On top of this 14-strong “Gorilla Exprezz” band there are 10 corporeal guests, ranging from the celebrated grime MC Kano (authoritative on Dead Butterflies) to the splendidly camp actor Matt Berry who, robed, reads out the apocalyptic parable from an older track, Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head. Increasingly, too, Gorillaz have taken on the population density of Albarn’s other massive project, Africa Express – one whose live jams have crammed as many musicians on to a stage as possible. But tonight Albarn is in full-on frontman mode, mastering ceremonies, getting in the camera’s face and blowing air horns. Albarn has even made Gorillaz albums in which he took centre stage. It’s been years since Gorillaz hid behind screens. More than 20 years ago, flatmates Albarn and Hewlett (creator of Tank Girl and other comics) came up with Gorillaz as a vehicle in which the former Blur singer didn’t have to be a frontman, a set-up where a white guy from London’s hinterland could collaborate with the US rappers and producers he loved. Funniest of all is the ghost-blob from The Pink Phantom video, which zigzags around the screen like a demented squid.īut it’s really Albarn’s gig. A Christmas tree has a giant electric inverted cross on top. Boxes labelled things like INNATE RASHES litter the stage, with floor space taken up by Gorillaz paraphernalia. The set is true to cartoonist Hewlett’s gleeful style. The October compilation of these tracks, and more – subtitled Strange Timez – was, perversely, cheerier and sweeter than previous Gorillaz records, in which Albarn’s horror at Brexit and the election of Trump ( Humanz, 2017) or environmental desecration ( Plastic Beach, 2010) was transmuted into party music “for the end of the world”.ĭamon Albarn front’s Song Machine Live.
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The set focuses hard on Song Machine, Season One, the latest Gorillaz wheeze in which a staticky TV would spit out a tune roughly once a month via YouTube (Covid permitting).
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Key personnel have been in a bubble for weeks building up to this series of live shows broadcast to three time zones, of which the UK edition is the climax. It’s surprisingly easy to suspend disbelief, sit back and lap up this not-a-band, playing uncategorisable tunes from their not-an-album, in the company of avatars and distant cheering crew members, unseen until the end.
On the next track, The Valley of the Pagans, a hologram of Beck dances around.Īlbarn plays the keytar and the band – featuring double drummers, a percussionist and six backing vocalists – get stuck into Gorillaz’s funk-leaning set. Soon, Albarn is on the scene, wearing glittery pineapple sunglasses that look like they might have been an early Christmas present from Elton John, singing into a palm-sized microphone, cracking Smith up so much Smith rewards him with a kittenish hiss, the kind not seen since the Cure’s Lovecats video.