''Laika Come Home'' is a Gorillaz

remix album A remix album is an album consisting of remixes or rerecorded versions of an artist's earlier released material. The first act who employed the format was American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson ('' Aerial Pandemonium Ballet'', 1971). As of 200 ...

released in July 2002. Unlike a typical remix album, it is done by just one group,

Spacemonkeyz Spacemonkeyz are a musical group consisting of Darren Galea, Richie Stevens and Gavin Dodds. They came together when Galea created a dub remix of the Gorillaz' "Tomorrow Comes Today" ("Tomorrow Dub", which was released as a B-side on the "T ...

. It contains most of the songs from Gorillaz' first album, '' Gorillaz'', but remixed in dub and

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

style. The album features Terry Hall,

U Brown Huford Brown (born 8 June 1956, Kingston, Jamaica), better known by the stage name U Brown, is a reggae deejay who released eleven albums between 1976 and 1984. Biography Brown grew up in Bond Street in Kingston, living two doors away from Du ...

Earl Sixteen Earl Sixteen (b. Earl John Daley, 9 May 1958, Kingston, Jamaica)Gregory, Andy (2002) ''International Who's Who in Popular Music 2002'', Europa, , p. 152 is a reggae singer whose career began in the mid-1970s. Biography Daley grew up in Waltham ...

and 2-D. One single, "

Lil' Dub Chefin' "Lil' Dub Chefin'" is a single by Spacemonkeyz vs Gorillaz, from the 2002 Gorillaz remix album ''Laika Come Home''. It is sung by Damon Albarn and Terry Hall of the UK ska band The Specials with the song itself being a remix of the Gorillaz ...

", was released from the album on 22 July 2002, with moderate success. The limited edition was packed in

digipak Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case ...

, featuring two hidden tracks. In 2004, the album was packaged with 2001's '' Gorillaz'' in a box set as part of

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

's "2CD Originals" collection. The album's title is a reference to

Laika Laika (russian: link=no, Лайка; – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 space ...

, the

Soviet space dog During the 1950s and 1960s the Soviet space program used dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible. In this period, the Soviet Union launched missions with passenger slots for at l ...

, and the film ''

Lassie Come Home ''Lassie Come Home'' is a 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Technicolor feature film starring Roddy McDowall and canine actor Pal, in a story about the profound bond between Yorkshire boy Joe Carraclough and his rough collie, Lassie. The film was dire ...

''. The album contains mixes of every song on the original album except "Double Bass", "Latin Simone (¿Que Pasa Contigo?)", and " Rock the House".

Background

The Spacemonkeyz appear to be first referenced before the album in the "

Tomorrow Comes Today "Tomorrow Comes Today" is a song from British alternative rock virtual band Gorillaz's self-titled debut album '' Gorillaz'' and was their first release when issued as an EP in November 2000. The first three songs from the EP ended up on th ...

" video. During the video, in the background, a poster can be seen with three pictures of monkeys with spacesuits and the caption "Laugh now but one day we'll be in charge". The artwork is a famous piece of artwork by

Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigram ...

, the visual artist who worked with Damon Albarn for

Think Tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

's artwork and

Demon Days ''Demon Days'' is the second studio album by British virtual band Gorillaz. It was first released on 11 May 2005 in Japan and on 23 May 2005 in the United Kingdom by Parlophone and in the United States by Virgin Records. Produced by the band, ...

producer Danger Mouse in an attack against

Paris Hilton Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American media personality, businesswoman, socialite, model, and entertainer. Born in New York City, and raised there and in Beverly Hills, California, she is a great-granddaughter of Conrad ...

. Before the release of the album, the mix of Tomorrow Comes Today (Bañana Baby) was released in the single of Tomorrow Comes Today in February 2002.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

* Damon Albarn – vocals , piano , stylophone ,

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usua ...

, guitar *

– instrumentation, programming, guitar, bass, drum programming *

Miho Hatori is a Japanese singer, songwriter, and musician. She is best known as a solo artist, co-founder of New York City band Cibo Matto, and as the first person to provide the voice of Noodle in the virtual band Gorillaz, as well as for her work with th ...

– additional vocals *

Tina Weymouth Martina Michèle Weymouth (born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and a founding member and bassist of the new wave group Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club, which she co-founded with her husband, Tal ...

– additional vocals * Michael Smith – horn, horn arrangements , flute *Martin Shaw – horn *Dan Left Hand – bass *Jeff Scantlebury – percussion *Jaques Shythé –

castanets Castanets, also known as ''clackers'' or ''palillos'', are a percussion instrument (idiophone), used in Spanish, Kalo, Moorish, Ottoman, Italian, Sephardic, Swiss, and Portuguese music. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome there was a simil ...

– vocals *

Dennis Rollins Dennis Rollins, (born 1964) is an English jazz trombonist, the founder and bandleader of BadBone and Co. Early life and career Dennis George Rollins was born in Birmingham, England, of Jamaican parents, and raised in Bentley, Doncaster, wher ...

– horn *Dominic Glover – horn *Phil Soul – bass *

– vocals * Stuart Zender – bass , clavinet *Pete Collins – incendiary device * Simon Katz – guitar , organ *Brian Pisce – strings * Terry Hall – vocals

Technical

* Gorillaz – production *Tom Girling – co-production, engineering,

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture ( sound design, audio post-produ ...

*Jason Cox – co-production, engineering *

Dan Nakamura Daniel M. Nakamura better known by his stage name Dan the Automator, is an American record producer from San Francisco, California. He is the founder of the publishing company Sharkman Music and the record label 75 Ark. Early life Nakamura was bo ...

– production *Spacemonkeyz – additional production, re-mixing *Pete Collins – assistance

Artwork

* J.C. Hewlett – illustration *Mat Wakeham – art direction *Kate McLauchlan – design *Roland Hamilton – monkey photos

Charts

Release details

The album was released in various countries in July 2002.

References

{{Authority control Gorillaz albums Spacemonkeyz albums 2002 remix albums Astralwerks remix albums Parlophone remix albums EMI Records remix albums Virgin Records remix albums Caroline Records remix albums 2002 debut albums Albums produced by Damon Albarn Albums produced by Dan the Automator