Starshine

Starshine (Demo)

Starshine 

Starshine (Gorillaz Live 2001)

Starshine (Demon Detour)

"I feel so unnecessary"

- Damon Albarn, "Star Shaped"

If not for the band's brilliant b-side, "Dracula", "Starshine" would be Gorillaz most straight forward dive into the music of dubby reggae. The song's beat is anchored around a brilliant guitar line by Damon and a quiet drum machine provided by Dan The Automator. However the instrumental's star player is bassist Junior Dan delivering his greatest bass line on the record (The beats even stops for a moment after the first verse to give him a moment in the spotlight). In the background are atmospheric synthesizers and a dubby piano, all of which give the track a distant and chilled out groove.

Thankfully, the raps provided by Phi Life Cypher on the track's original demo were removed in production (although they were later re-hashed in a brilliant Gorillaz b-side "The Sounder"). The space that was once filled by gratuitious raps was now mostly empty, leaving more room for the listener to take in the song's brilliant instrumental (which any good dubby reggae should have). However, some of the now empty space was filled by an extra verse from Damon, which brings us to another star player on this track.

"Starshine" was most likely recorded in Jamaica due to it's dub feel. Damon Albarn, who at the time was struggling with heroin withdrawal and a recent break up, spent a lot of time outside staring ointo the Jamaican night sky (which is where he wrote and recorded the intro for Gorillaz track "Sound Check (Gravity)"). On "Starshine", Damon Albarn uses the night sky to write one of the most blatantly depressing and personal lyrics he has ever written. The song's main lyric is: "Starshine, never gonna find me? Starshine, they ain't gonna find me. Starshine, never gonna find me?  Starshine, never gonna find me." On "Starshine", Damon has his cartoon alter ego 2D staring into the night sky. He sees the darkness of the night sky and notices the light, or "shine", of the stars. The "starshine" is the only thing from keeping the outside world completely dark and wonders if he can ever grasp on to that light, seeing it as a way out of his own depression. 2D, being mentally challenged, soon realizes that the stars are far away and that the "starshine" is "never gonna find" him. 2D realizing there is no easy way out (no light at the end of the tunnel one could say) learns to "stand easy with (himself)" and find a way to be content. While the lyrics are written from the perspective of a depressed half-wit, the lyrics can easily be transferred to Damon's own feelings and personal struggles.

"Starshine" was a constant on the band's first couple of tours. The track was often extended up to 5 minutes, giving room for a melodica solo by Damon as well as some sonic and atmospheric sounds from the other members of the band's various touring groups. The visuals Jamie made to accompany it were cartoony graphics of stars and lights. These visuals contained no presence of the band's fictional members which meant that on the first tour, the audience caught a rare glimpse to see a silhouette of the man behind the music, giving Damon the spotlight on the album's most personal and "real" song.

Latin Simone

Latin Simone (English Demo)
Latin Simone (Que Pasa Contigo)
Latin Simone (2D & Ibrahim Ferrer Duet)
Latin Simone (Live 2001)
Latin Simone (Demon Days Live Tour 2005)

"Latin Simone" is the first of many Gorillaz songs to lack a definitive version. It's original release as a b-side on the "Tomorrow Comes Today" EP was a Damon Albarn sung track with instrumentation that took influence from trip hop, reggae and of course, Cuban music. The album version expands on the track's Cuban direction by featuring Ibrahim Ferrer, of Cuba's very own Buena Vista Social Club, singing a new lead vocal in place of Damon's.

The track's instrumental features a Dan The Automator breakbeat layered on top of a drum sample from Keith Mansfield's "Incidental Backcloth No. 3." On top of this is a delicate piano line by Damon and a Junior Dan bass line which (as usual) fits perfectly with Dan and Damon's instrumentals. To compliment the track, Damon Albarn and Miho Hatori do choral type backing vocals bringing out the power in the words of the lead singer. Between the verses, Damon Albarn's melodica duets with Mike Smith's Bolero influenced trumpet. The two instruments feed off each other, giving the beat a bit more of a looser feel than the other trip hop tracks on this record.

