Friday 8 August 2008

Bawley (hearts) hairy animals

With recent posts featuring owls, cats, bats, and wombats, you could be forgiven for thinking the Bawley crew has gone all Dr Doolittle.

On that note, we are not going to comment on the Wolfmother breakup. But instead we bring news of the latest release from Damon Albarn.

Monkey: Journey to the West is out on August 18th and it is going to be a little weird – a Mandarin language opera album that Albarn hopes listeners will approach without prejudice.

Teaming up with Gorillaz cohort Jamie Hewlett, the project came about after the two travelled China and were inspired by the size and diversity of the previously closed communist nation.

The Opera debuted at the Manchester International Festival, and last month opened for a season at the Royal Opera House.

Not happy with releasing an album of the live music, Albarn has gone done back into the studio to tweak the sound.

Albarn explained to 6Music:
“It has taken up like three years of my life. Making the record came out of having done lots of demos when I started to put the Opera together, and on stage you can’t get that electronic sound - so I’ve really tried to make what I think is a cool sounding record, with a lot of mad music. And yes, it is all in Mandarin.”
Albarn and Hewlett have also produced a series of short animations Monkey: Journey to the East that will be used to package BBC’s Olympic coverage. You can watch the trailer for yourself here

5 comments:

Nick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nick said...

In order to mark the passing of Wolfmother, allow me to quote Trent Reznor:

"I’ve just suffered through Wolfmother at some festival we just played. Come on, guys! You know what I mean. “I’m not saying they do a bad job but they’re a f***ing cover band. Not to single those poor young men out, but . . . ”

(http://www.thesun.co.uk
/sol/homepage/showbiz/sftw/article
1497804.ece)

Nick said...

As for Monkey - it looks cool. Channel 7 opted not to go for a collaberation between a legendary musician and a renowned animator for their Olympics idents. They've gone with little adverts for their 'broadcast partners' instead. Each to their own, I s'pose.

Hummer said...

Nick quoting Trent Reznor, how things have changed.

Next thing you know I will be singing the praises of Belle and Sebastian.


Step into My Office, Baby....

Nick said...

Belle & Sebastian are great! And while NIN are messing about with their fancy lighting, B&S are working on a musical! THAT's rock and roll!