Skip to content
Premieres

Nosaj Thing Transforms Damon Albarn’s ‘Monkey Bee’ Into Buzzing Beatwise Bliss

Damon Albarn 'Monkey Bee' Nosaj Thing Remix

Damon Albarn has roughly one million irons in the old music fire, and many of them are quite ambitious, but none is quite the production that is Monkey: Journey to the West. The colorful musical adapted from a 16th Century Chinese novel is currently showing at New York City’s Lincoln Center, and in honor of the occasion, the Gorrillaz guy and Blur boss has shared a remix of one of his pieces from the score. Los Angeles beat master Nosaj Thing works some of his old sound design magic on “Monkey Bee,” transforming the guitar-addled orchestral original into a gorgeous slice of afterhours electronica (via Stereogum). The video version above includes a series of stunning visuals from the production: acrobatic dancers dangling from oversized drapes, topless zombie ladies playing with crazy yo-yos, plus plate-spinners, sword-swingers, and more. The Soundcloud player below allows you to download the track for later use (highly recommended).