, than the choir and strings-bedecked version that appeared on Demon Days. The layered, doo wop-inspired harmonies and pianos on "Highway (Under Construction)" bear the marks of fiddling around in the studio, but appealingly so -- and that goes double for the new wave/electro ramble "Rockit," on which Albarn makes "blah blah blah" sound almost profound. D-Sides finds him working in styles he couldn't fit on the album (although "Spitting Out the Demons"' dubby gloom comes the closest to Demon Days' final cut): "68 State"'s moody synth noodling could soundtrack an anime dystopia; "Hongkongaton" fuses dub and music hall; and "People" could be the mutant offspring of Britpop and synth pop. While many of D-Sides' tracks are sketches, the full-fledged songs are just as good as what ultimately appeared on Demon Days. "The Swagga," er, swaggers from retro-futuristic pop to messy, freewheeling rock, fulfilling the promise of rowdy snippets like "Murdoc Is God." Albarn also finds room for some surprisingly vulnerable moments; "Hong Kong," with its strings and shamisen, feels like a distant cousin of The Great Escape's "Yuko and Hiro," and "Stop the Dams" closes D-Sides' first disc on a quiet, heartfelt note. For longtime Albarn fans, this part of the collection is a lot of fun -- a trip through his scraps and oddities is still more rewarding than many other artists' magnum opuses.
D-Sides' remix disc is, somewhat surprisingly, more focused than the actual Gorillaz B-sides are. It's no surprise that Albarn has gathered an on-point cast of remixers, including Metronomy, Hot Chip, and the DFA, who begin the disc with its best track, a belligerent, percussive version of "Dare" that strips the song down to little more than Shaun Ryder's voice, percussion, and the odd buzzing synth. "Dare" inspired two of the disc's other standouts, a remix by Junior Sanchez and one by Soulwax. While not all of the remixes hit these heights, overall it's a fun set, and a good complement to the eclecticism of D-Sides' first disc.
Gorillaz aspire to be the greatest cartoon band of all time. Of course, there is serious competition for the crown. For decades now, the Archies have sat atop the cartoon mountain surveying the competition. Yes, they really only produced one great single, but what a single it was. (What a tragic irony that the love triangle in the band both fueled their art and also rent the band asunder.) "Sug...
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I love the Gorillaz. With that said if you are a true fan you should go out and get D-Sides. Some of the remixs are a little different, I'm not goin' lie. But songs like Hong Kong (my favorite song by Damon) is still amazing.
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Now that Blur have officially reunited(they are playing shows in London, summer '09, got an official email announcing so on Thurs.) I'm really wondering what is going on with Gorillaz. Someone had posted awhile back that Damon & Jamie were planning on doing another album, even after they had stated last year they would not.'Feel Good Inc' Live in Harlem:So will the Gorillaz album be postponed d...
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Gorillaz have caused quite a buzz about their new album of B-sides, rarities and live recordings from their Demon Days, titled D-Sides. Today the animated band uploaded the entire album to their my$pace player for you to listen to! So head over there and listen to D-Sides including the brand new recording of "Hong Kong" a song that's been huge at their live shows, but never officially release...
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Yay Gorillaz news! While the duo behind the cartoon band haven't made any new Gorillaz tunes (they've been hard at work on a buddhist theatre production), there's going to be a new release nonetheless. November 5th will be the day Parlophone releases D-Sides in the UK and Virgin will release it in the US on the 6th. D-Sides is a two CD collection of previously unreleased music. The first di...
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Damon Albarn is on of the most important musicians playing today. Blur, Mali Music, and Gorillaz all show the vast aray of his talents. BBC is playing this video to promote the Olympic games coming up next month. It is based upon the traditional Chinese folklore 'Journey to the West'...I can't say I have any excitement for it quite yet...but I might as the games begin.
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Gorillaz aspire to be the greatest cartoon band of all time. Of course, there is serious competition for the crown. For decades now, the Archies have sat atop the cartoon mountain surveying the competition. Yes, they really only produced one great single, but what a single it was. (What a tragic irony that the love triangle in the band both fueled their art and also rent the band asunder.) "Sug...
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The Gorillaz will release D-Sides, an assortment of B-sides from their previous studio album Demon Days, early demos and previously unreleased tracks. The album will be released November 20th.Some cool tricks on the rarities album include a Mandarin version of "Dirty Harry," the Bees collabo on "Bill Murray," as well as the collabo with Sugarcubes' Einar Orn on "Stop The Dams." The track is a p...
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This song is probably the last song we'll hear from the Gorillaz. Did you hear? They 'broke up' Well, Damon decided not to keep going with them "There will not be a 3rd Gorillaz album" and such. But yea, this song came on the single of El Manana/Kids With Guns. It's really great. It takes all that is Gorillaz, and puts it into one song. Well, the atmospheric trippy sounding side of gorillaz. I ...
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I love the Gorillaz. With that said if you are a true fan you should go out and get D-Sides. Some of the remixs are a little different, I'm not goin' lie. But songs like Hong Kong (my favorite song by Damon) is still amazing.
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When I first looked at downloading some songs from the Help: A Day in the Life charity album, my only real goal was to get the new Radiohead song. While "I want none of this" is a beautiful song reminiscent of "I will"- I was disappointed that it seemed more like just Thom singing at his piano not a band effort. At that time I was really digging the Demon Days CD and saw they had this song on t...
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 "D-Sides")