 The original version featuring Damon's vocals takes more of a darker connotation. On most of the tracks on this record, Damon dances around the idea of 2D, the fictional band's singer, having issues with depression, addiction, anxiety and many other mental issues. However, on "Latin Simone", Damon lays it out very bluntly. He talks about killing himself, giving up in order "to survive" and even has 2D question himself, "what's the matter with me?" This is the track where 2D finally cracks and breaks down, facing his issues head on by talking about them openly with no gimmicks or metaphors.

The album version of the track acts as a response to the track's original incarnation. 2D looks to the guidance of someone older and wiser, someone who has been through a lot more than he has. This person is none other than the Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer. Ibrahim Ferrer (along with lyric-writing help from fellow Buena Vista Social Club member, Lazaro Villa) takes the track into a whole new direction. Ibrahim Ferrer talks to 2D in Spanish, telling him to focus on the good things. He helps 2D see that his life is wonderful and that killing himself is not the answer. As Ibrahim delivers his last few words of wisdom, Damon Albarn and Mike Smith go all out on their melodica and trumpet solos ending the track on a high note.

Ibrahim Ferrer never played "Latin Simone" live with the group, leaving the version played on the original Gorillaz Live tour in shambles. Since the original touring band (excluding dubby bassist Junior Dan) were mainly rock musicians, they weren't able to do a Cuban-reggae fusion song justice. This meant the track was mainly focused on samples of Mike Smith's trumpet (he was too busy playing keyboards in the group to play the trumpet live) and Ibrahim's vocals, which took away the loose element of the original and made it into a stiff run through that sounded like it was a chore. "Latin Simone" was thankfully dropped after the first couple shows of the tour (although I still wonder why they didn't just do the English version, that way Damon could have sung it). When Ibrahim Ferrer died in 2005, Gorillaz ended their landmark Demon Days Live shows that year by playing the song in tribute to him. Since the Demon Days Live band was huge and varied, the track was able to thrive taking on more of an organic Cuban style with the inclusion of Latin percussion by Darren Galea. No samples were used aside from a recording of Ibrahim's voice, giving Damon the ability to go all out on his melodica while Mike Smith held down Damon's piano line. As the band played, footage of Ibrahim Ferrer singing the track in 13 Studios was displayed on the screen. "Latin Simone" became one of the last vocals Ibrahim Ferrer ever recorded, ending off his singing career in an extraordinary and brilliant way.

19/2000

19/2000 (Album Version)
19/2000 (Music Video Version)
19/2000 (Gorillaz Live Tour 2001)
19/2000 (2010 Live, with Miho Hatori)
19/2000 (2010 Live, with Roses Gabor)
19/2000 (Humanz Live, with Kilo Kish)

"Fun, natural fun."
- Tina Weymouth, "Genius Of Love"

"19/2000" (or "19-2000", as it is sometimes written) is one of Gorillaz happiest songs. It sounds as if it was written with the intention to make the perfect pop song. The track's rhythmic basis is based around a drum sample of Bit A'Sweet's cover of The Beatles' "If I Needed Someone" and on top of it, Damon delivers one of his catchiest synthesizer hooks, one of the song's main attractions. To provide some extra groove to this track is Junior Dan delivering a smooth soulful bass line which is doubled by a synth bass played by Damon. But the spotlight (as on most happy songs) is on the vocals.

Damon sings this song very differently than he does other Gorillaz tracks.  On the rest of the band's debut album, he sounds angry, disaffected, paranoid, anxious, schizophrenic and even at times, suicidal. On "19/2000", Damon sounds happy, as happy as he was back in the early days of his Britpop band Blur. He sings about trying to move on from his past but is unable to, he compares this to being stuck in a pair of "lead Nike shoes." However Damon's mother (or maybe 2D's mother) tells him to make his "own shoes." His own will (or has he puts it, his lead Nikes) are what keep him "tethered" to "the days he tries to lose." But if he were to try to move on, he would feel better, he has to make his own happiness (or shoes) in order to truly be happy. As for the rest of this song, Damon is just being happy with no additional meaning, keeping his "groove on" one could say. He sings about monkeys in the jungle, listens to the music that he chooses, and he scats along in falsetto to the song's multiple hooks. However the most infectious part of this song, isn't Damon's doing. The hook of this track belongs to the voice of Noodle, Miho Hatori. "Here you go..."

