Customer Reviews

Psychoanarchitecture

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PLEQQ creates a shifting sonic bombardment in this disc. The pulsating effect catches your breath and buffets you outwards and upwards - its effect is worth the price alone. The official review on the disc is a bit flowery - pay no mind. Each song has many layers and mirror images of sounds that have a common melody or are simply in the same key and time signature. You sense great "texture" and "depth" in the sounds. The music could be described as "Chemical Brothers meet Ray Lynch" - but not exactly. There is also some of your favorite electronic pop (TMB and Troika) and a hint of latin flavors (Leisure Loot and Ixchel). Some of the songs have a sort of gravity to them but most are upbeat in mood. The music and production work in a large space with good speakers and also in a small space (like a car). In fact, in a small space you hear the nuances a bit more. They change each time you listen - there's a lot going on. If you're into dance, electronica, even Asian or Euro techno, or Math or Prog you should get quite a kick out of this stuff.

I lived in Europe for 10 years, where all forms of music take a back seat to house and electronica. It's everywhere - in discos, cafes, restaurants, taxis, beaches - even at work. So you get good at distinguishing the wheat from the chaff. I scour Internet radio for good house and electronica and almost never find anything as good as Pleqq. Pleqq is a welcome embarassment to anyone who has tried their hand at creating this sort of music. The record is not an acquired taste: You'll like it immediately, and, after a few spins, you'll love it.

Sonic architect Dan T. has created an overwhelming album of techno-synthesis with his first Pleqq release, "Psychoanarchitecture." Streamlined to the extreme and fit enough to course through the electronic arteries of both mind an body, Pleqq's sound is one that contains all the beauty, grace and over-engineering of both Rio bikinis and German automotive technology. Densely layered yet uncluttered, the sonic arsenal of Pleqq is forensically inserted into place as energizing beats, shape-shifting overlays of electronic melody and textured contrapuntalisms are put through exhilarating paces as they conform tightly to the rhythm's every dictate through endless manipulation of pitch, timbre and amplitude as a series of nine aural sensations gather, suspend, release and then recollect once again.

Opening with the high-stepping anthem "TMB", the album sallies forth with in its most playful moment as vocoderized recitations of the initialized title against mid tempo beats but once it fades, the pace for the remainder of the album turns far more rhythmically complex and unyielding as the gleaming melodic veneer of "Chrome Cake" passes through a succession of hyperspacial permutations that trade off with plateaus of high-energy beats. The excellent "Absolutely" kicks the danceability notch up into the realms of trance floor ecstasies akin to The Pet Shop Boys' "Disco 2" or early Harthouse once the synthesized maenads lose their whispers within the opening watery eddies' shroud of stirred waters when the glacial arpeggios cut through its murk like shafts of illuminating beams of light that melt and elongate in fast motion unison.

The frantic dance continues with further rapid contrapuntal underlies "Leisure Loot", shored up by percussives and hollow, punched in drums with fierce slapback echo. As flutey cloud striations hover above the raging beats, Vocoderized choruses trade off with the rhythm track as well as another melody chorus, as though twin Mysterians metallically exchange to each other from opposing towers. "Troika" is where the intensity raises to yet another unbelievable pitch as the main theme gets tightly syncopated and volleys within shallow pools spread out into the distance with glistening vignettes that dance all around as a background synth wash moonlights as an ever-blossoming polyrhythm. Meanwhile, tangential 2-fingered Martin Rev at 45rpm repetitions slowly work over the piece
Repeat loop that disintegrates and wham, one quick nitrous oxide-phased portal: it's back.

The goddess devotional "Ixchel" opens with waves of electronic ocean part for a simple and reverbed Cluster-like keyboard theme as a slow tempo beats from behind. This directing its diaphanousness into emotional terrain akin to Barry Adamson's achingly poignant "Hollywood Sunset" from "Lost Highway" and it's a truly beautiful respite off the main drag of Throb City... Which recommence with the following "Travelog" and its furious electro-vibe complexities -- among which work two separate solos in tandem, whose functionality doubles it as a rhythm and somehow, its inner ballast is never compromised but maintained at all times as burbling and percolation and perambulations abound and resound as a myriad of strands are pulled together and woven together, embellished neatly by clipped, high-pitched tones.

"Squid Pulp" is where the bps manual shift gets slammed into high as thousands of synthetic molecules divide, disperse and return to Big Daddy nucleus of the Beat. If you hooked this track up to your ailing Grandmama's EKG machine, her head would explode. Yours will, too. This is like the hardest of Harthouse as it meets Kraftwerk's "Metal On Metal" AND it's German language equivalent "Abzug" combined. It just barely keeps from derailing off the rails of the Trans-Europe Express over and over as it cuts into hectically paced, search-and-destroy percussionistas, terrifying stereo panning and manifold beats per nanosecond.

The album slams into final nth Overdrive with the closing track, "Psychotropical." Hard fast and driving, it opens up with sequenced lines weaving in and out like a DNA spiral as viewed in three dimensions and if the music director of "Risky Business" had used this for the subway scene instead of the latter-day, sequencer-heavy Tangerine Dream the film would've been slapped with an X-rating, too de suite. A high-speed aerial reconnaissance flying low to the ground as latitudes and longitude expand, contract and sometimes swap coordinates entirely. Anti-aircraft fire thuds all around and finally, pitch-shifting pick-axes its way all over the main melody and is vertiginous as hell, but with an overall undying sense of unification.

Get some Pleqq for your deqq: perfect for dance floor, brain pan or both at once.

Pleqq is the best up-beat, electronica album ever. The sound is incredible. Completely mesmerized from the beginning. I don't just like this album, I LOVE IT! And I think once you play it, it'll be in your head. A definite must have on my list.

This CD is not like the usual highly repetitive techno-fare. Each track here is unique. The CD is a good combination of intelligent techno (ie. worth listening to, not just for dancing) and multi-layered high-energy tunes. Don't let the psycho-babble fool you. This is quite good.

Take most electronica you hear today, replace all the chemically induced self-gratifying looping and preset synth patchs, add a serious dose of deliberately well crafted instruments, a strong hint of completely other genres embedded in the electronica framework, and you get pleqq.

TMB, Chrome Cake, and Troika will do well in any Euro club...(get me a ticket to Berlin.)

Leisure Loot really intriques me. complex voices and synths against a straight beat...elegant blend.

Travelog could have been done patched by Stockhousen. (its THAT good).

Ixchel slows it down. I can picture it as a backdrop to Metheny or any other harmonically rich, yet simple lead.

Don't listen to Squid Pulp (where does he get these names?)
on any sort of stimulant. Its not for the faint of brain.

PLEQQ raises the bar on electronica with this new album.
Shame on you all you preset, ACID SW heads. PLEQQ takes
a stereotypically monotonous genre and inflects and revives it
with some very fresh elements.

Sort of like that once-in-a-decade simple meal served with the best ingredients, dining with the best atmosphere, with a very inviting partner. (or you can go to Burger King)

This album is an awesome compilation of the artist's life work and if you like sythesized, rythmic, jazzy, and rockin' tunes, this one's for you. I highly recommend it!!! If you're tired of Britney Spears and all the other mish mosh on the radio today, the bland nonesense that poses as music, then you will dig this, it rocks!