Gorillaz have joined forces with some of the finest over the years.

WIth Flume unable to perform at Splendour 2021, due to scheduling issues, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s virtual band Gorillaz have stepped up to take his place. It’s a move that even the most diehard of Flume fans would have to be applauding right now, with Albarn and co. having not played in Aus since their 2010 Plastic Beach tour.

On that tour, De La Soul, Little Dragon, Bobby Womack, Kano, Bashy, members of the clash and more joined them on stage, and while there haven’t been any confirmations about who will be accompanying them when they take to SITG, we have a feeling they won’t be coming alone.

Psych yourself up on the list below, featuring some of the best Gorillaz collabs so far, and head here to get yourself some pre-loved tickets to the festival:

Snoop Dogg

Kicking off Plastic Beach with Snoop welcoming listeners into the album is easily the coolest intro to any record we’ve ever heard. The iconic rapper drops some fire bars with his flow bouncing in between huge lines on the horns, plus his outfit in the clip below is simply rad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0OVD0_YJnU

Bobby Womack & Mos Def

Having passed away back in 2014, there’s always a little bit of sadness in there when listening to Gorillaz Bobby Womack collabs. ‘Stylo’, which also features Mos Def, was the first single from Plastic Beach and even saw them (somehow) land Bruce Willis to star in the clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhPaWIeULKk

Sean Ryder

Who’d of thought The Happy Mondays frontman and notorious reveller would ever find himself fronting a digital hip-hop group? ‘DARE’ speaks for itself and led to many terrible accent attempts in Aus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAOR6ib95kQ

Little Dragon

One of the best tracks on Plastic Beach, ‘Empire Ants’ feels like a big tense build-up before a huge outro, with Albarn waiting until just the right time to unleash Yukimi Nagano’s epic vocals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x6bWw2J0po

De La Soul

Longtime collaborators and New York hip hop legends De La Soul have been working with Albarn since their self-titled debut. They’re pretty much a part of the band now, so we have a feeling they’ll be hitting our shores in 2021 too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyHNuVaZJ-k

slowthai & Slaves

Proving he still keeps his ears to the ground, Albarn recently pulled in UK rapper slowthai and punk duo Slaves into the studio for the recording of ‘Momentary Bliss’. The track is tiiiiiight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJtGfJtVB9U

Ben Mendelsohn

Did you notice an Aussie twang to the voice of the narrator on Gorillaz Humanz record? That was our very own Ben Mendelsohn laying down some lispy poetics.

Kano, Bashy, The National Syrian Orchestra For Arabic Music

Easily one of the best Gorillaz tracks, this one highlights why Albarn is such a good collaborator. Name a better arabic music/UK rap mashup and we’ll eat our hats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQWT7fNrVqQ

Lou Reed

Following on from his much maligned Metallica collab, Lou Reed jumped into the studio with Gorillaz and effortlessly cool vocals on ‘Some Kind Of Nature’, a track that really summed up the environmental notions of Plastic Beach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KC2-EZ1ee0

Dennis Hopper

Another day, another icon. How the hell do you get one of the world’s most famous actors and directors to drop spoken word on a track? Only Albarn knows.