Gorillaz pay tribute to the late Afrobeat legend Tony Allen — Damon Albarn’s band mate in the Good, the Bad and the Queen — in the animated band’s new track “How Far?” featuring Allen and Skepta.
“How Far?,” the latest installment in Gorillaz’ Song Machine series, “was written and recorded with Skepta in London just before lockdown and is being shared immediately as a tribute to the spirit of a great man, Tony Allen,” the band said Saturday.
Allen was Albarn’s close friend and collaborator; in addition to the Good, the Bad and the Queen, the two also worked together on the one-off supergroup Rocket Juice & The Moon as well as Albarn’s Africa Express.
“There is no end,” Allen said in a statement shared by Gorillaz. “I want to take care of youngsters – they have messages and I want to bring them on my beat.”
On Friday, Albarn also shared a short video of his band mate on Twitter:
There is no end – Tony Allen pic.twitter.com/a5fHxFgvYm
— Damon Albarn (@Damonalbarn) May 1, 2020
Allen, Fela Kuti’s longtime drummer and the architect of Afropop’s polyrhythmic sound, died Thursday at the age of 79.
