After a four year hiatus, in which the whereabouts of Noodle are still a widely speculated mystery, Gorillaz return out of the blue for Phase 3. Plastic Beach, the band’s most glistening, absurd outing, is also their most daring, and the story again reflects this. Here the band’s make-up shifts dramatically: determined to record a new album but with his band scattered who-knows-where, Murdoc kidnaps 2D and replaces Russel with a drum machine and Noodle with a cyborg he built from DNA recovered from the crash site. Taking refuge from The Black Cloud (now hunting Murdoc) in his Plastic Beach hideout, an island built from rubbish and spray-painted pink, Murdoc records the album along with Gorillaz biggest selection of collaborators to date – who he’s also kidnapped.
