Blur’s Alex James has been talking about the recording of the band’s new album, which he says is more or less complete. Writing on the band’s website he said: "The way we make music has changed. Now all you need to make an album is a laptop, one decent microphone and a cool haircut. For that matter swap the microphone for a camera and you can make a feature film. Technology is getting cheaper and more accessible, to such an extent that you can completely lose yourself in it. You have to make sure that the equipment, which is now cleverer than you are, is doing what you want it to do and not the other way round. It takes a while to work that out."
Talking about the band’s decision to record the album in Morocco, even though it meant leaving estranged guitarist Graham Coxon in London, he said: “Sunset takes about three hours there. People from the local villages climb the hills and watch it like we watch the telly. It seems to serve a similar purpose. In order for it to work you need good company or something important to think about. Mind you, we didn’t come here to go up our arses talking about sunsets; we came here to make a kick ass record. In rural Africa everything is stripped to its essence. By leaving the clutter of our lives behind we’ve managed to set ourselves free. That’s all you can hope to do as a musician. Africa is a long way from home. Further than Australia. It’s another country and they do things differently here. Different God and everything. Making music takes you to all the great cites of the Western World, but you never really leave the bubble of Western Civilization; it’s a real effort to do that but aren’t all the best things?"