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130-457: Gorillaz are a British virtual band created in 1998 by British musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett , from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Russel Hobbs (drums). Their universe is presented in media such as music videos, interviews, comic strips and short cartoons. Gorillaz's music has featured collaborations with

260-534: A CGI idol in 1996. However, she failed to gain commercial success, largely due to technical limitations leading to issues such as unnatural movement (an issue known as the uncanny valley ). Despite her failure, she provided the template for later virtual idols who gained commercial success in the early 21st century, such as the Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku and the virtual YouTuber Kizuna AI . In 2007, Crypton Future Media and Yamaha launched Vocaloid 2 , with

390-625: A one-hit wonder . Dethklok is a fictional melodic death metal band featured in the Adult Swim animated television series Metalocalypse , known for its satirical or parodic lyrical themes. The first official Dethklok album was released on September 25, 2007, entitled The Dethalbum . The album debuted at number 21 on Billboard magazine 's Top 200 list. K/DA is a virtual K-pop girl group consisting of four themed versions of League of Legends characters Ahri, Akali, Evelynn and Kai'Sa. (G)I-dle members Miyeon and Soyeon provide

520-456: A Gorillaz project, Albarn mentioned in an interview that the project was "Gorillaz, really but we can't call it that for legal reasons". After completing work on Monkey in late 2007, Albarn and Hewlett began working on a new Gorillaz project entitled Carousel , described by Albarn as being about "the mystical aspects of Britain". Hewlett described Carousel in a 2008 interview as "even bigger and more difficult than Monkey ... It's sort of like

650-399: A bit like hell – there's nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a virtual band, something that would be a comment on that." Albarn said: "This was the beginning of the boy band sort of explosion... and it just felt so manufactured. And we were like, well let's make a manufactured band but make it kind of interesting." The band originally identified themselves as "Gorilla" and

780-542: A commercial success, spawning multiple CDs released in Japan. The Japanese talent agency Horipro created the first real-life AI virtual idol, Kyoko Date , in 1995. Her creation was inspired by the success of the Macross franchise and dating sim games such as Tokimeki Memorial (1994), along with advances in computer graphics . Her initial announcement drew headlines, both in Japan and internationally, before she debuted as

910-413: A detailed explanation. In some instances, most notably The Chipmunks , manipulation of voices may be employed, either to achieve a desired vocal effect, or to make it dissimilar to the voice of the actual singer. The manipulation is done by either modifying the playback speed of the vocal track or by putting it through a synthesizer ( Vocoding ). Writing and production credits may be assigned to either

1040-422: A film but not with one narrative story. There's many stories, told around a bigger story, set to music, and done in live action, animation, all different styles. Originally it was a film but now we think it's a film and it's a stage thing as well. Damon's written around 70 songs for it, and I've got great plans for the visuals." The Carousel concept was eventually dropped with Albarn and Hewlett's work evolving into

1170-448: A film project which was ultimately never realized. While on tour in support of Everyday Robots in 2014, Albarn signaled openness to returning to Gorillaz, telling The National Post that he "wouldn't mind having another stab at a Gorillaz record". Two months later he reported that he had "been writing quite a lot of songs on the road for Gorillaz". and at the end of 2014 confirmed in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald that he

1300-430: A follow-up album to Plastic Beach , saying "We'll come back to it when the time is right." Following the release of DoYaThing and the publicization of Albarn and Hewlett's fall-out in 2012, Gorillaz entered a multiyear hiatus. During the hiatus, Albarn released a solo album, Everyday Robots , scored stage productions and continued to record and tour with Blur, while Hewlett held art exhibitions and attempted to create

1430-576: A form of animation; this consideration means groups like Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem or 31 Minutes can be considered virtual bands. The recording of the music is done by the human musicians and artists, whom the virtual artists are depicted to emulate. In some cases, the singing is done by machines or synthesizer applications, like the Hatsune Miku vocaloid . This is done using the normal in-studio recording process; see Sound recording for

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1560-605: A free concert at The O 2 Arena in London, England exclusively for National Health Service employees and their families. They then performed them again at the subsequent concert open to the public the next day (both of which served as the first live audience concerts of the Song Machine Tour ). These three songs were announced to be tracks from a new EP entitled Meanwhile , with the cover originally published on TikTok . On 17 September 2021, Albarn revealed that he had recorded

1690-532: A full "live holographic tour" featuring the virtual Gorillaz appearing on stage with Musion Eyeliner technology after the Grammys performance, but the tour was ultimately never realised due to the tremendous expense and logistical issues that would have resulted. In October 2006, the band released the book Rise of the Ogre . Presented as an autobiography of the band ostensibly written by the fictional members and expanding on

1820-495: A grueling touring schedule. Frischmann spent the next few years developing artist M.I.A. , whom she discovered. M.I.A. was Frischmann's friend and flatmate. Frischmann co-wrote and produced M.I.A.'s demos for her first album, Arular , most notably its 2003 single " Galang ". In 2017, Rough Trade Records released a remastered version of Elastica . In 2019, Rough Trade released a limited edition Elastica BBC sessions album on UK Record Store Day. In 2003, Frischmann co-presented

1950-442: A high degree of affinity with each other, stating in an interview on the creation of the album: "We never had any arguments. We even have that finish-each-other's-sentences thing happening. There are a lot of the same influences between us, like Ennio Morricone and psychedelic pop-rock, but he has 10 years on me, so I have some catching up to do. Where he can school me on new wave and punk of the late '70s/early '80s, I can school him on

2080-417: A long time to organize; just do it all myself, really." Albarn also explained that with The Now Now he sought to make a Gorillaz album "where I'm just singing for once" and that the album is "pretty much just me singing, very sort of in the world of 2-D ." In the fictional Gorillaz storyline, the band introduced Ace from Cartoon Network 's animated series The Powerpuff Girls as a temporary bassist of

2210-455: A lot of hip-hop. We're very competitive and pushed each other." Similar to the first album, Demon Days features collaborations with several different artists, including Bootie Brown , Shaun Ryder , Ike Turner , MF Doom (who was recording with Danger Mouse as Danger Doom at the time) and Martina Topley-Bird , among others. The band chose to forgo traditional live touring in support of Demon Days , instead limiting live performance during

