Spacemonkeyz Vs. Gorillaz: Laika Come Home

Gorillaz

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 16, 2002)
• Original Release Date: July 16, 2002
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Astralwerks
• ASIN: B000068CDY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #64,873 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  Music > World Music > Reggae > Dub

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Sure, Gorillaz sounded original, but it was a pop project with all the constraints that went with it--can you imagine the six-minute remixed version of "Clint Eastwood" making it onto MTV? But that's exactly what makes Laika Come Home so good. It's a reimagined collection filled with bone-shaking dubscapes and enough reverb to transmit a message to the farthest edges of the universe. Listen to the "De-Punked" version of "Punk" with its meandering, decayed trumpet and computerized tweaks--hardly recognizable as the original--or the swinging old-school ska that crops ups on "5/4." The two-tone skank of "M1/A1" (with Terry Hall) sounds as if it should have been the original version, but the real killer tracks are those injected with dancehall vibes by DJ U Brown and Earl 16. Who says "you don't get paid for doing what you love?"--not Damon Albarn. --Caroline Butler

Product Description

Gorillaz Photos

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's 1979 all over again! Dub done well!, August 16, 2002

By	punkviper (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

How long has it been since you heard a great dub record? For so long it seemed like dub was dead and gone forever. Yeah, portions of it have been incorprated into modern electronica (specifically: drum'n'bass) but I mean a good, fat bass, layin' on the horns, engulf it all in reverb thick enough they hear it across time kinda dub. Scratch Perry dub, King Tubby dub, even Mad Professor dub.

Well, enter this disc, and ka-pow you have your gift from the dub gods of Jah. Bad dub, especially nowadays when the perpetrators are so far removed from the original sound, is easy to do. But this, THIS is great dub, done by professionals who clearly know what makes a great dub record. Listen to "De-Punked" (dub mix of Punk from the original) and TELL me these guys don't know what they're doing! It's cosmic. This disc is everything G-Sides SHOULDA been. From head-bobbing to downright head-thrashing, this disc WILL move you, guarandamnteed. I'm listening to it as I type, and the brass sections are just incredible.

It's funny how people compared the Gorillaz album to the Clash's ahead-of-its-time melting pot triple-album Sandinista, and now we have dub versions of the Gorillaz tracks, just like there were sides of Sandinista that were nothing but dub versions of the album's own songs. It's great! Honestly, if you have any prediliction towards dub reggae AT ALL, you need to hear this. It's like a time-machine and a future-transducer all in one 12-track package. Makes me happy. Long live the dub!!!!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars new Classic Dub Reggae, August 19, 2004

By	J. Brady (PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I bought this cd on a whim when it came out, having heard ( and seen the video for ) Clint Eastwood.I have since bought the original Gorillaz cd, and I must say I prefer this over the original, being a big fan of dub reggae and chill-out type grooves. This is AWESOME. If you have the original Gorillaz cd and appreciate the diversity of the songs, you will more than likely not get into this one, as the songs admittedly all sound somewhat the same, they all have a very laid back reggae groove to them. But I can highly recommend this for fans of dub reggae.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dub Masterpiece for Your Desert Island Collection, August 12, 2005

By	GraceNoteX (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This is a dub masterpiece, and much more. Not since the Mad Professor took on Massive Attack on No Protection has there been such a successful dubbing of a full CD.

But this CD goes beyond being an atmospheric dub chill-out. The opening track is a full-on reggae reworking of 19/2000 that is so successful that anyone not familiar with the original would swear it was written as a reggae piece. As well done as tracks like this and the reworking of Slow Country are, they are not what makes this CD so brilliant (and they may well be the biggest reason hardcore Gorillaz fans aren't that thrilled with this CD - they sound too much like yet another remix version of the original tracks).

The real genius of this CD is in tracks like Tomorrow Comes Today (Banana Baby) and Man Research (Monkey Racket). These are atmospheric and moody dub/trip hop pieces constructed from the essence of the original tracks. Normally, even an excellent dub piece like these would stretch one or two musical ideas into an extended soundscape. But these are full of musical ideas, twists and turns; and because of that, they work both as background chill-out music and as music to listen to for entertainment.

Space Monkeys production job on this is tight and awesome. Effects units have been tweaked to the point where the repeats aren't just musical, they are as dead on rhythmically as a drum machine. This attention to sonic detail breaths fresh life into dub clichés. This CD deserves a Grammy for both production and engineering. The playful humor and wit of the CD's title is reflected musically throughout the album.

Sadly this CD is unlikely to find its most appreciative audience. Gorillaz fans wanting more of the Brit-pop hip hop of the source album are going to be sorely disappointed. And dub fans are likely to dismiss it out of prejudice that the Gorillaz connection makes it a little too "major label" to take seriously. But this CD along with Massive Attack vs. Mad Professor's "No Protection" and Bill Laswell's "Radioaxiom" would make an awesome desert island collection (in more ways than one).