For a band that has spent more than two decades blurring the line between cartoon fantasy and pop reality, Gorillaz somehow still find new ways to stretch their universe. Created by Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, the BRIT and Grammy-winning project emerged from what has often felt like a glorious accident: singer 2D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, drummer Russel Hobbs and guitarist Noodle becoming one of the defining musical experiments of the 21st century long before the internet fully understood what a “virtual band” even was.
Alongside the release of ninth studio album The Mountain, Gorillaz have unveiled an eight-minute animated short film titled The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God, a dense, hand-crafted fever dream that follows Murdoc, Noodle, Russel and 2D across India as they retreat from celebrity and disappear into something more spiritual, reflective and strange.
Directed by Hewlett alongside Max Taylor and Tim McCourt from London animation studio THE LINE, the film feels deliberately out of step with the clean digital sheen dominating modern animation. Hand-painted backgrounds, practical effects and painstakingly detailed textures give the short the atmosphere of a rediscovered cult film from the late 1960s, with Hewlett leaning hard into the tactile imperfections of classic 2D animation rather than smoothing everything into algorithmic polish.
That refusal to sit still has always defined Gorillaz. From Gorillaz and Demon Days through to Plastic Beach, Humanz, Song Machine and Cracker Island, the group has continually rebuilt itself around collaboration and reinvention. The list of artists pulled into their orbit over the years reads less like a conventional feature list and more like a cultural hallucination: Elton John, MF DOOM, Grace Jones, Little Simz, Kali Uchis and Jean-Michel Jarre among countless others. Touring everywhere from San Diego to Syria, Gorillaz became less a band than a constantly mutating multimedia world.
The Mountain, released through the band’s own new label KONG, pushes that philosophy even further. The album pulls together collaborators including Sparks, Johnny Marr, IDLES, Black Thought, Anoushka Shankar and Yasiin Bey, stretching across 15 tracks recorded everywhere from Mumbai and Rajasthan to London, Miami and Damascus. The album moves between Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, Yoruba and English, continuing the project’s long-running fascination with borderless music-making.
Sparks’ inclusion feels particularly fitting. Backseat Mafia recently caught the Mael brothers at the Sydney Opera House, where their surreal theatricality and immaculate precision once again proved why so many contemporary artists continue circling their influence. Their collaboration with Gorillaz feels entirely natural: two projects equally committed to reinvention, absurdity and refusing to age in a straight line.
The album’s themes of mortality, movement and transcendence spill directly into Gorillaz’ newly announced 2026 UK and Ireland arena tour. Beginning in Manchester next March before moving through Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, Cardiff, Nottingham, Liverpool, Belfast and Dublin, the run culminates in a huge headline performance at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on June 20, with Sparks and Trueno joining as support.
Go HERE for tour information.
