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Music : Journey to the WestIn association with Amazon.comby: Monkey  List Price: $14.98 Amazon.com's Price: $13.99 You Save: $0.99 ( 7%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: Audio CDEAN: 0634904038823 Label: XL Recordings / Beggars Group Manufacturer: XL Recordings / Beggars Group Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: XL Recordings / Beggars Group Release Date: September 23, 2008 Studio: XL Recordings / Beggars Group Sales Rank: 4393 MPN: 40388 Disc 1:
Editorial Review: 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. 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 Average Rating:
 Rating: - Interesting CompositionIt'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 ... Read More Rating:  - Full of surprisesBeing 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 ... Read More Rating: - West meets EastDamon 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 ... Read More Rating:  - I listened to Journey to the West because of Damon AlbarnI 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 ... Read More Browse for similar items by category:
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