Paul Oakenfold
Photo: Perfecto

Paul Oakenfold, Deep Dish, Gorillaz and more than 100 other electronic music acts from around the world will perform at a massive Miami Beach, Florida, party on March 23.

The fourth annual Ultra festival will kick off the Winter Music Conference, a yearly five-day electronic music gathering that has been transforming Miami Beach into the epicenter of DJ culture for 17 years.

Paul van Dyk, Carl Cox, DJ Skribble, Timo Maas, Goldie and Roni Size with MC Dynamite are among the other artists who will perform on six different stages at a yet-to-be-announced location.

Also on the bill are DJ Craze, DJ Dan, Christropher Lawrence, Rinôçérôse, Tall Paul, Josh Wink, DJ Rap, Dieselboy, DB, George Acosta, DJ Icey and Liquid Todd.

Gorillaz will perform live with Del the Funky Homosapien, the voice behind their massive single "Clint Eastwood."

Tickets will soon be available online at www.coolworld.com and www.ultrafestival.com.

The Winter Music Conference, scheduled from March 23 to March 27, will be held at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Last year's Ultra festival featured many of the same acts, along with John Digweed, Pete Tong and BT (see "Winter Music Diary: The Beats Go On With Bukem, Bahamadia, Digweed").

• Paul Oakenfold
• Deep Dish
• Gorillaz
• Paul Van Dyk
• Carl Cox

Del the Funky Homosapien
Photo: Jacob Rosenberg

Del the Funky Homosapien, the laid-back rapper who assisted on Gorillaz's debut, is in a Venice, California, loft-turned-studio with the Hieroglyphics working on their second album, Full Circle.

Besides contributing a guest rap to Gorillaz's breakthrough single, "Clint Eastwood," the hired gun also co-wrote the track "Rock the House" with Dan the Automator, one of the three masterminds behind the cartoon rock quartet, along with Blur's Damon Albarn and animator Jamie Hewlett.

The Bay Area Hieroglyphics — Del, Pep Love, Casual, Domino and the four-member Souls of Mischief (Tajai, Opio, A-Plus and Phesto) — derive their name from Hieroglyphics Imperium, the label the collective's constituents founded in 1996. Domino runs the label's day-to-day operations and is producing much of the new Hieroglyphics album. The follow-up to Third Eye Vision, the label's first release, is expected to be completed early next year, Domino said.

The title Full Circle is an apt description for the situation in which the Hieroglyphics find themselves. After individually being dropped from major labels — Del from Elektra, Casual and the Souls from Jive — the future Hieroglyphics launched the label and released Third Eye Vision two years later. Subsequent solo albums followed, and now the parts have become whole once more. Additional individual projects are expected, with the members contributing to each other's works, a practice that's become commonplace among hip-hop groups like the Wu-Tang Clan, Cash Money Millionaires and Ruff Ryders.

The Hieroglyphics are expected to tour following the album's completion, Domino added.

For a feature on Gorillaz, check out "Gorillaz: In the Cage."

• Del Tha Funky Homosapien
• Hieroglyphics
• Gorillaz

Damon Albarn
Photo: MTV News

Unlike their animated ancestors the Archies and Josie and the Pussycats, the members of Gorillaz really do have lives outside the confines of your television set. With their self-titled debut arriving in stores this week, three of the four components of the cartoon group developed by Blur's Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, creator of the "Tank Girl" comic book series, are pursuing side projects.

Albarn said drummer Russel has completed a remix of Redman's "Let's Get Dirty (I Can't Get In Da Club)," the first single off the rapper's latest album, Malpractice; and singer 2D is collaborating with Massive Attack and reggae singer Horace Andy. Meanwhile, bassist Murdoc is contemplating assembling a death-metal band. The Gorillaz draw on the collective talents of Albarn, Hewlett, producer Dan the Automator, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori, rapper Del Tha Funky Homosapien, former Talking Heads bassist Tina Weymouth and Cuban jazz singer Ibrahim Ferrer. The creators are cagey about saying exactly who does the work credited to "Russel," "2D" or any members of the band; there's no direct musician-to-cartoon-figure match.