Miho Hatori owns the chorus of nonsensical words, "Get the cool, get the cool shoeshine." While she sings this, Damon forms a choir of falsetto mouth trumpet noises. It has no deeper meaning, it's just a happy chorus sung by a contagiously happy ten year old Japanese girl who barely knows any English. Noodle is so happy, she is able to make the depressed and anxious 2D the happiest blue haired man in the world, at least for one song.

One of the biggest influences on the sound of this track (as well as a couple other Gorillaz tracks) is the band Tom Tom Club. Tom Tom Club are a funky dance group that have been majorly sampled in hip hop over the years and consist of the rhythm section of the brilliantly artsy and weird punk-funk band Talking Heads, bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz. So when Dan The Automator thought the track needed something, he e-mailed the track to the duo and they were able to give the song it's finishing touches. At the band's home studio, Tina Weymouth recorded some smooth "la la" backing vocals over Damon's pre-chorus of scats and Chris Frantz added some finger snaps over the song's quiet and subtle ending. While these additions may not seem like much, these simple add ons are what got the track on to the album. So we can thank these two for allowing this brilliant piece of work to be released to the public (we should also thank them for their astounding work with Talking Heads and Brian Eno, but this blog isn't about the two of them, it's about Gorillaz).

Jamie Hewlett once again perfectly captures the song with the visuals he made for it. The video consists of the band driving in their Geep, the vehicle featured on the cover of the band's record. Murdoc drives the group on to a course full of safety hazards, ranging from a loop de loop to a broken bridge to even an alien invasion. However, their biggest obstacle is the giant elk at the end of the road. Murdoc tries to kill it with the Geep's weapon system, but the elk sneezes back the giant bullets, causing the band to be left in a pile of debris. In this video, the group goes through just as many obstacles as they usually do in their videos. But in this video, they don't fret and remain happy as can be, until the end that is. When the bullets hit them, the characters go back to being as unhappy as they are on the rest of the record, their happiness being only a brief 3 minute interlude on an album full of darkness and anxiety.

Miho Hatori was not able to go with Gorillaz on their first tour as she was (and still is) leading her own group, Cibo Matto. So on Gorillaz 2001 tour, the song was reliant on samples of her vocals as well as the song's main drum sample, leaving very little room for improvisation (excluding a cool slide guitar part by Simon Katz giving the song a blues edge). The track achieved radio success through a much faster dance-pop remix, by producers Stuart Bradbury and Electric Six's Damien Mendis under the name Soulchild. Unlike the remix of "Clint Eastwood" whose success quickly faded away, this remix is sadly the version of "19/2000" most people know as opposed to its perfect original. After not playing the track for 9 years, the track experienced a surprise revival on the band's "Escape To Plastic Beach Tour." On this tour, it was played much faster and was given more room to breathe. Tina Weymouth's backing vocals are covered by the tour's in-house choir, which along with Damon's vocals, convey a sense of energy which wasn't present in it's earlier live incarnation. However, it was on this tour that Damon finally got to play a Gorillaz song live with the voice who made this song, Miho Hatori. In the footage you can see how well they work off each other and how much fun they are having together (for all we know, the two haven't seen each other since 2001). On the nights Miho couldn't make it, Noodle's vocals were covered by her voice on "Demon Days", Gorillaz backing vocalist Roses Gabor.  The Humanz Tour version featured her vocals done by Kilo Kish and the band would often extend the song's outro jam in a brilliant fashion. "19/2000" is one of Gorillaz best party songs and will most likely continue to not only be a part of the band's live performances and overall career, but the band's presence in the eyes of the masses.

