|
Dan "The Automator" Nakamura finds a post-Deltron-3030 vehicle for
his sizeable production skills in the form of Gorillaz. This musical
collaboration with Damon Albarn trades on the natty concept of being
a "multimedia" cartoon rock band, an Internet-based crew of cartoon
creations from the pen of "Tank Girl" creator Jamie Hewlett. As forward-thinking as this sounds, it just kind of makes Gorillaz an Archies/Josie & The Pussycats for the new millennium. It also makes
them and their album fit in with everyone else in the progressive
hip-hop canon, all of whom see fit to make slightly ludicrous concept
records. Through such varied projects as Bombay the Hard Way and
Dr.Octagon, the Automator has shown that he's at ease working in
different genres. Like Deltron 3030, his work in Gorillaz'
musically non-specific middle ground has made for a spry, diverse,
ever-juggling beat orgy of loops and instruments, flipping and
flopping through tracks with whim and panache. Best moment comes at the rec's most hip-hop — on "Rock the
House," Automator spins up a sweetiepie old-school hip-hop jam. Jazzy
piano and dapper horns duke out a dance-off, while the deep bass and
crunchy breaks provide a simple bed for the buttery-smooth voice of
Del The Funky Homosapien. Del, over a tune "funkier than Funkadelic
wearing Pampers," exhorts the audience to get on up: "Gravitational
pull/ I have you making a fool/ Out of yourself on the dance floor/
Doing backspins, running man, and more/ Getting down with vigor and
candor."
|
