68 State

68 State

"Demon Detour"

"68 State", the final b-side to "Feel Good Inc.", is an instrumental track which stays in line with one of Gorillaz many traditions in each phase. The track was most likely recorded in the early "Reject False Icons" stages of the project as it seems to fill the gap of the "instrumental track" Damon had on almost every album he made up to "Demon Days".

"68 State" mainly consists of three sections: a build-up intro which features a drum machine loop and synthesizers that sound like wind passing by (all of the above done by Damon). As the intro goes on, Jason Cox's steady bass guitar comes in and Damon warms up his "wah-wah" soaked electric guitar; the second part which features the guitar duetting a new melody with Damon's organ (a staple to all of his instrumental jams) and the third part which acts as the "chorus" to the second part's "pre-chorus" which features the guitar become triumphant, offering a fierce melody accompanied by synthesizers, with the synthesizers eventually taking over. The second and third parts make up the majority of this song through their many repeats.

A lot of Gorillaz songs are about cars or traveling of some kind. Songs like "19/2000" or "Stylo" have videos of the characters driving around and "M1 A1" is named after a British highway and details the band taking the road on a journey. This song continues that tradition, and is about the band driving down a highway, presumably one called "68 State". In the background, you can hear many synthesizer effects that sound like siren, wind and other car engines. These give you the feeling of being on a road trip with the band, if the song was given a visual, I'm sure it would have been the band riding around in a tour bus maybe in like the desert or something. In a way, this song is an ancestor to the experimental instrumentals (albeit using more organic instrumentation) on the band's record, "The Fall", which details Damon's thoughts while on the band's 2010 tour in America.

"68 State" was probably cut because with the album developing more of a concept storyline about American politics and religion, a track like this no longer fit on the record (maybe it could have been an interlude placed in the middle, but even then the track would have seemed like an unneeded detour from the actual record). "68 State" is a great track which works nicely along side the other Phase 2 Gorillaz tracks while retaining the spirit of Gorillaz sound, despite the lack of any vocals from Damon himself.