!!! My friend CJ tipped me off to this. Damon Albarn’s latest project “Monkey: Journey to the West.” Released September 23 (at least in the US).

“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.”

aarghh!! Can’t contain my excitement! See this blog link for full tracklist. One jumped out at me… “18. I Love Buddha” harhar. Will have to notify Buddha (the real one) about this.

I’ve been dethroned as the #1 Blur fan around here. CJ always seems to find out about these things first. I had no idea that this was even in the works.

As a consolation to me, I did come across this morsel of Blur news. And a morsel of exciting news it is… “Cocaine Diaries: Alex James in Colombia.” Alex James, Blur bassist, apparently took a trip to Colombia (at the behest of their president of all people) to get down to the root of the Latin American coke trade. At one point he’d bragged about spending “over a million pounds on cocaine at the height of his addiction.” Nice work Alex. Singlehandedly funding a portion of the drug trafficking industry. Glad to see he’s keeping busy too :O

This documentary premieres as part of the BBC America Reveals documentary series September 3 on BBC America.