New PLAID album - incoming

  On 6/11/2016 at 11:03 PM, dsil303 said:

First listen at the moment, love it all ready.

Man this weekend is so good, yesterday my Bytes vinyl was finaly delivered, so today is full on Plaid day :D Happy times

 

@ Herr Jan: Did you go to the Plaid with Gamelan orchestra gig in Amsterdam last month?

How was it? I wanted to go, but nobody was interested in joining me and I didn't want to by myself :(

 

And guys, don't worry for not having the fanboyish things in this subforum. We don't have to scroll through pages of off-topic fanboy bantering ;)

Yup, that was the gig! It was really deece, I would've easily gone by myself. It was a nice seated gig, really chill atmosphere in the venue. Next time just hit me up if there's a thing like this :)

Cheers, will do!

I didn't really mind being there on my own, although i'd prefer enjoying it with friends.

It was more the 2 hour drive from the souht of NL and back home that prevented me from going

  On 6/11/2016 at 10:21 PM, Chesney said:

Sounds like a banger to me

Nulls? Yeah it is, I'm still looking and will get it to ya if I can find the track, frustrating..

Just had my 4th listen since picking it up on Friday (they had it in stock on Thursday but wouldn't/couldn't sell me it).

Loving it all. There seems to be a lot of guitar on this album.

Holy shit, the bee is so polarising. I hated it at first but now i'm banging it on beefy stereo I find my self bum bouncing on the sofa to it. That bassline in the second half is fun as fuck.

Nothing rude about the bum bouncing mind.

no word about a US tour yet?

  On 6/12/2016 at 8:55 PM, Chesney said:

Holy shit, the bee is so polarising. I hated it at first but now i'm banging it on beefy stereo I find my self bum bouncing on the sofa to it. That bassline in the second half is fun as fuck.

 

Nothing rude about the bum bouncing mind.

Mate i love 'the bee'... maybe my favourite track on the album so far.

This is amazing stuff! Plaid have managed to add the perfect amount black dog vibe to the mix remaining fresh and strange at the same time.

The beauty of this album has really begun to open up to me now i'm over those short sighted expectations that come with a new release.

im jelly

https://twitter.com/Plaid/status/742171039925477376

ooh nice

It's nice. It's really good. But it's 100% Plaid. My thoughts about Plaid are always positive, but they are lacking a few things. Someone mentioned here, they have a disadvantage to become as #1 as Ae/RDJ, because of their name. I beg to differ.

My conclusion: They are the status quo, but not more. Ae/RDJ bring the business forward.

Plaid:

- Their music is not challenging

- No evolutionary step of development in music

- Some missed opportunities. Always those 4 tone melodies. Why not more interesting?

Oh, looks like I'm a party pooper. I really like their music, but often find myself turning them on as some nice background music.

And P.S.: nothing beats TBD Spanners album.

hmm, these days i'm less concerned with music being "challenging" or not.. on the one hand its a personal quality; without knowing my experience you have no way of judging what i would consider challenging. on the other, we live in a time where albums like elseq, syro and digging remedy can feel unsurprising or even conventional in some ways, while they may have sounded quite challenging to people only 10 years ago. ultimately there are more other qualities that are more important and probably more useful to discuss.

i agree that spanners was a good one, though!

Spanners was my favorite album for a long time

Still mine.

Reading my own posting above, it seems so negative. I mean, I am thankful for their output, world without "Masato Shuffle" would be sad :) ... My point is: Their music is more pleasing. And less about confrontation and provocation. -> Reasons, why others are more successful/ create more hype and buzz.

I agree and disagree. It's the opposite to say Autechre. Ae are challenging at first but then you start to hear the structure and make your own hooks in the seemingly random. Plaid are accessible straight away and that can seem just nice, bland or even boring right off the bat. It's when you listen more things start to get stranger and you start to hear how the melody's are constructed and how they sit within the beats that become way more interesting. Then all of a sudden you are loving it.

I think that's why I like them so much and regard them highly.

And of course, I am not saying that they are geniuses or ultra prog mentalists, just they make just great music that is more appreciative over time.