2340-614: A more electronic pop sound, with Albarn describing the album as "the most pop record I've ever made" and saying that he took special care to make the album's lyrics and melodies clear and focused compared to previous albums. Plastic Beach also featured the largest cast of collaborators featured yet on a Gorillaz album, fulfilling Albarn's goal of "work[ing] with an incredibly eclectic, surprising cast of people" including artists such as Snoop Dogg , Mos Def , Bobby Womack , Little Dragon , Lou Reed and Gruff Rhys among others, and also included orchestral contributions from Sinfonia Viva and

2470-459: A more complete record than The Fall , but hopefully have that spontaneity." Albarn signaled his desire to complete and release the album quickly, adding that "I really like the idea of making new music and playing it live almost simultaneously" and "If we're going to do more Gorillaz we don't want to wait seven years because, y'know, we're getting on a bit now. During a September 2017 concert in Seattle,

2600-538: A music video in each episode. Virtual bands still appear in television: the Chipmunks appeared in their own television show for much of the 1990s, and the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse features the virtual melodic death metal band Dethklok . Virtual idols originate from Japan, with roots in anime and Japanese idol culture, and dating back to the 1980s, starting with the Macross mecha anime franchise (adapted into

2730-505: A new Gorillaz song with Bad Bunny while in Jamaica , and, at the time, said it would be the first single for a new album, influenced by Latin America, releasing in 2022. The concept for the album would later change, with the song being announced at a later date. On 31 August 2022, the name of this song was revealed to be "Tormenta". In November 2021, Albarn announced that an animated film based on

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2860-657: A new single (regularly performed on tour) called " Cracker Island ", featuring Thundercat and produced with Greg Kurstin , on 22 June, with the music video being released on 28 July. Their scheduled performance at the first Splendour in the Grass festival in Queensland , Australia on 22 July was cancelled owing to torrential rain. In July 2022, they played at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre as part of Illuminate Adelaide , supported by Moonchild Sanelly. In August 2022,

2990-553: A pattern of collaboration with a wide range of artists which later became a staple of Gorillaz. Gorillaz was released on 26 March 2001 and was a major commercial success, debuting at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 14 on the US Billboard 200 , going on to sell over 7 million copies worldwide, powered by the success of the "Clint Eastwood" single. The album was promoted with the singles "Clint Eastwood", " 19-2000 " and "Rock

3120-466: A production which reportedly cost £300,000 to create. The band were nominated for four Brit Awards , including Best British Group , Best British Album and British Breakthrough Act , but did not win any awards. On 1 July 2002, a remix album titled Laika Come Home was released, containing most of the tracks from Gorillaz remixed in dub and reggae style by the DJ group Spacemonkeyz . On 18 November 2002,

3250-570: A proto- Matrix -like virtual reality . Megazone 23 was a success in Japan partly due to the appeal of EVE, and it was later adapted into Robotech: The Movie (1986) in North America. A similar concept later appeared in Macross Plus (1994) with the virtual idol Sharon Apple , a computer program who takes the form of an intergalactic pop star . The same year, the fictional Japanese rock band Fire Bomber from Macross 7 (1994) became

3380-415: A reference to previous album, Plastic Beach . For unknown reasons, the music video on the official Gorillaz YouTube channel was set to private just a few days after its initial premiere. On 9 March 2021, Gorillaz uploaded an alternative version of the music video to their official YouTube channel, which does not feature any gameplay from Grand Theft Auto V . On 24 December, the band released "The Lost Chord",

3510-717: A screen above the band displaying Hewlett's visuals alongside each song. The residency was later repeated in April 2006 at New York City's Apollo Theater and the Manchester performances were later released on DVD as Demon Days: Live at the Manchester Opera House . As part of their promotion of the album in Latin America, the band was interviewed in September 2005 on the live-action Mexican show Rebelde . This episode also included

3640-530: A series called Dreamspaces for the BBC Television about modern architecture . In 2004, she presented The South Bank Show and was a judge for the RIBA Stirling Prize for Architecture. In 2005, Frischmann moved to Boulder, Colorado , to enroll in a masters program in visual arts at Naropa University , a small, Buddhist -inspired liberal arts college, and "become a nobody". In 2012 her work

3770-469: A variety of different ways throughout its history, such as hiding the touring band from the audience's view in the early years of the project, projecting animated band members on stage via computer graphics and traditional live touring featuring a fully visible live band. They have won a Grammy Award , two MTV Video Music Awards , an NME Award and four MTV Europe Music Awards . They have also been nominated for 11 Brit Awards and won Best British Group at

3900-543: A wide range of featured artists, with Albarn as the only permanent musical contributor. With Gorillaz, Albarn departed from the distinct Britpop sound of his band Blur , exploring a variety of musical styles including hip hop , electronic and world music . The band's 2001 debut album, Gorillaz , which features dub , Latin and punk influences, went triple platinum in the UK and double platinum in Europe , with sales driven by

4030-470: Is a shame. It was one of those things, the music and the videos weren't working as well together, but I felt we'd made a really good record and I was into it." On 25 April 2012, in an interview with Metro, Albarn was more optimistic about Gorillaz' future, saying that once he had worked out his differences with Hewlett, he was sure that they would make another record. In June 2013, Hewlett confirmed that he and Albarn planned to someday continue Gorillaz and record

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4160-430: Is a virtual girl group formed in 2023 by Metaverse Entertainment. The group consists of Siu, Zena, Marty, and Tyra, who are hyper-realistic, AI-generated members that were created using machine learning , deep fake , and full 3D production technology . Justine Frischmann Justine Elinor Frischmann (born 16 September 1969) is an English artist and retired musician. After forming Suede , she co-founded

4290-473: Is often depicted wearing an inverted cross necklace, with " Hail Satan " being a common catchphrase of his. He was created by Hewlett and Damon Albarn in 1998, with his first official appearance being Gorillaz' debut EP Tomorrow Comes Today in 2000. Stuart Harold "2-D" Pot provides the lead vocals and plays the keyboard for the band. 2-D's singing voice is provided by Blur frontman Damon Albarn on Gorillaz' recordings and performances; his speaking voice

