Gorillaz don’t exist without collaboration. Damon Albarn from Blur existed in the band as a quintessential part of alt Britpop. His tastes, however, have always been global. What is played through the universe of these 2-D characters with Damon’s conscience would never catch friction in Blur’s universe. So we get this portal under a rug to a whole other world of collaborative music.
No one with a global appeal embodies the spirit of featuring and collaboration like Damon Albarn and, by extension, Gorillaz. This is an album on par with Plastic Beach, but with added layers that show us how textural “pop” can get. This is the expansive Indian, North and South American, British and Middle Eastern album Parvat (The Mountain).
The base of the Mountain
Gorillaz have been widely influenced by several bands and artists. I really mean several. Over 8 albums, Damon has been able to capture themes from his life and extrude it into this project from the start. As a huge fan of hip-hop, he has been able to design verses into his music that many artists haven’t delivered in their own music in years. It’s this nature of sharing that works so well in Gorillaz. In Parvat, Damon arrives in India like The Beatles did. It’s a spiritual awakening through music, and he wants to gift the awakening to us.
I have listened to the opening of this album perhaps 12 times since morning. As an Indian who has had a magnetic connection with Hindustani and Carnatic art forms, it awakened something in me. With a larger exposure to Western music and skull-splitting metal I seem to confide in, this was healing. Ajay Prasanna on the flute has shone through in this album. A simple melody that engraves itself in your brain, it is a rich, extremely generous opening that is the gateway to this very diverse country of abundance. The Moon Cave is the first song with vocals you listen to – and the Western to Eastern journey is through a pathway of funk.
Gorillaz: A study in narration
Damon Albarn does an incredible job at finding the right kind of production for what you’re going to experience. The same vocal filter has him as 2-D, our faithful synth player and lead vocalist. An extension of this musician is understood through all the albums he’s performed in as a bassist, drummer, guitarist and rapper. As he knows he can’t rap as well, you hear stellar talent from the hip-hop greats lend their voice for those breaks in the songs. They’re truly worth revisiting time and again.
Melding upbeat pop instrumentals with contrasting lyrics is The Happy Dictator (ft. Sparks). When this came out as a single, I had to practically cut myself off from the internet, as I wanted this to be a memorable experience. Damon makes us understand why, if not for more than some moments, you can forget what you’re going through. This world is for escape, and it’s detailed enough for you to ask for nothing more. Then comes one of the most brilliant vocal performances from Damon in The Hardest Part. This might be a page from his actual diary.
Up close, and personal
He bares all in a track that is definitely written in a personal light. The animated strokes of the Gorillaz world fade away as Albarn takes on the role of the animator. With the brass, you’re at the choir end of a 21-gun salute. Solemn and inspiring all at once, this preludes Orange County, which has one of my favourite choir hooks of the past few years.
The whistle. A taunting device, a tease, and in film and movies, it depicts a carefree energy. This is exactly what you need to hear a third of the way into this album. It’s a small musical cue that goes on to become so, so much more. Another thing you might miss which I found extremely important to the narrative of this album? The presence of Anoushka Shankar and Ajay Prasanna.
The role of the constants
The sitar and flute maestros, respectively, have their presence in songs to give that innate “Indian” effect. As a person born and brought up here, it might not create as much of a bias. However, when you take a master like Shankar, who has amalgamated her roots of the West and East, you get something special. Like her father, she can play tunes that sound Western, with the tenor of the instrument being deeper. Similarly, Prasanna plays flute leads that are like a film intro. Deep, laden with thought and responsible for being the brass key to this gargantuan door.
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Gorillaz continue with an IDLES collaboration as well. The God of Lying sounds great as a concept. I love IDLES separately as artists, but I felt this was the only dip in an album where musicality has been traded for a narrative and spoken-word lyricism. Listening to Black Thought on The Empty Dream Machine along with Anoushka’s sitar lead immediately brought me back. On the album, this is another highlight number that allows every element to breathe with pride. Another song where Damon’s voice is better than it has ever sounded, this is dedicated to when the muse turns hollow.
Climbing towards the peak
From here, it’s been bullseye on the album through and through. Trueno, Proof, Johnny Marr, Mark E. Smith, Yasiin Bey, Omar Souleyman, Asha Bhosle, Gruff Rhys and more are the collaborators left still, over 8 songs. It was almost like being thrown into the middle of a dramatic Bollywood production on a massive streaming platform – for the global influences. Reaching Damascus, I was shocked at how Fresh Arrivals from a post-Plastic Beach era has evolved into something so incredibly good. Mos Def/Yasiin Bey still has the ability to make hip-hop feel like it’s out of reach by the kind of phrases he puts together. Just when I rode off that high, we got The Shadowy Light. Let me bring my box of tissues.
Listening to Bhosle all my childhood, hearing her perfect her vocals while listening to her imminent age was all too much for me – all at once. This, along with Albarn’s incredible composition, was just ethereal, and I will wait for another song to give me an experience like this again for a long time. This is a moment where Gorillaz evolved from more than a project to me; it understood the culture deep enough to know what song incites what flurry of emotions in the listener.
Triumph, of mind and soul
As you listen to The Sweet Prince and The Sad God, you’re left with a feeling of accomplishment. Take, if you will, in the eye of your dreams – a mountain. At each base, you admire it from 3 places. Where you stand, with reference to where you climbed from. Where you came from, and the miracles of your journey. Finally, the top – a place that represents conquering in more than a metaphysical way. Reach the top and you finally realise you’re closest to the steps that face God:
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