Gorillaz is a band whose legacy is intertwined with the artists that they choose to collaborate with. The virtual band was first introduced to the world by former Blur frontman Damon Albarn and Tank Girl co-creator Jamie Hewlett in 2001 via their self-titled debut studio album. Even despite being made up of fictional characters created by the two men (Albarn providing the music and Hewlett the visuals), the Gorillaz project has found quite the fanbase for itself over the years.
With their earliest singles featuring the likes of rapper Del the Funky Homosapien and ska musician Terry Hall, Albarn and Hewlett set a standard for the project: that collaborations are a core element of Gorillaz.
That fact has only continued to remain true throughout the decades since their debut. Records like 2020’s Song Machine, Season One are built on the gimmick of being loaded with features, and Gorillaz’s legacy is often directly linked to the popularity of certain features across their music.
With Albarn and Hewlett’s project of animated rockstars evolving as always, it should come as no surprise that their upcoming 2026 album The Mountain features just as many names that will likely be both familiar and foreign to the Gorillaz fandom.
Various rappers appear on The Mountain
Rappers tend to be some of Gorillaz’s most frequent collaborators, and that remains true here. De La Soul’s David Jolicoeur and The Roots’ Black Thought are set to trade verses on “The Moon Cave.” Jolicoeur may be a familiar voice to Gorillaz fans, as De La Soul and its members have previously featured on Gorillaz tracks such as “Superfast Jellyfish” and the legendary “Feel Good Inc.”
On the other hand, Black Thought has never hopped on a Gorillaz track in the past. The legendary bandleader for The Roots is often listed amongst the most verbose rappers of all time, and his recent work on records like 2022’s Cheat Codes has garnered acclaim that few rappers see several decades into their career.
Elsewhere, elusive rapper Yasiin Bey is listed as a featured performer on “Damascus” alongside Syrian singer Omar Souleyman. Bey, who hasn’t released a full-length solo project since 2019’s art installation-exclusive Negus, rarely appears on albums made by non-rapping artists. In turn, his scheduled appearance is already one of the most highly anticipated on the album.
Indian artists open up new sounds to Gorillaz
With Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett having traveled to India to draw inspiration for The Mountain, it should come as no surprise that some practitioners of Indian classical music can be found throughout the album. Ajay Prasanna, Anoushka Shankar, Amaan Ali Bangash, and Ayaan Ali Bangash all appear throughout the record.
Anoushka Shankar’s last name may ring a bell even for those who don’t know the woman in question. Her father was Ravi Shankar, the beloved sitarist who performed at Woodstock and popularized Hindustani music in the western hemisphere throughout the 1960s and 1970s. With Anoushka Shankar appearing on The Mountain, a family name with a massive legacy connects with Albarn and Hewlett’s work as Gorillaz for the first time.
All these names come from a corner of the world that Gorillaz has simply never visited before, musically or literally. With Indian music being added to the usual Gorillaz formula for the first time, these featured artists will surely add an entirely new flavor to the usual Gorillaz style.
Experimental artists keep things ambitious
Plenty of artists on the more experimental side of things are also set to be featured on The Mountain, including legendary punks Paul Simonon and Mark E. Smith, from The Clash and The Fall respectively. Both have appearances sprinkled throughout the record. These names may be slightly unsurprising for those familiar with Albarn’s British punk-adjacent roots with his original success story, Blur.
A slightly more esoteric name comes in the form of experimental rock duo Sparks. Featuring on the lead single “The Happy Dictator,” Ron and Russell Mael’s work under the Sparks name has been pushing the boundaries of pop and rock music since the 1970s. Alongside the acclaimed 2021 documentary The Sparks Brothers, this collaboration will surely further their visibility with younger audiences.
Going for a modern pick, British punk band Idles are set to be featured on “The God of Lying.” Idles have collaborated with plenty of artists over the course of their still-young career (names like LCD Soundsystem, Lauren Mayberry, and Danny Brown come to mind), but Gorillaz may be their most mainstream team-up yet.
Who else is featured?
Several of the artists involved with The Mountain are much harder to attach to any of the aforementioned groups.
Argentinian electronic music producer Bizarrap and singer-songwriter Kara Jackson will be featured together alongside Anoushka Shankar on “Orange County.” Jackson is a particularly notable name amongst modern poets. She was selected as the United States National Youth Poet Laureate in 2019 and has since found acclaim as a musician with her 2023 debut studio album Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?.
Guitarist Johnny Marr can also be found as a featured artist on a third of the record. Marr is most frequently known as a pioneer of melodic indie rock and jangle pop thanks to his time spent with The Smiths until their dissolution in 1987. However, he has since performed with a number of other notable groups (Modest Mouse, Billie Eilish, etc.).
Posthumous appearances
Something that does set The Mountain apart from other Gorillaz albums is the sheer number of deceased artists featured. Spanning numerous genres, there are quite a few names that can be found attached to the record’s tracklist who haven’t been alive for quite some time.
These passed-on artists include the likes of the previously mentioned Mark E. Smith of post-punk band The Fall and De La Soul’s David Jolicoeur, as well as R&B legend Bobby Womack, rapper Proof, Nigerian-Ghanian drummer and Fela Kuti’s right-hand-man Tony Allen, and even beloved character actor Dennis Hopper (Apocalypse Now, Easy Rider, Blue Velvet).
While the extent of the contributions of these artists is still mostly unknown—some of these “features” could very well just be samples of older tunes—having so many artists who are no longer with us featured here seems to imply a potential purpose for bringing them onto the album. Whether that is to highlight themes of death and preserving artistic legacies, or simply because Albarn and Hewlett are diehard fans of these artists, has yet to be seen.
In conclusion
Gorillaz are still a band who love to collaborate with the artists that they admire. If there was any doubt about that in recent years (considering Song Machine, Season One’s entire gimmick was collabs, that seems unlikely), then The Mountain firmly reestablishes a key element of Gorillaz’s style.
The Mountain is set to release on March 20th, 2026. That means fans will have to wait a few more months before they can hear how all of these artists work on the Gorillaz’s usual sound. While most of the album remains unheard, it is virtually a guarantee that it will be a unique listening experience in the same way that nearly every Gorillaz project—with some exceptions—has been since their debut at the turn of the century.
