Gorillaz have always lived in the space between worlds — between the virtual and the human, the cartoon panel and the global stage, the absurd and the achingly sincere. But with the release of their new album The Mountain and an accompanying eight‑minute animated short, the band’s universe feels more tactile, more soulful, and more defiantly hand‑made than it has in years.
The Mountain, The Moon Cave & The Sad God is a gorgeously crafted return to the roots of Gorillaz’ visual identity. Directed by Jamie Hewlett alongside Max Taylor and Tim McCourt of BAFTA‑nominated studio THE LINE, the film is a love letter to the golden era of 2D animation — the kind of textured, analogue artistry that shaped childhoods long before everything went digital and frictionless. It’s a world built from hand‑painted backgrounds, real materials, and the kind of painstaking detail that only comes from thousands of hours of human labour.
And it’s a world that places Noodle, Murdoc, 2D and Russel somewhere unexpected: India.
In the film, the band find themselves travelling across India with four fake passports and a desire to escape the gravitational pull of global fame. The narrative mirrors the themes of The Mountain itself — life as a pilgrimage, creativity as a form of survival, and the thrill of existence even when the terrain gets steep.
The visuals lean into the timeless aesthetic of 1960s animated features, but the emotional tone is unmistakably Gorillaz: surreal, playful, melancholic, and quietly profound. Hewlett’s return to pure illustration feels like a reclamation of the band’s DNA — a reminder that Gorillaz has always been as much an art project as a musical one.
The album behind the film is Gorillaz’ ninth studio record and the first release on their new label, KONG. It’s a sprawling, collaborative odyssey — 15 tracks recorded across London, Devon, India, Ashgabat, Damascus, Los Angeles, Miami and New York. Voices drift in from across languages and continents: Arabic, English, Hindi, Spanish and Yoruba.
The guest list reads like a map of global creativity: Anoushka Shankar, Asha Bhosle, Black Thought, Johnny Marr, Omar Souleyman, Sparks, Trueno, Yasiin Bey, and the late Bobby Womack, Mark E. Smith, Tony Allen and others whose presence feels like a bridge between worlds. It’s a record that treats collaboration not as a feature but as a philosophy.
Critics are already calling it one of the band’s most ambitious and moving works in a quarter century. The Times praised its ability to “look death and destruction in the face and come back smiling,” while Rolling Stone UK described it as “unexpectedly beautiful.”
To bring this new era to life, Gorillaz will take The Mountain Tour across the UK and Ireland in Spring 2026, including a huge one‑off headline show at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in June with Sparks and Trueno. Several dates are already sold out — a reminder that even after 25 years, the band’s mythology still pulls crowds like few others.
UK & Ireland Dates:
13 March - BRADFORD, Bradford Live (Warm Up Show) - SOLD OUT!
14 March - BRADFORD, Bradford Live (Warm Up Show) - SOLD OUT!
20 March - MANCHESTER, Co-op Live - NEW DATE DUE TO DEMAND!
21 March - MANCHESTER, Co-op Live
22 March - BIRMINGHAM, bp pulse LIVE
24 March - GLASGOW, OVO Hydro* - SOLD OUT!
25 March - LEEDS, First Direct Arena*
27 March - CARDIFF, Utilita Arena* - SOLD OUT!
28 March - NOTTINGHAM, Motorpoint Arena*
29 March - LIVERPOOL, M&S Bank Arena*
31 March - BELFAST, SSE Arena* - SOLD OUT!
01 April - DUBLIN, 3Arena* - SOLD OUT!
02 April - DUBLIN, 3Arena - NEW DATE DUE TO DEMAND! SOLD OUT!
*support from Trueno
20 June - LONDON, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
With support from Sparks and Trueno
The Mountain Tour - Tickets and Information: www.gorillaz.com
What makes The Mountain era so compelling is its sense of renewal. Gorillaz have always thrived on reinvention, but this time the shift feels deeper — less about stylistic pivot and more about rediscovering the heart of the project. The analogue textures, the global collaborations, the spiritual wanderlust, the return to hand‑drawn storytelling: it all points to a band reconnecting with the joy of making things slowly, beautifully, and with intention.
In a world obsessed with speed and automation, Gorillaz have chosen craft. They’ve chosen myth. They’ve chosen to build a universe by hand again.
And that feels like a mountain worth climbing.
NEW ALBUM ‘THE MOUNTAIN’ IS OUT NOW - LISTEN HERE
