Bobby Womack Credits Gorillaz For His Comeback - Starpulse

Soul legend Bobby Womack has credited Damon Albarn's group Gorillaz for kickstarting his career after excessive drug use robbed him of his creative edge.

The singer/songwriter, dubbed 'the final great soul man', all but renounce the music business following the end of his baby son in 1978 and he admits lots of the medicine he wrote and recorded after the tragedy wasn't up to his previous standards.

Benji Boko wants Gorillaz collaboration - Female First

debut album, 'Beats, Treats, and all things Alone' in June - the dance musician is running on his ultimate musical goal of collaborating with the musician, wjho is a member of both Gorillaz and Blur.

He said: "I'd love to play with Damon Albarn and the Gorillaz - I haven't approached any of them yet because I'm not in a place for them to need to do that with me. I recognize that I'm not ready. Since then I've been running on bits and bobs with him and we're hopefully doing a few more collaborations and remixes so it's all good.

"I want to get a good remix and a very good album arsenal under my belt before I can do that because at the instant it feels like I don't take enough ammo. I want to get more ammunition and then I'll be in a place to get to those people but I definitely set my goals high and if Damon is reading - he needs to get in touch!"

The manufacturer has previously collaborated with a chain of artists including Roots Manuva, Beardyman and Deuce Eclipse - but he counts his biggest accomplishment to see as getting vocalist Maxi Jazz from Faithless on his single 'Where My Heart Is'.

He added: "I wasn't star struck by Maxi. He's such a decent and normal guy so that made it easy. We just hung out for the day in the studio and went to follow the expression one in Brighton - then went back to the studio and recorded before he drove back up to London.

"Since then I've been running on bits and bobs with him and we're hopefully doing a few more collaborations and remixes so it's all good."

Benji's debut album 'Beats Treats and All Things Unique' is out now.

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Transmission Party Time: TJ's Guide to Gorillaz Part 1 of ! Demon .

Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett were seated around watching some pop start on TV. Damon said to Jamie that a cartoon band could do it in this day and age. So they started a cartoon band.

Blur had been Damon`s main gig for almost ten days and they only released their sixth album 13. Blur had been winding down and hadn`t been working as often.

Gorillaz: The Fall PopMatters

biggest leap yet into the medicine of the next with an idiosyncratic and now-familiar new project, Gorillaz, which was soon honored by the Guinness Book of World Records as the Most Successful Virtual Band. Now, with The Fall, Gorillaz`s latest release, Albarn rides another trend into the future; the album was recorded entirely on an iPad during the band`s 2010 tour in back of Plastic Beach.

Each lead is set in a different location, as many of the titles imply and the album notes make explicit. The listener follows the circle from the East to the West Coast, tracing a course through the center of the state from Montreal to Seattle. The iPad production and the ephemeral recording circumstances cause the album something of a song-a-day project, and Gorillaz encourage that impression by including radio news clips and lyrics about various locales. "Oh Texas, can you see me? / Speed up on the dawn / To the pinks and vapours of Houston / In the sun," sings Albarn on "The Parish of Space Dust", which was recorded, obviously, in Houston. If the concept sounds a bit novel, Gorillaz have acknowledged as much-The Strike was originally released to fan club members last Christmas, and it`s streaming free at the band`s website.

The music, composed largely of slow-paced hip hop beats with or without vocals, has the fluid impressionism you might require from a travelogue. Tracks like "Phoner to Arizona", "Shy-Town" and "Amarillo" plod forward with the soothing aimlessness of a long bus ride. Some are simple sketches, like the delightful "Aspen Forest", and all have the notion of playful, impulsive work-shopping. It`s much looser than Plastic Beach, but The Fall shares the latter`s sense of flat immediacy. The driving forces behind the music are the luxurious textures and deceptively simple rhythms, not the lackadaisical vocals or barely intelligible lyrics. In other words, The Light is a more fleeting and less consistent interpretation of what Gorillaz has done all along, subordinating the substance of the medicine to the voice and sense of its creation.