4420-582: Is presented in media such as music videos, interviews, comic strips and short cartoons. Gorillaz's music has featured collaborations with a wide range of featured artists, with Albarn as the only permanent musical contributor. One-T are a French virtual band created in 2000 by Eddy Gronfier and Thomas Pieds. Eddy Gronfier produces the music while Thomas Pieds creates the artwork and visuals. They were successful across Europe, especially France and Germany, with their 2003 hit single "The Magic Key" , but since then were not able to repeat that success and remained

4550-472: Is required to synchronize spoken lines and instrumentation with animated action. This can be eliminated by using pre-recorded music and speech; however, doing so also weakens the actual "live" experience. (Some non-virtual artists and groups have employed a similar technique on some concert tours and performances. DJ Shadow , for example, on his In Tune and On Time tour, had pre-animated sequences, which were played on giant screens behind him while he performed

4680-458: Is the lack of audience interaction, which can be vital during concerts. This is best suited to short performances, where audience response can be predicted. The second, and more complex, method differs from the first in that allowance is made for a variety of responses and interaction. This means having a wide range of animated sequences ready to play, with matching spoken lines, in response to different reactions. In both cases, extensive rehearsal

4810-560: The Robotech franchise in North America). The first virtual idol was Lynn Minmay , a fictional singer who is one of the main characters in the anime television series Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982) and the animated film adaptation Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984). Voiced by Mari Iijima , Lynn Minmay became the first fictional idol singer to garner major real-world success. The theme song "Do You Remember Love?" (from

4940-486: The Song Machine project, a music-based web series with episodes that consisted of standalone singles and accompanying music videos featuring different guests, which culminated with their seventh studio album, Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez (2020). The band's eighth studio album, Cracker Island (2023), met generally positive reviews as a refinement of their usual style. Gorillaz has presented itself live in

5070-450: The 2018 Brit Awards . Gorillaz have sold over 27 million albums worldwide. Musician Damon Albarn and comic artist Jamie Hewlett met in 1990 when guitarist Graham Coxon , a fan of Hewlett's work, asked him to interview Blur , which Albarn and Coxon had recently formed. The interview was published in Deadline , home of Hewlett's comic strip Tank Girl . Hewlett initially thought Albarn

5200-643: The Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London from 1989 to 1993. Frischmann began writing and studying music at age 11. She was a founding member of the band Suede with Brett Anderson , whom she met at UCL in 1988. She left the band in October 1991. In the 2018 documentary The Insatiable Ones , Anderson cites her as a highly significant influence on the band's first album. Frischmann later founded and fronted her own band, Elastica . In 1994, Elastica were voted Best New Band by NME readers at

5330-653: The Britpop band Elastica before retiring from the music industry and pursuing a career as an artist. Frischmann was born on 16 September 1969 in Twickenham , England , the daughter of Wilem Frischmann , a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who is the former chairman of the Pell Frischmann company of consulting engineers, and a Russian mother. Her parents are both Jewish . She grew up in Twickenham, Greater London , and attended St Paul's Girls School , before studying at

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5460-510: The Humanz Tour to support the album from the summer of 2017 to early 2018. Like the band's previous tour, the Humanz Tour featured the touring band in full view of the audience with a large screen behind them displaying Hewlett-created visuals and featured several of the different collaborative artists from the band's history. The tour was preceded by a handful of European warm-up shows, including

5590-499: The Kent -based punk rock duo Slaves . Upon the premiere of "Momentary Bliss", Albarn revealed that the group had been in the studio with Schoolboy Q and Sampa the Great among others, although he did say that these songs were likely to be saved for future episodes of Song Machine . The group also teased a possible collaboration with Australian band Tame Impala on Instagram . On 27 February,

5720-545: The Korg iElectribe music production app for iPad, featuring many of the same samples and sounds used by Albarn to create The Fall . On 23 February 2012, Gorillaz released " DoYaThing ", a single to promote a Gorillaz-branded collection of Converse shoes which were released shortly after. The song was a part of Converse's "Three Artists, One Song" project, with the two additional collaborators being James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and André 3000 of Outkast . Two different edits of

5850-505: The Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music . Albarn explained the expanded roster of featured artists represented his and Hewlett's new vision of Gorillaz as a project, explaining in a July 2008 interview that "Gorillaz now to us is not like four animated characters any more – it's more like an organisation of people doing new projects... That's my ideal model." Released on 3 March 2010, Plastic Beach debuted at No. 2 on both

5980-413: The double A-side " Kids with Guns " / " El Mañana ". Demon Days found the band taking a darker tone, partially influenced by a train journey Albarn had taken with his family through impoverished rural China. Albarn described the album as a concept album : "The whole album kind of tells the story of the night — staying up during the night — but it's also an allegory. It's what we're living in basically,

6110-537: The 1980s and has roots in anime and Japanese idol culture. Popular virtual idols include the Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku and the virtual YouTuber Kizuna AI . The term is sometimes confused for music groups who collaborate using the Internet , who do not require members to be in the same physical place for their work. The members of virtual groups are depicted as animated characters, with their own personality, voice, history, and playing style. For example, Alvin,

6240-595: The Brit awards. They were signed to Deceptive Records in the UK, and later with Geffen Records in Europe and the US. Their first album, Elastica , released in 1995, became the fastest-selling debut album in UK history. In 1995, Elastica were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for Elastica . The album went on to sell over a million copies worldwide. In 2001 the band announced an amicable breakup, citing, in part, burnout from

6370-509: The Funky Homosapien and De La Soul appeared on the deluxe version, as well as Brazilian artist MC Bin Laden . The album was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album for the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in 2024. Virtual members Former virtual members Murdoc Faust Niccals (born Murdoc Alphonce Niccals ) is the bassist for the band. He is voiced by Phil Cornwell and