Rock The House

Rock The House (Full Length)
Rock The House (Music Video Version)
Rock The House (Live with Phi Life Cypher)

""Rock The House" really shouldn't have been on the record, it's the one thing on the record that I don't really like..."
- 2D

"This is a great track, but without the presence of 2D's vocal, it only kinda does half the job of "Clint Eastwood.""
- Russel Hobbs

"We should have deleted the track there and then. That's the last time I listen to a record label's advice about what a single should be."
- Murdoc Niccals

"There was one song that stood out for me in those sessions, "Rock The House." I came to the studio one day and heard just the horn line being looped. I recognized this phrase as one I liked and started to jam (on) the bass line."
- Junior Dan

At the dawn of a new millennium, Dan The Automator and Kid Koala were simultaneously working on two records. The duo were working on "Gorillaz" of course, but they were also working with Del The Funky Homosapien on a new project called Deltron 3030. Deltron 3030 was a concept album involving two rebels, rapper Deltron Zero and his DJ Automator, who want to take down the 31st century New World Order where human rights as well as their beloved hip hop are being forcefully suppressed. During the concurrent recording sessions for these two records, Automator and Kid Koala would often ask Damon to contribute instrumentation to "Deltron 3030" as well as a vocal hook for "Time Keeps On Slipping", a brilliant song off the Deltron record. Damon also served as the album's narrator and was even given a role on the album as Sir Damien Thorn VII Of The Cockfosters Clan. Del was also given the same treatment for the Gorillaz record of course, has he raps on a couple tracks on the record and was given the role of Del The Ghost Rapper. Despite Damon and Del never formally meeting, Automator and Kid Koala managed to make their duets from a far work giving the two albums a brother-sister type relationship.

"Rock The House" was most likely a track recorded for "Deltron 3030" as Del's rapping and Automator's samples are the most prominent forces on the track. Damon's only role on the song is providing flute and piano flourishes to add on to Dan The Automator's beat. Junior Dan's bass line has more of a presence then Damon on the song. However the song's feel good atmosphere didn't fit in with the dark and reflective atmosphere on the rest of the Deltron record, so they (either by their own choice or by pressure from the record label) decided to stick it on the Gorillaz record.

"Rock The House" is a hip hop party track about getting down. The song's instrumental seems to be an experiment in jazz fusion and funk as it heavily utilizes a brass sample from John Dankworth's "Modesty Blaise" and Junior Dan's bass line is reminiscent of some of Bootsy Collins' calmer moments (one of Del's verses even name checks Bootsy's band Parliament Funkadelic). While Damon and Jamie may possibly harbor some resentment for this track being included on the record, the track is a welcome encore for Del The Funky Homosapien to show us his skills on the mic. His flow on this track is just fantastic and his rhymes (while not as thought provoking as his verses on "Clint Eastwood") are exquisite.

Despite the track's tight groove and flow, it has been argued that this track is the album's weakest link. The song's bright and happy production sticks out like a sore thumb among the post-punk, lo fi and dubby production on the other tracks. However the first album is one of Gorillaz most experimental records, flipping genres and mood sets as the band pleases, on your first listen you don't where the record is gonna go next. And on top of this, Jamie's original idea was to have Russel be able to channel rappers through his mind, making these spirit rappers permanent members of the band as well the band's recording output. So it's only fitting that we have a song led by one of these spirits, Del The Ghost Rapper.

"Rock The House" was not supposed to be a single, the track was even slotted as a b-side on Gorillaz first formal release, the "Tomorrow Comes Today" EP. However the record label pushed for the track to be a single in an effort to re-capture the surprise success of Gorillaz first hit single, "Clint Eastwood." This knocked off "5/4" (the song Damon and Jamie had wanted to be a single since it's conception) once again as a single release, making it the final nail in the track's coffin. However, despite the fact that "Rock The House" will forever be linked with the label's dominance and Gorillaz lack of artistic freedom at the time, the video Jamie Hewlett made for it is one of the band's greatest music videos. It features the cartoon band in a battle with Del and his army of big breasted inflatable monkeys using ball firing cannons and outrageous pelvic thrusting. It's vulgar and it's campy, but it fits the song like a pleasant looking glove.

"Rock The House" was a constant on the band's first tour. While Del couldn't be there to perform it with them, Gorillaz veterans Phi Life Cypher do a good job filling in for Del and their verses (after a bit of tweaking) would later be used in Gorillaz b-side and fan favorite, "The Sounder." As for the band, they have a fun time jamming on the song's vamp of a groove. Cass Browne and Junior Dan form a tight rhythm, while guitarist Simon Katz cleverly solos over it. Damon even gets to break out his beloved (and infamous) flute, which is something he doesn't often do in concert. The song will never be played live again as Damon and Jamie have voiced their quarrels with the song through their characters. Despite the song's flaws, "Rock The House" remains a fun and integral part of Gorillaz first album as well as their original intentions.

