PLANTMAN/NEON HARVEST
– SPLIT SINGLE (CULTURE AS A DARE)
I hope I never live to
see the day where labels are no longer releasing split seven inches. This is the king of formats, the kind of
release that should exist the beginning of every serious band’s career and
appear at the beginning of every indie label’s catalogue as their single digit
releases.
Plantman are a hazy
lo-fi outfit whose lyrics resemble more throwaway observations than poetic
couplets (in a good way). In execution
the band sound very much like Yo La Tengo offering dubious promise of better
things while exhibiting some kind of summertime nostalgia. There is a distinctly bright and sunny tone
attached to proceedings and swiftly the band is soon done demonstrating an
access to a better state of mind. In
execution “The Tide” acts like a comforting breeze.
Elsewhere is Neon
Harvest who remind me of Granddaddy with their drum machine based wailings that
pulse in a lo-fi order with a threat and promise of ripping through the
orchestration at any moment with their beards.
This song sounds like it is being delivered in an altered state, right
at the eye of a very nasty storm.
Destructive and disturbing this is not necessarily cleansing to the
soul. Eventually it rolls out sounding
like Steven Malkmus doing a mantra with a drum machine beat that could easily
double as the sound of a ticking bomb.
Pretty unnerving ultimately.
I like this seven
inch, it gives me pleasure.
Thesaurus moment:
chill.
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