6500-566: The Hook , a duo similar to the Squid Sisters. The two duos have performed together as holograms, and has had a special guest, K.K. Slider from the Animal Crossing series, to celebrate the release of Animal Crossing New Horizons. Prior to it, Nintendo had already made a virtual band composed of characters from Pikmin called Strawberry Flower , to promote the games. Their first single, Ai no Uta ,

6630-455: The House", in addition to the previously released "Tomorrow Comes Today", with each single featuring a music video directed by Hewlett starring the virtual members. Hewlett also helmed the design of the band's website, which was presented as an interactive tour of the band's fictional "Kong Studios" home and recording studio, featuring interactive games and explorative elements. Following the release of

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6760-577: The Latin American premiere of the music video for " Dare ". The virtual Gorillaz members "performed" at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards in November 2005 and again at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2006, appearing to perform on stage via Musion Eyeliner technology. Albarn later expressed disappointment at the execution of the performance, citing the low volume level required so as to not disturb

6890-596: The UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200 chart, the band's highest placing debut chart position. The album was supported by the lead single " Stylo " featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack released in January 2010 and the later singles " On Melancholy Hill " and " Rhinestone Eyes ". To promote the album, the band embarked on the Escape to Plastic Beach Tour , the band's first world tour and also their first live performances in which

7020-505: The album The Fall , first released digitally on Christmas Day 2010 and later given a physical release on 19 April 2011. The Fall is also co-produced by Stephen Sedgwick , the mixer engineer of the band. Albarn said the album served as a diary of the American leg of the tour, explaining that the tracks were presented exactly as they were on the day they were written and recorded with no additional production or overdubs: "I literally made it on

7150-481: The album cycle to a five night residency in November 2005 at the Manchester Opera House billed as Demon Days Live . The concerts saw the band performing the album in full each night with most featured artists from the album present. Unlike the debut album's tour, the touring band was visible on stage in view of the audience but obscured by lighting in such a way that only their silhouettes were visible, with

7280-453: The album released publicly was " Hallelujah Money " featuring Benjamin Clementine , released on 20 January 2017 with an accompanying video featuring Clementine. While not an official single, Albarn explained that the band chose to release the track on the day of Trump's inauguration because "It was meant to be something sung at the imaginary inauguration of Donald Trump, which turned out to be

7410-433: The album, Albarn and Khan envisioned Humanz as being the soundtrack for "a party for the end of the world", with Albarn specifically imagining a future in which Donald Trump won the 2016 U.S. presidential election as context for the album's narrative (Trump becoming president was still considered an unlikely event at the time of recording), explaining "Let's use that as a kind of dark fantasy for this record, let's imagine

7540-451: The album, and included a performance in Tokyo on 22 June 2018 billed as "The Now Now World Premiere" in which the band played the full album live for the first and only time, a performance which was later broadcast by Boiler Room . On 16 December 2019, the documentary Gorillaz: Reject False Icons was screened worldwide on a one-day theatrical release. Filmed and directed by Hewlett's son Denholm,

7670-457: The album, the band embarked on a brief tour of Europe, Japan and the United States to support the album in which a touring band featuring Albarn played completely obscured behind a giant screen on which Hewlett's accompanying visuals were projected. The virtual band member's voice actors were also present at some shows and spoke live to the audience to give the impression that the fictional band

7800-470: The album. Albarn chose Khan from a list of possible producers compiled by Parlophone , the band's record label after Albarn and Khan spoke via Skype. Humanz was also co-produced by Remi Kabaka Jr. , a friend of Albarn's who had worked with him in the non-profit musical organization Africa Express and also has been the voice actor for the Gorillaz virtual band member Russel Hobbs since 2000. In conceptualizing

7930-409: The band (labeled as "A&R/Producer") alongside Albarn and Hewlett for the first time. On 29 January 2020, the band announced its new project Song Machine . Eschewing the typical album format of releasing music, Song Machine is instead a web series that sees the band releasing one new song a month as "episodes" to the series, with 11 episodes releasing to comprise the first "season". Elaborating on

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8060-483: The band debuted a new song "Ode to Idaho", which was later included on the album as "Idaho". During the performance, Albarn stated it had been written in the days prior. During a break in the Humanz Tour in February 2018, Albarn returned to London where he worked with producer James Ford , known for his work with Arctic Monkeys and Florence and the Machine , and Kabaka Jr. to finish the newly written material, resulting in

8190-485: The band during The Now Now album cycle, filling in for the imprisoned Murdoc Niccals. Explaining the crossover in an interview with the BBC, Albarn said "We were massive fans of The Powerpuff Girls when they came out, the energy of that cartoon was really cool, and we kind of know the creator of it ( Craig McCracken ). It was a very organic thing." The band's remaining 2018 live dates were billed as The Now Now Tour to support

8320-413: The band performed the new song " New Gold " (featuring Tame Impala and Bootie Brown ) at All Points East in London, and released it as their second single for their eighth studio album, announced on the same day to be titled Cracker Island (released on 24 February 2023). The album, produced with Kurstin, also features appearances from Stevie Nicks , Bad Bunny, Beck, and Adeleye Omotayo. On 4 November,

8450-636: The band released " Pac-Man ", the fifth episode of Song Machine , in honour of Pac-Man 's 40th anniversary. The track features American rapper Schoolboy Q . On 9 September, the band released " Strange Timez ", the sixth episode of Song Machine . The track features Robert Smith , from the Cure . Gorillaz also announced the title and tracklist for Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez , released on 23 October 2020, featuring further guest appearances from Elton John , 6lack , JPEGMafia , Kano , Roxani Arias, Moonchild Sanelly and Chai , among others. On 1 October,

8580-418: The band released " The Pink Phantom ", the seventh episode of Song Machine . The track features Elton John and American R&B recording artist 6lack. Before the release of Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez , Gorillaz started a radio show on Apple Music called Song Machine Radio where each virtual character has a turn to invite special guests and play some of their favourite tunes. A few days ahead of

8710-563: The band released the DVD Phase One: Celebrity Take Down , which contained all of the band's released visual content up to that point along with other extras. After the success of the debut album, Albarn and Hewlett briefly explored the possibility of creating a Gorillaz theatrical film, but Hewlett claimed the duo later lost interest: "We lost all interest in doing it as soon as we started meeting with studios and talking to these Hollywood executive types, we just weren't on