Double Bass

Double Bass

"Lo Fi Thriller"

If "Punk" is the Gorillaz equivalent to Blur's one punk song per album rule, "Double Bass" is the equivalent to the instrumentals that are present on every Blur record. Like their punk tracks, Blur use their instrumentals as a way to take a break from the album's thematic idea or genre mood set. Blur's instrumentals are often freestyle jams recorded on the spot and often use Damon's organ as a central point, some examples include the campy brass heavy track "The Debt Collector" or the chaotic and trippy "Theme From Retro." "Double Bass" is no different.

"Double Bass" is Damon Albarn and Junior Dan jamming out on two bass guitars (hence why the track is called "Double Bass") while Jason Cox lays down a smooth beat on the drums. Damon Albarn later overdubbed some synthesizers and, of course, his organ to provide some more melodies for the song (he also may have overdubbed an actual double bass on to the track as I can hear one way in the background, but that may just be the sounds of Damon Albarn and Junior Dan's fingers sliding on the fretboards). Dan The Automator and Kid Koala must have thought this track had more potential, because soon they started majorly editing and reworking the track. Kid Koala added scratches on to the track's mix via his turntable, and Dan The Automator started taking instruments in and out of the mix as he pleased at various times. Dan The Automator also stopped the track mid way through, giving Damon the room to mutter in his quiet voice: "All of this makes me anxious, at times unbearably so" before the track resumes as if nothing was said.

According to "Rise Of The Ogre," the Gorillaz autobiography, this track was made by Russel recording the sounds inside 2D's head. 2D is a very anxious and paranoid character, so this may have been Damon and the crew's intention when making this song. The track's tense yet simple atmosphere works as the inner monologue of a a person consumed by paranoia. Everyone has a song that's constantly playing in their head, it's the brain's equivalent of "elevator music." Imagine the song playing in the head of a schizophrenic person consumed by anxiety, it would probably sound like "Double Bass."

"Double Bass" was never formally played live. During their first tour, the band played behind a screen to keep the illusion of the characters and their music present and not the real people behind the music. Instrumentals only work live when you can see the band playing them, that way you can feed in on their energy and see how they effortlessly work off each other as a unit. With the band behind a screen, the song would have gotten boring to most casual concertgoers, no matter how many exciting and brilliant visuals Jamie could produce for it. However during the tour's 2002 North American leg, "Double Bass" would play on the intercom between the main set and the encore while the band and crew set up for their last couple of songs. "Double Bass" is a brilliant and powerful jam from the band's early days which most people might not appreciate, but a true fan does.

Sound Check (Gravity)

Sound Check (Gravity)

Sound Check (Gorillaz Live Tour 2001)

Sound Check (Demon Detour)

"It's over, you don't need to tell me."

- Damon Albarn, "No Distance Left To Run"

"Sound Check (Gravity)" is the most complex song on the band's debut record, both instrumentally and lyrically. It starts with the sound of Damon Albarn singing and playing his acoustic guitar outside on a dark and mellow night in Jamaica. The low quality of the recording gives you the feeling that you are right there with him, you can hear the crickets chirping in the distance (and even a bit of Damon breathing and sniffling before he sings). He then starts to sing, "Gravity, on me, never let me down gently. Gravity, with me, never let me go, no, no, gravity." As he says the last few words an eery reverb soaked piano comes in cueing in a whole new direction for the song.

Now the song is a dark trip hop track featuring a Dan The Automator breakbeat combined with interjections from Jason Cox's live drums to give you an uneasy feeling. Damon plays countermelodies on various synthesizers in the background and Junior Dan plays a phenomenal bass line which goes perfectly with the song's cryptic yet reflective beat. However in this section, the main focus is on Kid Koala who scratches up a vocal line which says: "I don't know, love is breaking."

The song then changes again, now the song is quieter with more room for Junior Dan's bass guitar and Damon's various keyboards to take the center stage. Over this Damon repeats: "I don't pull me down, I don't pull me down on me. I don't pull me down, I don't pull me down on you." After this the song gets loud again like it was before, being cued by the same piano that cued the first direction change.

