Image: Jamie Hewlett

Gorillaz “Reactivating” For New Album In 2016

Ever-prolific Blur frontman Damon Albarn hopes to release a new album with his quirky virtual band Gorillaz in 2016. If Albarn’s plan comes to fruition, the album would be the animated group’s first release since 2011’s The Fall, the free album offered to fan club members after 2010’s Plastic Beach.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Albarn is “in the process of reactivating Gorillaz for a 2016 release”, and also wants to record a new album he’s written for dub-tinged supergroup The Good, The Bad & The Queen, which sees him perform alongside The Clash’s Paul Simonon, The Verve’s Simon Tong and drummer Tony Allen.

“I was just excited to create and still am,” Albarn said in the interview. “I love working with people, essentially. I do drive stuff, but I love the atmosphere and process of collaboration. It’s my favourite thing.”

Albarn told NME in April this year that he “could put a Gorillaz record out next week”. He also confirmed that another Gorillaz release will “definitely happen in the future”.

In his SMH interview, Albarn was less definitive on the topic of Blur’s future. “I would imagine there’s some kind of future, but at the moment there’s no time for the future – only the present,” he explained. “Who knows? I’m reluctant to say anything, because if I do, it just gets taken out of context and then I’m accused of being a wind-up.”

Albarn’s latest solo album, Everyday Robots, has been nominated for the 2014 Mercury Prize. Currently adapting a children’s book into a West End musical, Albarn will arrive in Australia this December for solo performances in Melbourne and Sydney.

Watch: Gorillaz – Stylo

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