8840-439: The band released the second episode of Song Machine entitled " Désolé ". The song features Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara . The third episode, " Aries ", released on 9 April and featured Peter Hook and Georgia . The fourth track " How Far? " featuring Tony Allen and Skepta was released 2 May. This song was released without an accompanying music video as a tribute to Allen, who died on 30 April. On 26 May, Gorillaz announced

8970-515: The band released the third single from Cracker Island , " Baby Queen " (previously released on the FIFA 23 soundtrack). On 8 December, the band released the album's fourth single, "Skinny Ape", alongside the announcement of two virtual shows in Times Square and Piccadilly Circus on 17 and 18 December, respectively. On 27 January 2023, the album's fifth single, "Silent Running" featuring Adeleye Omotayo,

9100-472: The band was in the works at Netflix , but by February 2023, it had been cancelled. Throughout 2022, Gorillaz went on a world tour in South America, Europe, Australia, and North America, where they debuted new material. In June 2022, the band began teasing the release of new material, with promotional displays and websites surfacing encouraging fans to sign up to be a part of "The Last Cult". The band released

9230-496: The band's fictional backstory and universe, the book was actually written by official Gorillaz script writer and live drummer Cass Browne and featured new artwork by Hewlett. Later the same month, the band released another DVD, Phase Two: Slowboat to Hades , compiling much of the band's visual content from the album cycle. A second B-sides compilation, D-Sides was released in November 2007, featuring B-sides and remixes associated with Demon Days as well as unreleased tracks from

9360-437: The band's first music video for "Tomorrow Comes Today", which introduced the virtual band members for the first time. With Gorillaz , Albarn explored genres he had not explored with Blur, such as hip-hop , dub and Latin music , a process he described as liberating: "One of the reasons I began Gorillaz is I had a lot of rhythms I never thought I could use with Blur. A lot of that stuff never really seemed to manifest itself in

9490-452: The band's sixth studio album, The Now Now , released on 29 June 2018. Featuring "simple, mostly upbeat songs" and 1980s new wave influences, the album was noted for its distinctly small list of featured artists compared to previous Gorillaz work, with only two tracks featuring any outside artists (the album's lead single " Humility " featuring George Benson and " Hollywood " featuring Snoop Dogg and Jamie Principle ). Albarn mentioned that

9620-460: The characters again. I played around by myself for eight months while he was performing with Blur in 2015." Recording sessions for the band's fifth studio album, Humanz , began in late 2015 and continued through 2016, taking place in London, New York City, Paris and Jamaica. Albarn enlisted American hip-hop and house producer Anthony Khan, known by his stage name the Twilite Tone , to co-produce

9750-535: The choices I make in my art ... [including] my ever-evolving relationship with my spiritual faith. I think my approach and aesthetics reveal internal struggles and speak to my family origins and history." Frischmann dated her Suede bandmate Brett Anderson at the time they co-founded the group. She then dated Blur lead singer Damon Albarn from 1991 until the couple broke up in 1998, which served as inspiration for Blur's 1999 singles " No Distance Left to Run " and " Tender ". In 2008, she married Ian Faloona,

9880-542: The debut album by the hip-hop supergroup of the same name featuring rapper Del the Funky Homosapien and DJ Kid Koala , both of whom Nakamura recruited to assist in finishing Gorillaz material. Del featured on two tracks on the album, including the lead single " Clint Eastwood ", while Kid Koala contributed turntables to various tracks. The album featured additional collaborations with Ibrahim Ferrer of Buena Vista Social Club , Miho Hatori of Cibo Matto and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club , representing

10010-476: The decision to produce Plastic Beach by himself, with no co-producer. The album was recorded throughout 2008 and 2009 in London, New York City and Syria although production of the album was briefly interrupted so that Albarn could join Blur for a reunion tour in the summer of 2009, with Albarn explaining "there's no way you can do that and that [Blur and Gorillaz] at the same time." Plastic Beach saw Gorillaz move into

10140-411: The documentary showcases a behind-the-scenes look at the production of Humanz and The Now Now as well as the album's associated tours. One week after the film's theatrical release, a "Director's Cut" version of the film featuring additional footage was released on the official Gorillaz YouTube channel in three parts. In the credits for Reject False Icons , Kabaka Jr. was listed as an official member of

10270-550: The end of the show's run. After The Archies , produced by Filmation , became a huge pop hit, Hanna-Barbera started releasing several cartoon TV shows with the adventures of rock bands, such as Josie and the Pussycats , The Cattanooga Cats , The Impossibles , Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids , Jabberjaw , and others. During the 1980s, Hasbro released Jem , an animated TV series featuring two enemy bands with

10400-460: The environmental themes of Plastic Beach . No non-fungible tokens have since released. The band also announced a boxset, the G Collection, containing six of their studio albums—excluding The Fall —for Record Store Day . On 10 August 2021, Gorillaz debuted three new songs, "Meanwhile" (featuring British rapper Jelani Blackman), "Jimmy Jimmy" (featuring British rapper AJ Tracey ), and "Déjà Vu" (featuring Jamaican-British singer Alicaì Harley), during

10530-490: The few numbers of featured artists was partially due to the album's quick production, which in turn was a result of Albarn wanting to finish the album before the band's touring schedule resumed: "We've been very lucky to be offered all the festivals this year on the back of the last record [ Humanz ]... but I didn't want to do that unless I had something new to work with, so the only option was to make another record really quickly and not have lots of guests on it, because that takes

10660-450: The film Macross: Do You Remember Love? ) reached number seven on the Oricon music charts in Japan, and the song has since been covered numerous times over the next several decades. The Japanese cyberpunk anime Megazone 23 (1985) took the virtual idol concept further with EVE, who is depicted as a computer -based artificial intelligence (AI) who takes the form of a virtual idol within

