Clint Eastwood

Gorillaz emerged in London in 1998 from the partnership of musician Damon Albarn and comic artist Jamie Hewlett. Instead of presenting a conventional lineup, they placed four animated characters at the front of the project: singer 2-D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, guitarist Noodle and drummer Russel Hobbs. The device was more than visual camouflage. It gave Albarn and Hewlett a framework in which the identity of the “band” could remain recognisable while the real musicians, vocalists and producers around it changed constantly.

The self-titled 2001 debut established the formula immediately. “Clint Eastwood” fused a melodica-led, dub-influenced atmosphere with Del the Funky Homosapien’s rap performance, while the wider album moved between alternative rock, hip-hop, electronic production and lo-fi textures. Gorillaz sounded less like a fixed genre than a meeting point between scenes that were often marketed separately.

Demon Days expanded that idea in 2005. Produced with Danger Mouse and populated by collaborators including De La Soul, Shaun Ryder, Neneh Cherry and MF DOOM, the album produced some of the project’s defining recordings. “Feel Good Inc.” became a major international signature and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

With Plastic Beach in 2010, Gorillaz pushed the collaborative model into an even more elaborate conceptual album, bringing together artists including Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, De La Soul, Little Dragon, Lou Reed, Mark E. Smith, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon. The record’s synthetic island imagery and environmental undertones matched music that was polished, melancholic and deliberately difficult to classify.

Later releases proved that the virtual-band concept was not tied to a single era. Humanz, The Now Now, the episodic Song Machine project and Cracker Island each reorganised the balance between Albarn’s songwriting and an expanding network of guests. In 2026 Gorillaz released The Mountain, continuing the project’s habit of using place, collaboration and fictional world-building as engines for musical reinvention.