I wish they would release more. Looking at the soundcloud dump, elseq, and ae-live Plaid releasing about an hour of music ever two years feels not very impressive. one the other hand its just context and I am happy on what I got. Its a great release

So while they're not trying to ever do the same album twice, they still manage to stay within the "plaid boundaries" without pissing off loyal fans or going outside the blueprint too far either. Is Spokes the most non-plaid LP of the lot? IMO these last 3 LPs have an almost trilogy feel to them, companions almost..

  On 6/14/2016 at 4:50 PM, sexagon hun said:

IMO these last 3 LPs have an almost trilogy feel to them, companions almost..

Been playing the last three albums together the past few days and had the same trilogy idea.. they do fit together rather neatly.

they've also released about eight hours of remixes! good to keep those in mind while considering their career, some of their best work is in there.

  On 6/14/2016 at 10:03 PM, moonside said:

they've also released about eight hours of remixes! good to keep those in mind while considering their career, some of their best work is in there.

8hs? Where?

  On 6/14/2016 at 10:14 PM, o00o said:

  On 6/14/2016 at 10:03 PM, moonside said:

they've also released about eight hours of remixes! good to keep those in mind while considering their career, some of their best work is in there.

8hs? Where?

 

i don't mean recently, just.. over the past 20 some years

Melifer is coming out as a favourite on this release

Simple classic Plaid tones but still very captivating

Majority of the album is still needing to grow on me. It's interesting how they're using guitar on this album to create an easy listening experience. To me it doesn't flow too well as an album e.g. CLOCK is totally out of place. That sound palette offered in CLOCK is reminiscent of Reachy Prints. Yu Mountain also sticks out like a sore thumb amongst all of the easy listening guitar riff tracks.

Feels more like a compilation of tracks rather than a flowing album experience.

Some tracks just go nowhere at all like Dilatone. No evolution in the track. It's okay to repeat something but as long as that loop is interesting enough to keep going for almost 4 minutes.

Not as good as Reachy Prints so far. Most tracks on Reachy Prints developed into something and evolved and went somewhere special. The 'epicness' of some of the tracks from Reachy Prints like Ropen and Nafovanny are missing in The Digging Remedy (maybe CLOCK is an exception as that feels pretty epic to me and very memorable).

  On 6/14/2016 at 11:57 PM, Bread said:

Melifer is coming out as a favourite on this release

Simple classic Plaid tones but still very captivating

 

Majority of the album is still needing to grow on me. It's interesting how they're using guitar on this album to create an easy listening experience. To me it doesn't flow too well as an album e.g. CLOCK is totally out of place. That sound palette offered in CLOCK is reminiscent of Reachy Prints. Yu Mountain also sticks out like a sore thumb amongst all of the easy listening guitar riff tracks.

 

Feels more like a compilation of tracks rather than a flowing album experience.

 

Some tracks just go nowhere at all like Dilatone. No evolution in the track. It's okay to repeat something but as long as that loop is interesting enough to keep going for almost 4 minutes.

 

Not as good as Reachy Prints so far. Most tracks on Reachy Prints developed into something and evolved and went somewhere special. The 'epicness' of some of the tracks from Reachy Prints like Ropen and Nafovanny are missing in The Digging Remedy (maybe CLOCK is an exception as that feels pretty epic to me and very memorable).

After my initial love for the album, these are currently my exact thoughts.

I think I understand their aim for a very 'filtered', subtle sound, and do like it, but I would I have appreciated some of the tracks more if they built to something or evolved. Tracks like 'Dilatone', 'Saladore', 'Reeling Spiders'...Of course I can hear there are lots of little variations in intricacies in these tracks, but after a few listens now I realise, as cool as their subtle approach is, it's a bit too subtle for me. Actually many (not all) of the tracks don't go anywhere too much or shift or climax, but it seems less damaging in the more melodic/intricate/guitar based ones for some reason. It's the linear, squiggly above-mentioned ones that seem to give a 'flat' feeling once they're over. Maybe if there was one or two 'epics' thrown in there among them they wouldn't feel so much like that...I don't know.

But overall it is actually a lovely album. If I'm in a forgiving mood and aren't expecting too much it is truly magical. I just wonder if they could have kept the beautifully light, low-key and magical feel and had a little more in the way of tracks 'kicking off' some?

Still need a dose of Nulls!

The new EP tagged onto this makes one hell of an album though, satisfying to finally hear after many years some of the unreleased tracks/snippets and think there's still much more to come