10790-604: The first Demon Dayz Festival held on 10 June 2017 at the Dreamland Margate theme park, a Gorillaz curated music festival which was later repeated in Los Angeles in October 2018. On 8 June 2017 the band released the non-album single " Sleeping Powder " with an accompanying music video and on 3 November 2017 a "Super Deluxe" version of Humanz , featuring an additional 14 unreleased tracks from the album's sessions, including alternative versions of previously released songs as well as

10920-431: The first album and becoming the band's most successful album to date. The album's success was partially driven by the success of the lead single " Feel Good Inc. " featuring hip-hop group De La Soul , which topped Billboard' s Alternative Songs chart in the U.S. for eight consecutive weeks and was featured in a commercial for Apple 's iPod . The album was also supported by the later singles " Dare ", " Dirty Harry ", and

11050-428: The first song they recorded was "Ghost Train", which was later released as a B-side on their single " Rock the House ". The band's visual style is thought to have evolved from The 16s , a rejected comic strip Hewlett conceived with Tank Girl co-creator Alan Martin . Although not released under the Gorillaz name, Albarn has said that "one of the first ever Gorillaz tunes" was Blur's 1997 single " On Your Own ", which

11180-438: The idea behind Song Machine in a radio interview shortly after the announcement of the project, Albarn explained that "We no longer kind of see ourselves as constrained to making albums. We can now make episodes and seasons." Each episode features previously unannounced guest musicians on new Gorillaz material, with the first being " Momentary Bliss ", which was released on 31 January and features both British rapper Slowthai and

11310-511: The leader of the Chipmunks, is mischievous, and Skeleton Staff's Guitarist Stanton is a party-going underachiever. Furthermore, Freen in Green's bassist Sparky is sluggish, Murdoc of Gorillaz is a middle-aged satanic bass player and Renard Queenston, also known simply as Renard, a fox psychopath dressed as a nurse. Another example is Hatsune Miku who does not have a definite personality; her personality changes in each song based on interactions from

11440-503: The music we made together as Blur." Albarn began work on the album by himself, but eventually invited American hip-hop producer Dan "the Automator" Nakamura . He said: "I called Dan the Automator in after I'd done more than half of it and felt it would benefit from having somebody else's focus. So I just rang him and asked whether he was interested in helping me finish it off." Nakamura and Albarn had recently collaborated on Deltron 3030 ,

11570-430: The night Donald Trump wins the election and how we're all going to feel that night." Khan stated that "The idea of Donald Trump being president allowed us to create a narrative together. I suggested that the album should be about joy, pain and urgency. That was to be our state of mind before we even touched a keyboard or an MPC . Especially in American music, dare I say black music, there's a way of communicating joy that at

11700-403: The ninth and final episode of the first season of Song Machine . The track features British musician Leee John . On 26 March 2021, the band celebrated its debut album's 20th anniversary with oncoming reissues of their catalog and teases of non-fungible tokens ; due to its impact on climate change, the latter was met with criticism by various sources and fans—some noting that the act contradicts

11830-545: The opening ceremony of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship, alongside holographic versions of their characters. Dvar is an anonymous virtual band from Russia that plays darkwave and electronic music . Eternity is a virtual idol group formed by Pulse9. The group debuted on March 22, 2021, with the single "I'm Real". The group consists of 11 members: Seoa, Sujin, Minji, Zae-in, Hyejin, Dain, Chorong, Jiwoo, Yeoreum, Sarang and Yejin. They are created with artificial intelligence technology, Deep Real. Mave:

11960-614: The project was not "a gimmick": "If you do it again, it's no longer a gimmick, and if it works then we've proved a point." The result was Demon Days , released on 11 May 2005. The album was another major commercial success, debuting at No. 1 on the UK Albums Charts and No. 6 on the US Billboard 200, and has since gone six times platinum in the UK, double platinum in the United States, and triple platinum in Australia, outperforming sales of

12090-522: The real inauguration of Donald Trump, so we released it because we had imagined that happening and it did happen." Humanz was released on 28 April 2017, the band's first new studio album in 7 years. Featuring a "modern-sounding urban hip-hop/R&B sensibility", the album debuted at #2 on both the UK Album charts and the US Billboard 200. Humanz received generally positive reviews from critics, although received some criticism from fans and critics for what

12220-544: The recording of his voice to create the distinctive sound; the process earned him two Grammys in 1959 for engineering. The success of the Chipmunks spurred on another group, the Nutty Squirrels , to join the ranks. A scat-singing version of Bagdasarian's creation, they made the American Top 40 with their song "Uh-Oh". Their success, however, was short-lived. In 1968, The Banana Splits premiered on NBC but failed to chart

12350-521: The release of Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez , Albarn revealed that he had written a song for the project's second season. On 5 November, the band released " The Valley of the Pagans ", the eighth episode of Song Machine . The track features American singer Beck . The music video is somewhat notorious for being the first major studio production filmed in Grand Theft Auto V . The video ends with

12480-440: The release of a new book titled Gorillaz Almanac . The book comes in three editions: standard, deluxe and super deluxe, all of which were set to release on 23 October but has since been delayed to 22 December with a physical release of season one of Song Machine included with each copy. On 9 June, the band released " Friday 13th ", the fourth episode of Song Machine . The track features French-British rapper Octavian . On 20 July,

12610-451: The road. I didn't write it before, I didn't prepare it. I just did it day by day as a kind of diary of my experience in America. If I left it until the New Year to release it then the cynics out there would say, 'Oh well, it's been tampered with', but if I put it out now they'd know that I haven't done anything because I've been on tour ever since." The band later released a "Gorillaz edition" of

12740-436: The same page. We said, fuck it, we'll sit on the idea until we can do it ourselves, and maybe even raise the money ourselves." Albarn spent the majority of 2003 on tour with Blur in support of their newly released album Think Tank ; however, upon completion of the tour, he decided to return to Gorillaz, reuniting with Hewlett to prepare for a second album. Hewlett explained that the duo chose to continue Gorillaz to prove that

12870-503: The same time allows you to feel the struggle the person has been through. And the urgency is there because something needs to be done. So that was the mantra. I wanted to blend Damon, a Briton, with the joy and pain and struggle that African-American music can express." Humanz again featured a large cast of featured artists, including Popcaan , Vince Staples , DRAM , Jehnny Beth , Pusha T , Peven Everett , Danny Brown , Grace Jones and Mavis Staples , among others. The first track from

