Gorillaz - The Mountain (Bio Vinyl 2LP Gatefold)

The Mountain is the ninth Gorillaz studio album, a fifteen-track record that runs alt pop and synth pop through Indian classical instrumentation and comes out somewhere psychedelic. It was recorded across an unusually wide spread of rooms, including Studio 13 in London and Devon, Island City in Mumbai, 5020 in Miami, Kintsugi in New Delhi, Sparks Studio in Los Angeles, and the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi. The guest list is long and deliberately unruly, with Anoushka Shankar, Ajay Prasanna, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash, Asha Bhosle, Asha Puthli, Black Thought, Johnny Marr, Sparks, IDLES, Omar Souleyman, Yasiin Bey, Bizarrap, Trueno, Kara Jackson, Gruff Rhys, Jalen Ngonda and Paul Simonon all appearing across the four sides. Alongside them sit the voices of Dennis Hopper, Mark E. Smith, Tony Allen, Bobby Womack, Dave Jolicoeur and Proof, drawn from unreleased or alternate takes recorded during earlier Gorillaz sessions, with Hopper's part built from outtakes of Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head. Damon Albarn is credited as writer throughout, with production from Gorillaz, James Ford, Samuel Egglenton and Remi Kabaka Jr., and Bizarrap producing Orange County and adding production to The Moon Cave. Marta Salogni mixed, Heba Kadry mastered, and Matt Colton cut the lacquers at Metropolis. It is the first Gorillaz album issued on the band's own Kong label rather than through Parlophone. Pressed at Optimal Media in Germany.