Wow! What a week, huh?? A week so busy, so jampacked, so GORILLA-FILLED that it took a couple extra days to get this roundup up to our high journalistic standards! BIG thanks to hughesta and thatmustguy for helping out with the curation and content of this post!
Without further ado, let’s look at everything we got:
- Song Machine
- Momentary Bliss (feat. slowthai & Slaves) music video + EP
- Damon, Remi, and Laurie Vincent hit up BBC Radio 1
- Machine Bitez
- New Art
- Gorillaz Hit the Front Cover for Several Playlists!
- New Art Book from Jamie?
- G Foot returns again
- Gorillaz x Tame Impala In the Near Future?
Song Machine
After almost 2 years of absence, we were finally introduced to the new project from Gorillaz, Song Machine! The news of this project first came to light last Monday, when popular in the fandom YouTuber and previous leaker (for tracks such as Humility, Lake Zurich, and Hollywood) MarDie1530 posted the cover for what was assumed at the time a one off single:
The following day, Gorillaz themselves uploaded the first in their new series of releases, the theme to the entire project, Song Machine Theme Tune, with posts on their Instagram page confirming for us that the machine has been turned on, with new content to follow!
Complete with visuals, yet not a trace of explanation, this new little tune got everyone in the fandom (as well as news sites) excited for what new releases we would be seeing from the band! And it didn’t take us long to find out what they had in store…
Momentary Bliss (feat. slowthai & Slaves) music video + EP
2 days later, WOW!!! We got a brand new Gorillaz single and music video, and it’s really, really good! Take a look/listen here:
Damon, Remi, and Laurie Vincent hit up BBC Radio 1
Not only was Momentary Bliss a great surprise, it’s also the first of many. Buckle up my friends, because Gorillaz have officially engaged the SONG MACHINE. We’re going to be getting a new music video and single, with new exciting collaborators, every month according to Damon! Check out the BBC interview here for more details:
Some of the highlights from the interview, assembled by thatmustguy:
- Damon considers this a new time of their lives
- 13 episode season, with another season following
- New episode out next month, and new episodes will come out each month
- Indefinite episodes, narrative arc at the end of each season
- They’ll keep going for as long as they have ideas (forever and ever and ever!!!)
- Song Machine is like a 70’s style TV show, example given was Banana Splits
- Idea for first single was Slaves are on the first level of the Song Machine, Slowthai on the next level, and Gorillaz on the bottom level, with none of them knowing what the other is recording
- Production started with the words ‘Momentary Bliss’ and ‘Rita’
- Song is about instant gratification that doesn’t last, according to Slaves
- Damon and Slaves met doing Africa Express, where Damon admits it didn’t go well for him since he lost his voice while trying to out-shout Issac during rehearsal, and having to go to Liverpool to record a live GBQ broadcast the next day.
Machine Bitez
If all this wasn’t enough, Gorillaz also posted THREE new in-character dialogue bits, where our favorite Gorilla boys discuss Momentary Bliss and its collaborators!
It seems like we can expect to hear new ‘bitez’ with every new episode release.
New Art
Along with all these great audio bits, there’s also been several pieces of new art! Let’s take a look, shall we?
On top of these great pieces, the Gorillaz instagram account also shared some fun photoshops.
I guess Murdoc’s whereabouts are still unknown…
Gorillaz Hit the Front Cover for Several Playlists!
They’re the hottest new thing!
Amazon is promoting Momentary Bliss, too!
New Art Book From Jamie?
Taschen, the publishers for Jamie Hewlett’s art book, teased that we should be seeing something new from Jamie very soon:
In fact, there seems to be a listing on Amazon for a book named 40 (Quarante). Is this just a placeholder? Or perhaps a 40th anniversary reprint of the previous art book?
Gfoot Returns Again
From the looks of it, Gfoot is going to be returning this year — along with a BUNCH of other things! See Remi’s comment to a fan below:
Gorillaz x Tame Impala In the Near Future?
Try not to get too excited, but it seems the band has been teasing that Tame Impala will appear on a future Song Machine episode!
Furthermore, could the “like” below also signify that we can expect a Tyler The Creator episode?
Nothing left to do but tune in and TURN ON the Song Machine next month!
Gorillazland 