In kind as good as content, The Return is more like a pet project than a full-fledged release. Gorillaz is not the low lot to get a meandering travelogue record, and their contribution can hardly stand up to giants of the genre like the KLF`s Chill Out. Even so, there are quiet enough surprises and enough subtleties to create The Dusk an absorbing listen. At the very least, it`s a musical day-in-the-life of one of the strangest, most inventive bands in music, and you can`t argue with that. You can always trust Albarn to get his eye on the larger picture, though, and as a statement, The Light is often more than a passing fancy. It may have been conceived and executed on the intake of the moment, but it`s also testimony to the growing capabilities of portable devices like the iPad and the potentially renewed appeal of a concept album in an industry unmanned by technological progress. Once again, Albarn may be onto something.

Rating:

Symbols: Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

This issue featured an ensemble of music talent that summed up the feelings of an entire generation that almost got left behind.Damon Albarn kept his men in the work, but he passed along some of the creative reigns to a new dash and direction.There were rumors that Beck put effort into the project, that Jamie Hewlett died, that Mark Wahlberg helped aid in the production out of his own pocket, but there's a whole horde of whispers surrounding the project.

BOMB Music Review Group: Gorillaz - The Fall Album Review

Gorillaz - The Fall Album Review

So the history behind this album is reasonably interesting; it's made up of songs they made while they were on tour, on a Ipad, from October 3rd to October 30th. Released on Christmas Day 2010 to fans of theirfan clubwith plans for a physical release sometime in 2011.Was this a type of, Hey let's have some music on a Ipad or Let's do some music using the Ipad?

Gorillaz "The Light" Review

GORILLAZThe Fall

* * * 1/2

The Fall, Damon Albarn`s fourth full-length album under the Gorillaz moniker, consists of fifteen electronic tracks that don`t really do any purpose-the album doesn`t run easily at all, and they absolutely sound like what they are, namely iPad-created experiments created by Albarn on the 2010 Gorillaz American tour.Some of them are rather good; some are unlistenable.

a small boy waits. The Gorillaz (as far as I think it)

The Gorillaz (as far as I think it)

Shit. What the fuck happened last night? Did the Gorillaz just work their final show EVER? Did The Clash just get back together? Why is that dude from 'Blur' tattooed on my girlfriend`s tity? Did I truly see Bobby Womack wearing Bishop Don Juan`s suit? Nah, must have been the acid. Whose melodica is this? _ Holdup_ (*In Celine voice*) It`s all coming second to me now.

Gorillaz - Sydney Entertainment Centre - Music - Time Out Sydney

Review: Many days ago, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett sat in the level they shared, watching time after clip on MTV, their minds becoming progressively duller as they realized how rarely anything of content was being produced. It was from this that the player and artist decided to create Gorillaz, a cartoon band whose visual component was only as significant and creative as the music.

The Essex Boy Review: GORILLAZ – G Sides (!00!)

GORILLAZ - G Sides (2002)

I thought Blur were pretty prolific back in the 1990s, putting loads of weird and wonderful stuff on their CD single extra tracks. But as for Damon Albarn in Noughties?! He`s proved nearly inconceivable to hold up with and the constant high measure of the music he puts out is pretty damn incredible!

This album should be weak really.

The Essex Boy Review: GORILLAZ – G Sides (!00!)

GORILLAZ - G Sides (2002)

I thought Blur were pretty prolific back in the 1990s, putting loads of weird and wonderful stuff on their CD single extra tracks. But as for Damon Albarn in Noughties?! He`s proved nearly inconceivable to hold up with and the constant high measure of the music he puts out is pretty damn incredible!

This album should be weak really.

