Amazon.co.uk Review
The ever-prolific Dan The Automator has put his suave penchant for eccentricities on the backburner with the lovely compilation,
Wanna Buy a Monkey. The producer behind
Dr Octagon,
Deltron 3030,
Handsome Boy Modelling School and Damon Albarn's hip-pop project,
Gorillaz has blended together a late-night session that pulls in weird psych-rock from Santomas, conscious rap from Brand Nubian, the soulful ambience of Zero 7 and a previously unreleased track from Dan and Damon's simians.
There isn't anything revolutionary here but that doesn't detract from its enjoyable, hyped-up flow. In fact, Wanna Buy a Monkey is as characteristically mellow as its compiler. It bounces around on its own skewered axis, dropping the straight-up hip-hop of "Smoothness" by former P Diddy acolyte, Black Rob, the eerie pscyhedelia of Air and the lackadaisical post-rock of Tortoise. And that's not all. Dan really knows how to please the more adventurous heads, mixing the indie lounge-core of "Stoker Ace" sung by Jennifer Charles of Elysian Fields and former Faith No More member, Mike Patton into the sassy rap of Rza's Bobby Digital and teasing some classics such as De La Soul's "Bionix" and Dilated People's "Clockwork" with dexterity. In fact, Wanna Buy a Monkey's only bum note is ironically Gorillaz's "Latin Simone"; Ghetto Spice Albarn just can't carry a sexy latin tune! --Reuben Dessay
Description
With all his high-profile alliances, producer/turntablist Dan Nakamura could just as well be known as Dan The Collaborator. Since garnering attention for his distinctive prouctionon oddball hip-hop mystic Kool Keith's 1996 release under his Dr. Octagon pseudonym, he's joined in league with everyone from Prince Paul and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien to Damon Albarn and Mike Patten in heralded projects landing all over the musical map such as Deltron 3030, Handsome Boy Modelling School, Lovage and the platinum-selling Gorillaz. Hence, it's rather surprising his own name has graced but one barely noticed EP before 2002's mix CD WANNA BUY A MONKEY?
That the CD takes its name from the sole line uttered by David Letterman in obscure Chris Elliott vehicle CABIN BOY, driven home by Barry White (among others) in a more memorable Oscarssketch, speaks to Dan's ear for the eccentrically appealing, not to mention his affinity for pop culture (peppered throughout his mix). With a similar knack, for his mix CD he mines seemingly disparate genres and finding the perfect threadwith which to weave the worlds together into an illuminating aural landscape, comingling brit-shoegazers The Doves and post rock stalwarts Tortoise with french-popsters Air and hip-hop minds Rza, De La Soul and the X-ecutioners for a melange both appealing and enlightening.
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