While specifics on the side projects remain undisclosed, the Gorillaz have the freedom to go their separate ways because they actually "live" their lives on the band's official Web site. Much more than a portal for band bios, photos and other expected Internet trappings, the site offers voyeuristic glimpses into the group's studio, as well as their individual bedrooms, where users can snoop through the band members' computers to read personal e-mails and find out about upcoming endeavors.

"We wanted to create an environment where, instead of having a Web site where you just download pages of information, we wanted to have a building that you could go into," Hewlett said last week of the virtual haunt. "[Something where] you could sort of hang out, so you could be a part of it. Hang out with the characters, listen to the music, watch videos, look at their computers, go in their bedrooms ... You can go and leave your graffiti in the toilet — do stuff like that. There's so much stuff you can do on it, it's ridiculous now." And as much as users can interact with Gorillaz, the band members are prone to communicate right back.

"Kids would be in the chat room, just chatting away and then Murdoc will suddenly come on and talk to them," Hewlett explained. "And the kids would be like, 'Wow, that's cool.' " "It's constantly changing and evolving," Albarn said. "The band reacts to its audience in a way I don't think any other band could do without getting really involved and it all becoming very messy." Working with his eclectic brainchild allows Albarn the musical freedom he isn't afforded while under Blur's media-imposed Brit-pop limitations. So without his face attached to 2D's voice, Gorillaz are free to explore musical terrain populated by such non-Brit nuances as hip-hop beats, rhymes and scratches.

"There are no boundaries [with Gorillaz] and the Internet is the perfect place for that," Albarn said. "If you've got an imagination, then your audience has probably got more imagination than yourself, because they're a collective and you're one person. So you just all feed off of each other and I think that's the way forward.

"What you have to do is switch your head in a way to kind of forget there are human beings involved, and just enjoy the ride."

• Gorillaz
• Del Tha Funky Homosapien
• Blur

Gorillaz
Photo: Gorillaz.com

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, but you might want to pay attention to the music he's making — especially if he's Blur frontman Damon Albarn or workaholic hip-hop producer Dan the Automator.

The duo's Gorillaz project — which includes such contributors as Miho Hatori from Cibo Matto, Talking Head Tina Weymouth, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien and Buena Vista Social Club's Ibrahim Ferrer — will finally be hitting U.S. stores June 5.

A band only in the loosest definition of the word, Gorillaz is a high-concept collective of artists and musicians working behind the artwork of Jamie Hewlett, creator of the iconoclastic Tank Girl comic series (see "Gorillaz Project Partners The Automator With Damon Albarn").

Albarn, the Automator and their Gorillaz have been causing a stir on both sides of the pond. Upon its U.K. release two weeks ago, the group's self-titled debut bowed at #7 on the British albums chart, while the single "Clint Eastwood" climbed into the #5 spot. In the United States, their video for the single has been in rotation on both MTV and MTV2.

Gorillaz have just been confirmed for England's massive Creamfields festival, to be staged in Liverpool on August 25, according to a spokesperson from the band's label, Virgin.

Just how does a cartoon-based band go about performing live? Easy. The flesh-and-blood bandmembers stand behind a curtain, Wizard-of-Oz-style, while Hewlett's animation is projected onto the makeshift screen. This setup keeps the Gorillaz "shrouded in mystery," the spokesperson said.

Though there isn't a one-to-one ratio between the contributing artists and their animated counterparts, Albarn serves as unofficial head gorilla "2D," the spokesperson said. The rest of the monkey bunch includes bassist "Murdoc," drummer "Russel" and "Noodle" on guitar.

While she couldn't confirm any specific dates, the spokesperson did say Gorillaz have plans to tour both the U.K. and the States.

The track listing for Gorillaz, according to Virgin:

• Re-Hash
• 5/4
• Tomorrow Comes Today
• New Genious (Brother)
• Clint Eastwood
• Man Research (Clapper)
• Punk
• Sound Check (Gravity)
• Double Bass
• Rock the House
• 19-2000
• Latin Simone (featuring Ibrahim Ferrer)
• Starshine
• Slow Country
• M1 A1

• Gorillaz
• Blur
• Dan The Automator
• Cibo Matto
• Ibrahim Ferrer