Josh's Bloggamathing: Gorillaz: Fan Rant

Gorillaz: Fan Rant

People, (By which I mean YouTube comment posters and my sister, .Nouns barely classed as "People") Have been talking and complaining about how the "New Gorillaz" is dissimilar from the "Old Gorillaz". I have news for you, folks: Gorillaz is a project, not a band. I have been a fan since 1999, my firstfavouriteband and even up there.

Gorillaz

metabolism in 1998, have seen their animated ways capture the fascination of a public thirsty for music that is fresh while garnering admiration from peers clamoring to escape realties` confines and joint in the collective.

Touring with Gorillaz on this Run To Plastic Beach World Tour are N.E.R.D. The beat makers from Virginia Beach are promoting their upcoming record Nothing. Led by Pharrell Williams, N.E.R.D`s rousing set included cuts off the new album as good as favorites. And while club hits like Rockstar and Lapdance got the girls screaming and shakin` their asses it was the new material that impressed and showed the band`s growth. Pharrell has graduated from simply relying on his swagger and sex appeal in his execution to displaying capabilities as both songwriter and vocalist. No more was this evident than on new tracks God Blame Us All and I See The Light.

It was time for the chief dish. An impressive and slick stage setup was the delicious eye candy with which Gorillaz` grand performance satisfied. A giant screen showcased videos depicting the animated adventures of virtual band members 2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel while below it huge neon letters spelt out the bands name, serving as a background for a massive myriad of music makers. Some of the folks joining Albarn onstage included an eight piece string section, a brass section, four back up vocalists, a 5 piece middle eastern outfit, cameos from hip hop legends De La Soul, Soul singer Bobby Womack and Little Dragon vocalist Yukimi Nagano, not to mention reunited former Clash members Mick Jones and Paul Simonon on guitar and bass respectively.

The medicine and animation, playing out in beautiful synchronicity created a vibrant energy that lasted all night long. The opening rhymings of Snoop Dogg on Welcome To The Creation of The Plastic Beach. Stylo; featuring Bobby Womack on vocals and an ass kicking high speed chasing Bruce Willis on the big screen. White Flag; assisted by some incredible instrumentation from the Arab American players Albarn claimed joined Gorillaz on a gig in Damascus. The mysterious Empire Ants and the great Dirty Harry. The set showcased the sleight of Albarn`s composition while Hewlett`s accompanying animated universe allowed for that foundation to make out and feeling each of the thousands of Rogers Arena patrons in attendance.

With Gorillaz, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett have created a grammy winning and platinum selling conceptual form of art. The Flight To Plastic Beach World Tour is redefining what the concert going experience can be. In a word, to experience Gorillaz is to be entertained.

Gavin Reid

Win Tickets to See Gorillaz Live at The O! on Spoonfed - Things to .

Virtual bandGorrillaz was created by Damon Albarn of Blur fame and Jamie Hewlett creator of Tank Girl.

Now is your prospect to keep the new single Doncamatic from Gorillaz and get them go on their maiden world tour.

One lucky Spoonfed user will win a couple of tickets to see the Gorillaz live in London on 14th or 16th of November.

Gorillaz Make Triumphant Return to Southern California With Lou .

Noel Vasquez, Getty Images

About midway through Gorillaz multimedia extravaganza at L.A.'s Gibson Ampitheatre on Wednesday night, frontman Damon Albarn reminisced about closing out Coachella 2010. By all accounts a great success, Albarn admitted the express left a permanent impression on the group. "Coachella gave us a smell of positivity about coming to America," he said, causing the crowd - many of which were likely in attending at the festival - to erupt.

New Music, Music Reviews - GORILLAZ TO BE United BY LOU REED

Gorillaz have confirmed that Lou Reed will join them one more time on the Flight To Plastic Beach tour, appearing with Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewlett and crew October 27 at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. This the 2nd time Reed will join Gorillaz on the tour, the foremost being October 8 at New York`s Madison Square Garden. Miho Hatori will be the second special guest from the Madison Square Garden extravaganza to reappear at the Los Angeles show.