"Three unusual primates have arrived on Planet Earth. They are the second-generation mutated offspring of the monkey cosmonauts sent into space during the Cold War of the fifties and sixties. For forty years they have been on an interplanetary tour of the universe searching for their spiritual leader "Laika," the first dog in space. During this time they have managed to acquire a massive amount of devastating musical technology. In an attempt to publicise their cause these mutant chimps have touched down on this planet to infiltrate, agitate and organize. They are considered armed and dangerous. Any sightings should be reported immediately to the Gorillaz." The Space Monkeyz are a virtual musical group consisting of Darren Galea, Richie Stevens and Gavin Dodds. The virtual members are called D-Zire, Dubversive and Gavva. The group came together when Galea created a dub remix of the single, Tomorrow Comes Today (Tomorrow Dub, which was released as a B-side on the Tomorrow Comes Today single), which Damon Albarn liked so much that he asked Galea to remix the whole album Gorillaz. According to the band's autobiography, Rise of the Ogre, the Space Monkeyz broke into Kong Studios in 2002 while Gorillaz were on tour and stole the master tapes of the self-titled album because 2-D had accidentally forgotten to lock the studio doors. Gorillaz discovered this while signing autographs backstage at the Isle of MTV Festival in Portugal, when Murdoc was handed a record to sign which he didn't recognize by a fan. This record was Laika Come Home, a reworkings album made by the Space Monkeyz using the master tapes, which Gorillaz later praised them for despite not being directly authorized by them. Laika Come Home was released in July 2002. The album's first and only single Lil' Dub Chefin' reached #73 on the UK Singles Chart. It featured singer Terry Hall and Jamaican dub reggae artists U Brown and Earl Sixteen. After that, on the 7th of August of the same year, they were all featured on a BBC Radio 1 session, playing live the tracks Jungle Fresh, Lil' Dub Chefin', Strictly Rubbadub and A Fistful Of Peanuts from Laika Come Home. The group went on to do a few more remixes of non-Gorillaz material, such as a Germany-exclusive EP named Mensch (Space Monkeyz vs. Grönemeyer), which contained various remixes of the single Mensch from composer and producer Herbert Grönemeyer and later a remix of the song "Snakes and Ladders" by the group Virgin Souls titled "Snakes And Ladders Dub", released in 2010 on their MySpace account, the only song ever posted there. Richie Stevens, one of the members of the Space Monkeyz, announced on the Hallelujah Monkeyz podcast on the 4th of September 2017 that the Space Monkeyz would be returning soon with a new extended play making, but were trying to get a label to help them distribute the project. While neither this EP or another remix of a Gorillaz song have been released to date, the group did make a few remixes for the Smudge All Stars music project in 2022 as well as one of the single Atoms by Dark Globe and Boy George. After the events of Phase One, not much was heard from the Space Monkeyz again. In 2020, in an interview hosted by Gorillaz Raritiez, Murdoc stated that the group had gone to the planet Uranus.