13000-472: The sessions for the album. In 2008, the documentary film Bananaz was released. Directed by Ceri Levy, the film documents the behind-the-scenes history of the band from 2000 to 2006. Albarn and Hewlett's next project together was the opera Monkey: Journey to the West based on the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West , which premiered at the 2007 Manchester International Festival . While not officially

13130-405: The set. Again, a large amount of pre-tour planning and synchronization rehearsal was required beforehand. ) While the term had not been coined at the time, Alvin and the Chipmunks were the first virtual band to receive widespread fame. Centered on Alvin, his two brothers Simon and Theodore, and their manager/father Dave Seville, their voices were created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. , who accelerated

13260-406: The single " Garage Palace " featuring Little Simz . Albarn continued recording while on the road during the Humanz Tour, and mentioned in an interview with Q Magazine in September 2017 that he was planning on releasing the material as a future Gorillaz album. Comparing the production of the album to The Fall , which was also recorded while the band was on tour, Albarn mentioned that "It will be

13390-417: The song uploaded to YouTube subsequently went viral, surpassing 100 million views in one month, reaching 550 million views as of May 2023, and topping Billboard ' s World Digital Song Sales chart. In 2019, Riot created a virtual hip hop group called True Damage , featuring the champions Ekko, Akali, Qiyana, Senna, and Yasuo. The vocalists performed a live version of their debut song, "Giants", during

13520-441: The song were released: a four-and-a-half minute radio edit released on Converse's website and the full 13-minute version of the song released on the Gorillaz website. Hewlett returned to direct the single's music video, featuring fictionalized animated versions of Murphy and André interacting with the Gorillaz' virtual members. The song received positive reviews from critics, with particular praise given to André 3000's contributions to

13650-406: The success of the lead single, " Clint Eastwood ". Their second studio album, Demon Days (2005), went six times platinum in the UK, double platinum in the US , and spawned the successful lead single " Feel Good Inc. " The band's third album, Plastic Beach (2010), featured environmentalist themes, synth-pop elements and an expanded roster of featured artists. Their fourth album, The Fall ,

13780-448: The technology: "That was tough... They started and it was so quiet cause they've got this piece of film that you've got to pull over the stage so any bass frequencies would just mess up the illusion completely." At the Grammys, the band won Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for "Feel Good Inc.", which was also nominated for Record of the Year . Albarn and Hewlett explored the idea of producing

13910-634: The third Gorillaz studio album, Plastic Beach . Drawing upon environmentalist themes, Plastic Beach was inspired by the idea of a "secret floating island deep in the South Pacific... made up of the detritus, debris and washed up remnants of humanity" inspired by marine pollution such as plastic that Albarn had found in a beach near one of his homes in Devon as well as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch . Unlike previous Gorillaz albums, Albarn made

14040-489: The top 40. A year later in 1969, from rival CBS, The Archies were the first virtual band to appear in worldwide pop charts. During this time, other television programs, such as Josie and the Pussycats and The Muppet Show , began to include bands as part of the format (in the case of Josie and the Pussycats , the eponymous band was the show's focus). Some of the groups that appeared on these shows released mainstream recordings. Some bands, however, would "break up" after

14170-424: The touring band performed fully in view of the audience on stage with no visual obstructions. The tour, which featured many of the collaborative artists from Plastic Beach and saw the touring band wearing naval attire, was later described by Albarn as having been extremely costly to produce, with the band barely breaking even on the shows, saying "I loved doing it, but economically it was a fucking disaster." The tour

14300-539: The track. In April 2012, Albarn told The Guardian that he and Hewlett had fallen out and that future Gorillaz projects were "unlikely". Tension between the two had been building, partly due to a belief held by Hewlett that his contributions to Gorillaz were being minimised. Speaking to The Guardian in April 2017, Hewlett explained: "Damon had half the Clash on stage, and Bobby Womack and Mos Def and De La Soul, and fucking Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and Bashy and everyone else. It

14430-685: The users of Vocaloid . The style of animation used for depicting the characters varies. Some groups and idols, like The Archies , Gorillaz , Dethklok , The Banana Splits , Prozzäk , One-T , Dvar , Renard Queenston, Quasimoto , MC Skat Kat , VBirds , One eskimO and Alvin and the Chipmunks are hand-drawn characters, and much of their media uses traditional animation and cartooning techniques. Others, such as Hatsune Miku , Kizuna Ai , Crazy Frog , Genki Rockets , Gummibär , Pinocchio , The Bots, Studio Killers , Beatcats , K/DA , Your Favorite Martian , Hololive , Eternity and Mave: are computer-generated . Some people consider puppetry as

14560-408: The virtual band characters, or the human writers and artists involved. Virtual bands often perform through virtual concerts , where their likenesses are represented digitally on stage. One of two methods can be employed for live performances. The first involves animating the entire set, with little or no allowance for audience interaction, then "performing" it as is. The major pitfall with this method

14690-612: The voice bank of Hatsune Miku . In 2009, Hatsune Miku had her first concert. Other Vocaloids include Meiko , Kaito , Kagamine Rin and Len , and Megurine Luka . Virtual bands can also originate from video games , as proven by the 2015 Wii U game Splatoon , which features songs credited to various virtual bands, the most notable being a pop duo called the Squid Sisters , who have performed several real world concerts as holograms. The game's 2017 Nintendo Switch sequel, Splatoon 2 , introduces more virtual bands, most notably Off

14820-433: The voices of Ahri and Akali, respectively, Madison Beer voices Evelynn, and Jaira Burns provided the voice for Kai'Sa. However, the characters have also been voiced by other artists. K/DA was developed by Riot Games , the company behind League of Legends , and was unveiled at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship with an augmented reality live performance of their debut single, " Pop/Stars ". A music video of

14950-399: The world in a state of night." Believing that the album needed "a slightly different approach" compared to the first album, Albarn enlisted American producer Brian Burton, better known by his stage name Danger Mouse , to produce the album, whom Albarn praised as "one of the best young producers in the world" after hearing his 2004 mashup album The Grey Album . Burton felt he and Albarn had

