Journey to the West - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.co.uk
You could never accuse Damon Albarn of resting on his laurels. Whether it's forming supergroups (The Good, The Bad & The Queen), working with cult animators (The Gorillaz) or making music with musicians from Mali, the former Blur frontman has nurtured a restless, questing spirit not normally encountered in Britop stars. As if to underline his diverse interests, he now turns his attention to Chinese theatre. Monkey: Journey to the West is a theatrical collaboration between Albarn (music), Jamie Hewlett of Gorillaz fame (designs, costumes) and Chinese opera specialist Chen Shi-Zheng. The show itself is an explosive 90-minute circus featuring Chinese acrobats, martial arts experts and contortionists, though the album condenses the experience into 22 songs lasting an hour or so. Recorded in London and Beijing with a mix of European and Chinese musicians, Monkey ... is a genuine attempt at East-West fusion. Featuring a dizzying array of instrumentation--rock guitars, electronics, harps, mandolins, drum machines, strings, plinky-plonk keyboards, giggling girls, chants, even pigs--it's the sort of project that could so easily have gone awry. Yet Albarn, who allegedly mastered the Chinese pentatonic scale, seems to have made it work. Songs like the fluttery "Heavenly Peach Banquet" and the wistful "The Living Sea" are utterly beguiling, and stand in stark contrast to guitar-heavy behemoths like "Battle in Heaven" and the climactic "Monkey Bee." These longer songs are punctuated with incidental pieces such as "Iron Rod", "Into the Eastern Sea" and "Out of the Eastern Sea". While such interludes may distract from a 'normal' album experience, there's enough melodious charm and imaginative whimsy scattered throughout to satisfy even ardent skeptics. --Paul Sullivan

Product Description
The 16th century Chinese classic story Xi You Ji (Journey To The West) tells the tale of a little monkey who could transform himself into different creatures and conquer all the obstacles in his life. Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett (the minds behind Gorillaz) are Monkey, and have joined with director and choreographer Chen Shi-Zheng to create a 21st century opera retelling this story, replete with new and original music and visuals. The BBC's coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics will utilize some of Monkey's music and animations in the weeks leading up to and during the Olympics.

Album Description
MONKEY is the new project for Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. the gents who brought you Gorillaz. Damon on music production and Jamie on graphics.the Gorillaz' masterminds have now mutated into Monkey, and bring you 'JOURNEY TO THE WEST'. Recorded in London and Beijing over the last 12 months, the album draws upon the music Damon composed (and the visuals Jamie created) for the Chinese opera production of the same name, based on an ancient Chinese story, which was the basis for the TV series Monkey Magic. The stage version, "Monkey: Journey to the West" made its London debut at the Royal Opera House in July 2008.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

West meets East August 29, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Damon Albarn's latest project debuted in the UK album charts at #5 early this week, an amazing feat for a largely instrumental album with the few lyrics there are sung in Mandarin. The BBC used portions of it in programmes highlighting the Beijing Olympics and that helped spur sales.

Apparently the accompanying music to a Chinese musical about a magical monkey, much of the 22 very brief tracks (the album clocks in at about 50 minutes) are interludes which I guess would make more sense if one saw the musical. Having said that, the music is magical and oriental/electronic sounding, and the CD flies past before you realize it.

Standouts include "Monkey's world" with electronic swirls a few spoken works interspersed with synth dance sounds, "The living sea" with a ghostly whistle, delicate guitars and angelic female vocals, "Heavenly peach banquet" with chiming mandolins and female vocals, the dark atmospheric almost hymnal "Whisper" with whispered vocals, "Sandy the river demon" acoustic with male spoken vocals, the beautiful instrumental "March of the volunteers", the horn sprinkled instrumental "The white skeleton demon", the waltz-like instrumental "I love Buddha", and the majestic "March of the iron army" with choir-like vocals.

I've enjoyed every bit of Damon Albarn's musical odyssey, from Blur, through Gorillaz, to The Good, the Bad and the Queen. This is simply beautiful!!

3 out of 5 stars

I listened to Journey to the West because of Damon Albarn August 29, 2008
2 out of 12 found this review helpful

I listened to Journey to the West because of Damon Albarn; the same night I listened to radiohead webcast their last date of their tour (US InRainbows summer 08). I know that this is not the main reference point in the album Journey to the West.

It sounds sorta weird. Like it was something they tried and got some good results and all. It is good. It is cool. I won't resist. I really enjoyed The Good The Bad and The Queen.

I don't even know what Damon had to do with the band and this is the first time I am listenting to the cd. Not traditional. good. Monkey.

5 out of 5 stars

Full of surprises October 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Being a fan of all things Damon Albarn, there was never a question of whether I would pick up this cd. What surprises me though is how readily accessible I have found it. Sonically, there is a lot going on here, but a lot of the sound of the album and much of the music will not feel all that foreign to one who has been a diehard Gorillaz fan for some time, as quite a bit of the music reminds me of something you might expect to have heard on G-Sides or D-Sides. (This also means that the "From the creators of Gorillaz" sticker tag is not an entirely misleading sell.)
I've been listening to the whole album from start to finish and it is definitely something that adds new quality to my music collection, there isn't anything quite like it that I have heard. It is Eastern, it is opera, it is also pop and rather Westernized... it's basically the perfect sound for the story of Monkey to be translated into the modern world.
The artwork with the disc is also very nice. I'd say anyone who has been tentative about picking this up should just go for it. No matter what your musical background or taste you'll likely find a way to connect with it, and you'll likely be pleasantly surprised by a lot of this peculiar and brilliant album.

4 out of 5 stars

Interesting Composition October 12, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

It's certainly inventive. It sounds like a combination of Asian/Scifi/Dance, sometimes all in one song. Which results in some good songs and some that's just noise. I've never seen the production that this is based, though I'd like to. I did grow up knowing about the story of the Journey to the West and also like Gorillaz so I was really interested in hearing this. It takes some time for it to grow on to you and the more I listen to it the more I like it.

However, I still really can't stand "Confessions of a Pig". It sounds like Zhu Bajie (Pigsy) just grunts in beat. At least that's what it sounds like, I can't make out any words. On the flip side, I really like "Monkey Bee". The music resembles "Clint Eastwood" in the middle and the Sun Wu Kong's (Monkey's) words are funny, if a bit repetitive. (He calls Princess Iron Fan cheap for not "lending" him the fan.)

I applaud Damon Albarn for taking this on. Different culture and everything and he managed to get it mostly right. The general feeling of the music fits the general theme for that part of the story really well. However, I'm not sure everyone would like the cd. Some people will think it's a cacophony of noise while others would think it's the greatest thing ever written. For example, I would not have my parents listen to it even if they like the story too. I suppose if you're into into the Gorillaz with some Asian thrown in then it wouldn't be a bad cd to get.

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