My Other Car Is A Windhoeker Maschinenfabrik Wer’wolf MKII

Today I’ve mostly been fantasising about driving a Wer’wolf MKII, it seems like just the thing for these end times; armour, hatches, big chunky spare tyres bolted to the sides.  No, I’ve not become one of those insane survivalist freakos overnight, although if the UN do come for me they need to know that I won’t come quietly – I am fully prepared to deploy all the most cutting asides, silences and sighs in my middle class armoury.

No, I have fallen for the Windhoeker Maschinenfabrik Wer’wolf MKII* based solely upon its’ role in the video to ‘Dirty Harry’ by the Gorillaz.  Goggle your eyes thuswards:

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Gorillaz Demon Days, the ‘band’s’ second LP from 2005 was given to me by my folks for Christmas last year.  It is the fancy 2019 picture disc reissue version.  I bought a few singles by them but I never quite concentrated on Gorillaz at the time, I could never quite buy into them.  I was never much of a Jamie Hewlett fan despite being a comics obsessive of a certain age, maybe that was it.

Taken out of context I find Demon Days to be a real splurge of imagination, bright yellow fizzy fuzzy day-glo and grey slo-mo all mashed up and spat at the wall.  There are moments when it hits sublime and other moments when it is even lower than the fruit of the Citrus aurantiifolia**.

Normally for me a big list of LP guests is a massive turn off, a deal-breaker even – remember the late 80’s when every fucker ever seemed to be queueing up to play on every other fucker’s LP? I hated that.  Gorillaz being a virtual combo are almost perfectly set up to deal with it – Shaun Ryder, Martina Topley-Bird, Neneh Cherry, Ike Turner, Dennis Hopper, De La Soul, Bootie Brown, Simon Tong, MF Doom and Roots Manuva, all troop through the studios.  The result is a rich smorgasbord of treats, a veritable pick ‘n mix, rather than a dog’s dinner.

Carrying a strong but not preachy environmental theme^ Demon Days eases us in with an intro pinching part of the soundtrack to Dawn Of The Dead^^ and we’re off an running into the casio-tastic trippy dub of ‘Last Living Souls’, which wrongfoots us with some fab orchestral strings, a folky bit and dubby bits.  Yup, we’re in that land I love so much where genres get chucked into the blender (adding the art in Cuisinart?) and music gets treated like the great big junior chemistry set it really is – let’s mix this with this and see what colour smoke the explosion makes.

The bits that don’t work for me all appear later on, ‘All Alone’, the sickly ‘Don’t Get Lost In Heaven’ and the stomping but messy ‘White Light’.  The guests on these don’t shine and the songs don’t swing. Enough, I’m a positive guy.

The first shot of brilliance is ‘Kids With Guns’, a taut Clash-like jam with, the awesome, Neneh Cherry helping out.  It has a lot fewer bells-and-whistles than most tracks here and it just works perfectly.  ‘Dirty Harry’^* I might have mentioned before, it is a genius track – from the kiddie choir and Stevie Wonder-esque keys on in.  The rap from Pharcyde dude Bootie Brown, is perfectly judged too and the whole sounds like nothing else these jaded old ears have ever heard.

The big single and moment that won my heart is ‘Feel Good Inc’ the De La Soul assisted lightning bolt of tuneful nuttiness; hypocritically it is just all the bells-and-whistles-and-windmills that make me love this one so much.  Hearing it again this morning makes me want to exhume my old copy of 3 Feet High And Rising.  I love everything about this banger, what a tune!

The soothing ‘El Mañana’ is a bit of a hidden gem on here, Albarn putting in a good heartfelt vocal performance.  The odd oriental blues strut of ‘Every Planet We Reach Is Dead’ benefits from Ike Turner on keys and what sounds like some leftover orchestration from The Isaac Hayes Movement.

Gorillaz pull off a blinder getting Shaun Ryder on board for ‘Dare’, the title changed from ‘It’s There’ to reflect his accent.  Mr Ryder is a gentleman who can do no wrong for me and I just love the whole lighter, dancier vibe of this cut; plus that video haunts me, in a good way.  A righteous UK #1 single.

Obviously what was lacking on Demon Days was a spoken word guest spot by Dennis Hopper.  I mean, come on, that’s obvious.  Luckily the odd eco parable ‘Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey’s Head’ rights that.  I can’t find myself able to remember a word of it though because whilst it plays all my brain does is shout ‘That’s DENNIS HOPPER!!’ at me, at maximum volume.  The backing track is superb though.

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I have dragged on longer than usual here but Demon Days deserves and rewards a bit longer spent on it, listening and writing wise.  I have heard nothing else from Gorillaz before, or since that grabbed me but this really does.  I do like the way it provides a broad canvass for Albarn’s pop skills to mesh with his penchant for more downbeat, more obscure stuff and there are many more strikes than misses here.

Hell, I even like the way Jamie Hewlett’s ragged, jagged uncouth animations work to make the whole here, from the Let It Be referencing cover inwards.

Truly these are the Demon Days and maybe this could be exactly the right music to dance in the ruins to.   It will sound great blasting out of my Windhoeker Maschinenfabrik Wer’wolf MKII.

992 Down.

PS: if you have any interest there’s a fervent, well-researched and utterly partisan wikia thing for Gorillaz.

*a Namibian military vehicle.  I will paint mine a deep liberal pink.

**sub-lime.

^lucky that in the 15 years since Demon Days was released we’ve sorted all that nonsense and greed out, eh readers?

^^plenty of horror movie references in the LP and all the excellent videos too.

^*so-called as it was envisaged as the follow-up to the single ‘Clint Eastwood’ from Gorillaz debut LP.