The song stops, and then we are back with Damon, alone in the Jamaican nighttime setting. This time however, he's accompanied by more of his own "string" synths to provide countermelodies. Quickly after we get back to the song's original landscape, it changes again. Now both of Damon's vocal lines sing at the same time over the quiet trip hop beat that took place before. The two vocal lines give a call and response to each other, which conveys the feeling of two people talking to each other. Maybe these people were lovers realizing their relationship is at an endpoint. One doesn't want to let go, the other just wants to take them-self away from the blame. Could the lyrics be a commentary on a past relationship Damon had? He does sound very torn up in the beginning, we can even hear him sniffling before he begins to sing. This song (along with another Gorillaz song "5/4") has the strong possibility of being about the traumatic end of his relationship with Britpop star Justine Frischmann. Damon representing the heartbroken "gravity" character, and Justine representing the character who "don't pull me down." After the pair end their last conversation, Damon wails "gravity" in anguish over the loud and angry trip hop beat we heard before. Soon, Kid Koala delivers his last scratches, and the band suddenly stops. Their time together has reached it's end, it's time to move on.

"Sound Check" became a staple of the Gorillaz first couple of tours. It's "loud quiet loud" dynamics worked very well as an "alternative rock" song. So, live the song became more of a rock piece, shedding its previous roots as weird Dan The Automator/Kid Koala trip hop. I doubt Gorillaz will ever play this song live again due to its frequent use of falsetto vocals, but it would be a shame if this one didn't get played at least one last time. "Sound Check (Gravity)" is one of the most beautiful songs Gorillaz ever recorded, perfectly capturing the feeling of the end of a relationship in a way only  Gorillaz could.

Punk

Punk
Punk (Gorillaz Live Tour 2001)
Punk (Demon Detour)
Punk (Escape To Plastic Beach Tour, Visuals Only)

"Every album needs a track like this. Or, I'm not buying it."
- Murdoc Niccals

What Up?

"Punk" was one of the first songs recorded for the band's debut record. This song along with b side "Ghost Train" was written and recorded before Dan The Automator, Kid Koala, Junior Dan, Miho Hatori or even Cass Browne became involved in the project. This song is just Damon Albarn and Dave Rowntree, the drummer from his previous band Blur, unleashing 1 minute and 37 seconds of punk rock fury.

Shoot Up.

The song itself bears similarities to the fast 1 minute or below punk tracks Blur would put on their records like "Chinese Bombs" or "Bank Holiday" (It does feature half of Blur on the track). These songs would serve as a contrast with the more poppy (or later, experimental) sounds found on the record. The main difference between these tracks and "Punk" is that "Punk" has a more cartoony sound. It's possible since this was one of the first tracks written, that Damon just wanted to make a song that sounded like it was being made by a cartoon band. The ideas behind the characters and the idea to experiment in genre probably hadn't even been thought up yet. It was after these initial sessions, where "Ghost Train" and "Punk" were birthed, that the idea of genre experimentation and going outside of the "rock" area were realized, which is why Damon brought in two trip hop producers to bring in a new sound.

Fed Up!

The song begins with an ominous synth build up accompanied by a muted and processed drum set. This sounds like the opening to a Roxy Music song more than the opening of a song by a punk band like the Pixies. Soon Dave Rowntree's drums (now unfiltered and raw as can be) catch the track by surprise and the song morphs into a cartoonish hardcore punk sound. Double tracked guitars provide the songs rhythmic basis, accompanied by a bass guitar so treble sounding that its almost drowned out by the other instruments. The song uses a traditional "start and stop" formula, but every time the track stops, noisy synthesizers, a squealing feedback guitar and contagious handclaps fill in the gaps. Damon's vocals are loud and angry (he sounds like he's about to be sick in the beginning, coughing loudly over the intro). In typical punk rock outsider fashion, Damon sings about being "fed up" with being ignored by people and demands to be heard. He doesn't want to "shut up", he wants you to "shut up."

Shut Up!

