Another “Skinny Ape” performance is scheduled to take place on the 17th December in Time Square.

The London show will be directed by artist and Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett, and Emmy-nominated Fx Goby (To Build a Fire, En Tus Brazos, Back to the Moon).  Both it and its New York counterpart are created by Nexus Studios, using Google’s ARCore Geospatial API to transform the physical performance venues.

Check out the trailer for the immersive experience, in which we catch a first glimpse of the larger-than-life animated characters roaming the city streets.

In a press release talking about the new shows, Gorillaz bassist Murdoc Niccals said, “Thanks to the techies at Google, we’ve created the music video event of the century, so don your pink robes and come see Gorillaz like you’ve never seen us before. The future is nigh!”

“Skinny Ape” is the fourth single from Gorillaz’ new album, Cracker Island, scheduled for release 24th February 2023 on Gorilaz Productions, Parlophone and Warner records.  The new album will be the eighth full studio album by the English virtual band.  The “Skinny Ape” single was debuted on Gorillaz’ 2022 World Tour, and has already become a firm favourite with fans.

The band are in good company on the album, which features contributions from Stevie Nicks, Adeleye Omotayo, Thundercat, Tame Impala, Bad Bunny, Bootie Brown and Beck.  Eight-time Grammy-award-winning multi-instrumentalist/ singer-songwriter Greg Kurstin produced the album, along with Gorillaz and Remi Kabaka Jr.  Cracker Island’s ten tracks were recorded in London and Los Angeles earlier this year.

You can preorder the new album here, and check out the official audio for new single “Skinny Ape” below.

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“Cracker Island” premiered in Uruguay a while back and the live performance didn’t have any special features, but the backing track (and massive visuals in the background) confirms that the studio version has some musical and vocal additions from everyone’s favourite prog-R&B bassist Thundercat. The same show also premiered another new track called “Silent Running”, but so far, no information on a studio recording has come to light. You can watch a fan-shot recording of the new track below.

Perhaps this new track (or probable series of tracks) will be released in conjunction with the “Full-length Gorillaz film” we were promised by Albarn at the tail end of last year. In a conversation with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Albarn explained, “It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a very long time. It’s been through so many incarnations. Gorillaz doing a movie. Honestly. But Netflix, I don’t know. I mean, apart from the kind of running this city now, I mean – It’s just extraordinary to see how ubiquitous they are now. Yeah. They just seem like they’re a good creative team, you know? But I can’t say anything more about it, obviously, because… No, no, no.” So, with very little information revealed on the subject being revealed since… could this be the start? Or maybe just something else entirely.

As mentioned before, Gorillaz are currently in the middle of a massive world tour. They are currently working on the European leg with a number of arena and festival dates all over the continent. While the UK leg of the tour is all but over, the group will be returning to London’s All Points East Festival on August 19^th for 1 final date before moving on to North America. You can bag what few tickets may remain to the show here.