Graeme McMillan -Forget about Gaga's outfits or Kanye's stage sets. Gorillaz are second with a new video, new album and new storyline to show that they're the most scifi musical act around - especially now that one of them is a cyborg.
The impressive video for "Stylo" made its debut online yesterday, complete with surprise guest-star and mysterious plot - Why are 2D, Murdoc and Noodle (or an android that looks like Noodle, at least) being chased?
Is that smoke cloud that turns into a man Death? Where's Russel? - to officially tease next week's launch of new album Plastic Beach.
But, like previous release Demon Days, Plastic Beach is more than merely an album; it's a new storyline and status quo for the fictional characters that build up the public face of the band, and it's here that Gorillaz steps up to get a Lost-like mythology that rewards investigation, online scavenger hunts for data and piecing everything together. Teaser videos for the album have shown three of the band's four members to see in fate that just get really together if you'd say a report around the band's return in Q Magazine at the beginning of the year, but entertain and entice even if you hadn't (Look at The Prisoner shout-out in 2D's tease!).
For those who wish to get up with the backstory of Plastic Beach as more than simply a compendium of great music - You can listen to the entire thing, pre-release, here - here's what you want to know:
Noodle, the band's guitarist, is apparently dead. She was finally seen falling through the skies in the "El Manana" video from Demon Days, and it's since been observed that she was kidnapped by demons and interpreted to Hell afterwards. The Noodle that's around now is a not-exactly-fully-functional cyborg clone built by Murdoc, Gorillaz' Keith Richards-gone-even-more-wrong bassist, as part-musical replacement and part-bodyguard. Murdoc is being hunted down by a grouping of disgruntled pirates called The Black Clouds (and suddenly that part of the "Stylo" video makes more sense) after selling them shitty weapons in a get-rich-quick scheme gone wrong. After the Clouds' destroyed the Gorillaz' previous recording studio (Kong Studios, home of the band's website for the beginning two albums), Murdoc decamped to Point Nemo - an island described as "the farthest point from any landmass known to man" - and set up a new basis of operations to make a new album. Not that the relief of the band wanted to; drummer Russel (Who, way back during the inaugural album, managed to conjure Del The Funkee Homosapien from his mind in the "Clint Eastwood" video) and singer 2D refused to unite in, but a quick kidnapping - as seen in the 2D tease - and a drum machine fixed those problems.
That would appear to be enough - It's decidedly more movement than normally goes into interviews surrounding a new album - but Plastic Beach has more. Apparently, the album is named after a secret book containing the account of the man that Murdoc found on Point Nemo, one that also suggests that 2010 may be the mythical End of Days, giving the videos, website and other promotional efforts surrounding the music even more of a storyline to work with. Is Plastic Beach all around the revelation? Will the real Noodle escape from Hell (Is there yet a "real Noodle"?)? We recognize that a pissed-off Russel seems to be headed to the island after all, will he write the day? And what do the Black Clouds really want?
What makes Gorillaz so interesting isn't only the music, or the estimation of a fictional band; if it were, then the Archies would've been the foundation for all pop since the later 1960s. Instead, it's that the project refuses to recognize boundaries; it's not just about the music, but likewise the videos and stories that follow them. Co-creator Jamie Hewlett works with Cass Browne, former member of the Wasted Things - the set that gave Hewlett his first record sleeve illustration gig, back during the Tank Girl days - and current Gorillaz touring band member, on writing the material. And this composition is granted as much importance in the figure as player and co-creator Damon Albarn.
Musically and creatively, boundaries are ignored; the new album pushes Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys together with De La Soul, includes other guests from Lou Reed and the rhythm section of the Jar to Little Dragon and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, while the backstory skips between genres (pirates and cyborg clones and the end of the world oh my) and continually reinvents the characters and their surroundings. Are the fictional characters less significant than the really musicians? Do fans care that they're not real any more than the characters in Lost aren't real? - Gorillaz defies easy description, pigeon-holing and gimmickry. We're not certain if they actually are the next of music, but it's a futurity of music we'd definitely like to see.
Plastic Beach is released next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment