Damon Albarn Says Gorillaz Are Almost Done Recording Their New Album

For a year, Gorillaz have been saying that they hoped to have an album out by 2016. But according to a fan who ran into Damon Albarn, they still have a bit more work to do on it.

The fan posted a photo of his mates with Albarn onto Gorillaz's Reddit forum with the headline, "Damon: Two weeks left of recording and the album's finished." It's unknown if those two includes the time needed for mixing and mastering. Given the way Jamie Hewlett's animation is built into the framework of the group, we'll presume the art is already done. In other words, it doesn't look like they'll be able to release their fifth album until 2017.

Still, they've been active on social media, especially since launching an Instagram account last month. Earlier this week, they unleashed The Book of Noodle, a story about their guitarist having an adventure in Japan with a shape-shifting beast from Hell told over the course of 12 tweets.

Noodle is getting some extra publicity thanks to a partnership Gorillaz have struck with Jaguar Racing. Pitchfork tells us that she has been named as their global ambassador with the intention of inspiring a new generation of engineers, and women engineers in particular, to create electricity-powered road cars. “The young minds of today are the engineers of tomorrow,” she said in a press release. “We are in the driving seat and our imaginations are the fuel. It’s time to lead the charge and build a better world!” Hewlett directed a promo for Jaguar's new Formula E racing team, and it can be viewed above.

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