Alburn hits all the right notes, albeit some out of tune
Release date: 23 September 2008
By Jerilyn Covert
There’s an old Chinese saying: Dream different dreams while on the same bed. Loosely interpreted, it means, you should give Damon Albarn’s newest project, Monkey, a listen. Possibly from the same bed you sat on when you listened to Blur and The Gorillaz. That’s because the apparent simian-obsessed artist has dared to try something really different: scoring an elaborate Chinese opera-circus. And the effort more than paid off. With the help of fellow Gorillaz cohort Jamie Hewlett and Chinese opera specialist Chen Shi-Zheng, Albarn composed the music for Monkey: Journey to the West, a classic Chinese tale dating back to the 1700s that tells the story of a little monkey who could transform himself into various creatures to overcome life’s obstacles. The album ranges from soft, Eastern meditation to out-of-tune chaos to militant booming to otherworldly enchantment. It’s the sort of surprising thing that saves music lovers from the tearful boredom that accompanies way too many of the major album releases these days.
East meets West in this hour-long extravaganza of oriental electronica. Songs like “The Living Sea” and “Heavenly Peach Banquet” are positively beautiful–fluttery and haunting, almost transformative. They stand in glaring contrast to the thunder and stomp of “The Dragon King” and “March of the Iron Army.” The effect is dramatic, story-like, (this is theatre music, after all), and like a good story, the music opens up to another world that invites you inside. Some people may find some of the sounds off-putting, even screechy, weird or uncomfortable. Take “Tripitaka’s Curse,” a pitchy montage of turbulent strings, or “Monkey Bee,” which begins melodically enough only to erupt into an epic number of frantic keys and nightmarish, almost creepily falling beeps. A number of short, incidental interludes, such as “Into the Eastern Sea” and “O Mi to Fu,” also render the experience nontraditional, but nonetheless manage to guide the album rather than distract from it. But even though the experience may be a bit too art-house for some, there’s still enough melody to satisfy the more-conservative listeners. I personally found the album hypnotic, interesting, intellectual, romantic, whimsical and creative–a successful journey from East to West that covers miles of melodic–and some not-so-melodic–ground, leading ultimately to a place of grandly unified enlightenment.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Informative review. I will check out this album.