Damon Albarn is "loving" working on the new Gorillaz album.
Damon Albarn
The 48-year-old musician has been recording fresh material since last September for the animated band's first LP 2011's 'The Fall'.
Blur frontman Damon has now revealed that the album should be ready later in the year and he has been enjoying every moment back with his other group.
Speaking to BBC 6 Music, Damon said: "Later in the year we'll be starting to get the whole Gorillaz thing together. I'm loving it and it's getting there. It should be ready fairly soon."
The virtual band was conceived by Damon and visual artist Jamie Hewitt in 1998 and is comprised or animated characters 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle and Russell Hobbs - none of the personas are reflective of the real life musicians involved in the project.
Over the years a number of guest singers have worked with Gorillaz including Shaun Ryder - whose track 'DARE' was the group's only UK number one - Mod Def and Gruff Rhys.
Comic book artist Jamie - who outside of Gorillaz is most famous for his comic 'Tank Girl' - has also spoken of his excitement at the new material saying that it is, "really f***ing special" and that it "can't be rushed".
Very little has been revealed about the album so far, but Damon did say last year that, "so far, it's really fast, and it's got quite a lot of energy. I've been stuck on piano, somewhere off Broadway, for years now. I want to go somewhere completely opposite of that".
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