“Terra Animata” by The Plum Magnetic album review

Listening to an album without first reading any information on it, or discussing it with anyone, can be a liberating experience. It can occasionally lead to dissatisfaction and despair, or it can occasionally lead one to hear an album, which is overflowing with surprises. “Terra Animata” by The Plum Magnetic is a shining example of the latter. To give the reader some idea as to what is meant by this, the album contains music performed by electric six-string banjo, guitar, tabla, bass and drums, and if that were not enough to whet the most cynical of appetites, the influences on here range from reggae, African, “post-rock”, Afro-Cuban, jazz to Indian classical music. Listing the influences is easy, now to attempt to describe the music.

The album opens with a vocal chant ‘Spring’ before melting into ‘Trece Leches’, nine minutes of what can only be described as lilting jazz-fusion performed on a tropical island. The banjo and slide guitar lines weave around each other gently nudging the rhythm track into what could almost be “post-rock” if anyone really knew what that was. As the piece progresses the tempo and ferocity intensify whilst the steel drums (yes, steel drums) add another ingredient to the mixture resulting in a deliciously sultry finale. So now the listener believes they know which direction the album is going. After a subtle, almost “prog-rock”, introduction, that would not be out place on an early Camel album, ‘Sweet Confusion’ changes direction into a reggae piece, whilst all the time taking a nod to that “prog” introduction. At times one could almost hear mid-1970’s Frank Zappa if one listened closely. ‘The Electric Jungle’ is a delicate and intricate balance of gently cascading guitar/banjo lines, which propel the piece over five minutes.

Many of the pieces here are around the nine minute mark and criticism has been made elsewhere that the tunes become a little “long-winded” and meandering. Depending upon your own point of view and inclination, this could also be considered as something to relish. ‘SeshBesh’ is, on the surface, a modest guitar based instrumental with a sprinkling of highly intelligent solos. But successive listens reveal further layers which reward close attention….

Link to full review

Cave - "Threace" album review

Chicago band Cave, over their six-year history, have earned themselves a reputation as being the torchbearers of the contemporary “Krautrock” sound. Locked progressions and riffs that repeat just long enough to be irritating to hear, or fascinating to immerse into, depending upon the listeners’ proclivity. In many ways it would be too simplistic to make reference to such seminal, and oft cited names such as Can, Faust, Neu and Amon Duul. Reference has also been made to the similarities between their style of playing and bands such asStereolab. Sadly comparisons such as this can a hindrance in putting contemporary music such as this into context. Far from harking back to a golden era of repletion in music, Cave brings motorik right up to date.

The five tracks that make up “Threace” each clock in at around the nine or ten minute mark, and palpably push the listeners perception of what may be possible with repetition. The compositions themselves are in no way particularly complex or angular in structure in the way that some “post rock” outfits take on the hypnotic. ‘Sweaty Fingers’ for example is laden with a funky groove, which owes as much to early 1970’s Miles Davis and the relentless momentum of “Rite” by Julian Cope, as it does to the German experimental scene. The repeating motifs genuinely get deep inside the listeners psyche, as sparse guitar and bass lines scratch away for four or five minutes. Again, depending upon the listeners’ point of view, this repetition is absurd, or a deeply spiritual experience.

‘Silver Headband’ quickly puts its’ cards on the table and lets the listener know that what you will be hearing here is unadulterated repetition, with no obvious change in dynamic and no significant layering of sound. Here we have music that is trying its hardest to be interesting and different, but music which is giving the listener space to immerse themselves and allowing them permission to indulge. It could be argued that compositions such as ‘Arrows Myth’ and ‘Shiaawka’, with their suggestion of mystical jazz-rock, do benefit from, and become more accessible because of, layers of instrumentation, which bring to mind the mid-1970’s jazz-rock of Frank Zappa on albums such as “The Grand Wazoo”…

Read the full review here…