As of when I am writing this, "Punk" has been a staple of every Gorillaz tour. In the band's first couple of tours, it was the main set closer and was majorly sped up. These versions emphasized the hardcore tendencies of the track, and focused less on the cartoony sound effects. Since it was a closer, the band would give the song a noisy "rock" finish with Cass Browne going all out on the drums while Haura Karouda as Noodle screamed "bye" into the mic accompanied by guitar amps which cried feedback. When played on the "Escape To Plastic Beach Tour" the song was played more traditionally while still retaining a fast and raucous hardcore vibe. Notably, the rhythm section of this tour contained guitarist Mick Jones and bassist Paul Simonon, both from The Clash, who were probably a huge influence on this track's sound. "Punk" is able to rock harder in under 2 minutes, than most "punk rock" bands in this millennium do in their entire career. Damon loves this song so much, that he started a tradition for the band. Every Gorillaz album has to have one short fast paced punk influenced track on it, so it can be that album's counterpart (or spiritual successor) to "Punk."

Man Research (Clapper)

Man Research (Clapper)
Man Research (Live)

"That thing is eyein' me up, IT WANTS TO EAT ME BLUD"
- 2D

"Man Research (Clapper)" is the strangest song on an album full of oddball tracks. The track's backbeat heavily utilizes a sample of the synth heavy song "In The Hall Of The Mountain Queen" by Raymond Scott, but the song isn't just based around this sample. On top of this, is a noisy electric guitar played by Damon (which is consumed by Dan The Automator's production to such an extent, that it sounds like another one of Damon's synthesizers) and a dubby bass groove courtesy of Junior Dan that gives the song similarities to The Clash's masterpiece "Straight To Hell." What could have been another weird trip hop track with heavy samples and a Dan The Automator drum machine, was turned into a noisy "no wave" track that sounds like it's trying to one up some of Graham Coxon's finest moments on Blur's magnum opus, "13." All of this is well and good (in fact it's brilliant), but the finest piece of this very detailed song, is Damon's vocals.

Damon sounds like he's going mad on this song with his constant shrieking falsetto (he begins the song by shouting "THIS IS A BREAKFAST CLUB"). The song's chorus consists of an army of Damon vocals. One is singing yeah yeah yeahs, another is growling in pain, the other is screaming and rambling, and the remaining are providing a calm and soothing backing vocal along with Miho Hatori. It sounds like it's all coming from the top of his head and wasn't written down before hand, pure improv. But do these random collection of phrases mean anything? Damon seems to be afraid of someone ("keep the man away from my door"), and he's seeing things like the pain killer Taffil and a silent junkie ("I see the Taffil in the sand... Bring me junkie in the lawn. He said nothing with his tongue.") This song, despite it's inconsistent lyrics, does have a very consistent theme. "Man Research" is another look inside the singer of Gorillaz, 2D.

 The painkiller addled frontman is often the subject of abuse from bassist Murdoc Niccals, he's the reason why 2D has no eyes and is addicted to drugs like Taffil in the first place. He most likely enhanced 2D's previous paranoia and anxiety to the point where he is a border line schizophrenic. The man 2D wants to keep away from the door is Murdoc. This song is a study on 2D's average day with the band, a "Man Research" if you will.

"Man Research" was a constant on the Gorillaz first tour. The guitars became rawer, and the song would end in full on punk rock fashion with Cass Browne going insane on the song's more restrained drum beat. Footage of the group playing it live behind the screen, shows Damon going all out on it, falling on to his knees and screaming into the mic. "Man Research" fits in nicely among the vast (and often overlooked) library of vicious rockers in the Gorillaz catalog. The song will never be played live again, as Damon can no longer do the falsetto as well as he could back in 2001, but Jamie and Damon may still be thinking about the song. The video for the band's 2012 single "DoYaThing" shows the band living in a house with a focus on what 2D is doing, culminating in a full on physical assault on the singer by Murdoc. Fans such as Ralphwiggum8, writer of another Gorillaz analysis "It's About Drugs Obviously," claim that the video also works for "Man Research" as it syncs up with the song, and deals with a similar subject matter as the lyrics. "Man Research (Clapper)" is a well loved song by Gorillaz fans which may never see the light of day again, but served it's time in the spotlight well.