What would Murdoc make of it? Previously, Gorillaz live performances have seen the “real” musicians play anonymously behind a curtain. But not tonight. If anything, tonight’s show abandons the notion of Gorillaz as a “virtual band” altogether. It seems more about establishing Damon Albarn’s overdue re-emergence as a front man, after spending close to a decade in the background on a number of collaborative projects, from Mali Music to The Good, The Bad And The Queen and Gorillaz.
Slightly shorter playlist than usual this week, since I finally downloaded and began investigating the six and a half hours of astounding music that make up the “Honest Strings” Jack Rose tribute. Can’t recommend that one enough: I have a vague plan to write much more about it for my next column in the mag version of Uncut.
Been pondering this one for a while and, as I possibly implied in the blog about James Murphy’s “Greenberg” soundtrack, it’s hard not to conclude that the third LCD Soundsystem album is a bit of a letdown.
Quite a good one, this week: I think I can be more or less positive about everything here, actually, with the vague exception of the Yellow Swans live comp, which is a bit too industrial for me (John Cale, as it happens, described them thus: “The Swans’ sound grates on your nerves - like you’ve put your head in a jet engine.” Thumbs up!).