15080-559: Was "arsey, a wanker". Though Hewlett became acquaintances with the band, he and Albarn often clashed, especially after Hewlett began seeing Coxon's ex-girlfriend Jane Olliver. Despite this, Albarn and Hewlett started sharing a flat on Westbourne Grove in London in 1997. Hewlett had recently broken up with Olliver and Albarn was at the end of his highly publicised relationship with Justine Frischmann of Elastica . The idea to create Gorillaz came about when Albarn and Hewlett were watching MTV . Hewlett said, "If you watch MTV for too long, it's

15210-555: Was a massive success in Japan, reaching #2 on the Weekly Oricon Top 200 Singles chart. In 2020, Sega and Sanrio teamed up to make their first collaboration virtual band, Beatcats . Gorillaz are an English virtual band created in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett , from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Russel Hobbs (drums). Their universe

15340-457: Was created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett . Murdoc is based on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards , Victor Frankenstein , and Creeper from Scooby-Doo . In particular, he was inspired by a photograph of the Rolling Stones taken in 1968 by photographer David Bailey . Once described by creator Jamie Hewlett as being the "unpleasant villain of the band". Murdoc is a Satanist who

15470-668: Was followed by the B-sides compilation G-Sides released in December 2001. On 7 December 2001, the band released the single " 911 ", a collaboration with hip hop group D12 (without Eminem ) and singer Terry Hall of the Specials about the September 11 attacks . At the 2002 Brit Awards the virtual members of Gorillaz "performed" for the first time, appearing in 3D animation on four large screens along with rap accompaniment by Phi Life Cypher ,

15600-519: Was perceived as a diminished presence from Albarn in contrast to the abundance of featured artists. The album was released in both standard and deluxe editions, with the deluxe edition featuring an additional 6 bonus tracks and was promoted by the lead single " Saturnz Barz " featuring Popcaan and the later single " Strobelite " featuring Peven Everett. The Hewlett-directed music video for "Saturnz Barz" made use of YouTube's 360-degree video format and reportedly cost $ 800,000 to create. The band embarked on

15730-524: Was planning to record another Gorillaz album. Speaking about his relationship with Hewlett, Albarn said that the pair's well-publicised fall-out had helped their relationship in the long term. Hewlett described the moment when he and Albarn agreed to continue Gorillaz at an afterparty after one of Albarn's solo shows in 2014: "We'd had a bit to drink, and he said, 'Do you want to do another one?' And I said, 'Do you?' and he said, 'Do you?' And I said, 'Yeah, sure.' I started work on it straight away, learning to draw

15860-505: Was popularized with Gorillaz in 2000 . However, the concept of the virtual band was first demonstrated by Alvin and the Chipmunks in 1958, when their creator, Ross Bagdasarian , accelerated recordings of his own voice to achieve the "chipmunk voice". There have since been numerous virtual bands that have recorded material. Computer animation , traditional animation , and vocal mixing and manipulation are common features. The term virtual idol originates from Japan, where it dates back to

15990-614: Was preceded by headline performances at several international music festivals, including the Coachella and Glastonbury festivals. On 21 November 2010, while still on tour, the band released the non-album single " Doncamatic " featuring British singer Daley . During the North American leg of the Escape to Plastic Beach tour in the fall of 2010, Albarn continued recording Gorillaz songs entirely on his iPad . The recordings were later released as

16120-411: Was present on stage. In later interviews, Albarn described the band's first tour as difficult due to the limitations imposed by the band playing behind a screen: "For someone who had just spent the last ten years out front being a frontman [with Blur], it was a really weird experience. And I have to say, some nights I just wanted to get a knife and just cut [the screen] and stick my head through." The album

16250-491: Was provided by actor Nelson De Freitas in various Gorillaz direct-to-video projects such as Phase One: Celebrity Take Down and Phase Two: Slowboat to Hades . In 2017, Kevin Bishop was cast as the new speaking voice of 2-D. He was created by Albarn and Jamie Hewlett in 1998. Most of 2-D's recordings were made with a megaphone part due to his very bass voice , confirmed Hewlett. Virtual band The term virtual band

16380-445: Was recorded on the road during the Escape to Plastic Beach Tour and released on 25 December 2010. In 2015, after over 10 years providing the voice of Russel, Remi Kabaka Jr. became a permanent music producer for the band. Their fifth album, Humanz (2017) was the band's first in seven years and featured a wide array of guest artists, while its follow-up, The Now Now (2018), focused musically on Albarn. In 2020, Gorillaz started

16510-530: Was released for their fifth studio album Blur . From 1998 to 2000, Albarn recorded Gorillaz' self-titled debut album at his newly opened Studio 13 in London as well as at Geejam Studios in Jamaica. The sessions resulted in the first Gorillaz release, the EP Tomorrow Comes Today , released on 27 November 2000. This EP consisted mostly of tracks which later appeared on the album, and it also included

16640-409: Was released, with a music video following on 8 February. The album received mostly positive reviews, with Stephen Thomas Erlewine describing it as "less an exploration of new sonic territory so much as it is a reaffirmation of [Albarn's] strengths" with "a clean, efficient energy". On 27 February 2023, a deluxe version of Cracker Island was released with five bonus tracks. Previous collaborators Del

16770-476: Was shortlisted for the UK's Marmite Prize for painting, and she has been included in The Amsterdam List of 1000 Living Painters. In a 2016 interview regarding her art career, Frischmann stated, "I don't really have any desire to make music, to be honest." Frischmann has said, "The themes and ideas I am working with are in direct relation to an ongoing personal narrative; the big questions are reflected in

16900-403: Was the greatest band ever. And the screen on stage behind them seemed to get smaller every day. I'd say, 'Have we got a new screen?' and the tour manager was like, 'No, it's the same screen.' Because it seemed to me like it was getting smaller." Albarn gave his side of the story in a separate interview, saying "I think we were at a cross purposes somewhat on that last record [ Plastic Beach ], which

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