Customer Reviews

Rest Proof Clockwork

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Unless you count Bjork, who appeared on last year's overwhelming Not For Threes. This album isn't quite as indelible as that masterpiece, featuring too many Electric Boogaloo / Herbie Hancock funk-downs for my taste ( which runs more toward the oneiric and otherworldly ) but the decision NOT to include famous chanteuses this time out was a good one, as Plaid's music is always at its best and most unsettling when stripped of comfortingly familiar presences.

The bottom line: If you're a newcomer to Plaid buy Not For Threes first. Then take a plunge and buy Black Dog's Spanners by the same musicians -- the most Mozartean, well-structured electronic music I've heard. Then you'll be ready for the after-dinner mint which is Rest Proof Clockwork.

In their previous incarnation as two thirds of The Black Dog, Plaid's Ed Handley and Andy Turner helped create the godlike Spanners, the crowning achievement of Sheffield's beeps 'n' beats movement and Nevermind's only serious competition for Best Album of the Decade. They've never been as in-yer-face as Britbeat crossover successes like Fatboy Slim or The Chemical Brothers, but their music is wise, witty and wonderful. The follow-up to 1997's 'Not For Threes' is achingly beautiful in the way that only Plaid can be. As usual, they have so many great tunes at their disposal they frequently use more than one during a single song, mixing up heartwarming electro and smoky dub with jungle beats and funky off-the-wall rhythms. The titles - spellcheck nightmares like Shackbu, Ralome and Pino Pomo - are as opaque as the music is soulful and sexy; the gorgeous melodies are the sound of boxfuls of techno ping-pong balls bouncing down flights of musical stairs; the electronica is so warm and welcoming you want to lie down and take a bath in it. The world feels like a better place after you've listened to Rest Proof Clockwork.

I recently listened to the U.S. release on Nothing Records (and thoroughly enjoyed it). I haven't gotten to compare the import version, but please be forewarned that the only "extra track" I see on the listing, "Face Me," is actually included on the US version as a secret track at the end of "Air Locked".

Plaid make remarkably good electronic music. Not quite as 'rock n roll' as Aphex Twin , cerebral as Autechre or funky as, say, Jimi Tenor. Plaid occupies some middle ground that leans a bit towards AOE Adult Oriented Electronica, or if you will, a more Burt Bacharach version of Richard D James (which is meant as a compliment, by the way). Rest Proof Clockwork is stylistically VERY diverse, which I think is a bit of a disadvantage. Shakbu and Little People are all jumpy, scratchy hip-hop slices with a rich, ambient topping; Ralome is a beautiful, guitar-propelled ambient piece that wouldn't sound out of place on a Pat Metheny album. Tearisci is VERY reminiscent of Erik Satie while Last Remembered Thing sounds like an outtake from a Caustic Window album. There are also tracks that sound like loungy film music, tracks that are 'ethno' in a marimba sort of way (like a refined Orb) and tracks that simply defy description.
Rest Proof Clockwork straddles a wide range of styles and influences and therefore is somewhat lacking in homogeneity. BUT the quality of the music is consistently superb. One feels that behind the gadgetry, software and men-in-white-coats image that a lot of Electronica conjurs up, there are great composers of music ready to burst out of the electronica straightjacket chrysalis like butterflies. Plaid then are probably one of Warp's more polished acts and if you are a Warpy kind of music fan, deserve your listening attention at the earliest possible opportunity. If I have any complaints it's the anonymous-sounding name and the ridiculous album titles.

While Autechre ventures into the drill n bass black hole with "EP7" (almost unlistenable in my opinion) and Squarepusher ends up in experimental jazz territory; Plaid has managed to create (in their Post Black Dog persona) disciplined and melodic electronic soundscapes which rivals both SKAM's Board of Canada & Jega outputs.

The CD starts off with the "Shackbu", a uniquely Plaid signature tune that ends with hip hop scratches. Though I'm sure it wasn't a planned execution; both tracks 11 ("Last Remembered Thing") and 14 ("Churn Maiden") are very "Autechrish" with those blips and blops. Track 6 ("Dead Sea") is a swooping melodic tune fit to be played in the Royal Albert Hall. My favorite tracks are the Neotropic like "Buddy" and the hypnotic "Gel Lab". On "Gel lab"; Plaid repeats ad infinitum a melody on the keyboard while the organic drumbeats pushes the sound along. But the track which I think is the best song I've heard in a while is track #2, "Ralome". This slow tune has magical electro-acoustic guitar parts that would rival Pat Metheny anyday. This song along would justify the purchase of this CD.

There are people like me! Every person who gave this cd 5 stars knows exactly what I'm talking about. For awhile I thought I was the only one who knew of these amazing artists. But now I know there are people out there who have listened to the magnificence that is Plaid. I randomly picked Not for Threes one day and was blown away by the amazing sound-scapes and dream-like images and since then I've been hooked! I wemt out the next day and picked up this album and quickly fell in love with it. There's so much going on that it fills me with overwhelming joy. Since then I quickly learned all I could about Plaid and I now have a few Black Dog albums but I won't stop there I can't wait for thier next album. My favorite track on this cd would have to be Dang Spot. The first time I heard it it made me so happy....since then it has become my theme song. Any one who likes complex musical pieces must get every Plaid album possible. Think electronic classical music.....because Plaid defys easy categorization.

This is truly an electronic album that steps outside of the normal boundries. It doesn't limit itself to the basic bass-snare-bass-snare format of most other "electronic" albums on the market. Plaid have forged an album that is both intricate and erratic, playful and beautiful.

Plaid has always made albums that bear simalarities to the more popular and cliched electronic albums on the market. Their albums are not nearly as eclectic as say, the Aphex Twin, Mu-ziq, or Squarepusher. And they have never delved into the mechanical meloncholy that is Autechre. Instead, they bring in samples of guitars, scratch records, and use a variety of synth sounds to construct complex orchestrations that push the very boundries of music itself. It is strange, in a way, that a band that is so complex and can be considered as a mainstream dance act, can also abide so closely with classical compositions and experimentalism. Perhaps the best example of the way in which they combine various aspects of various genres into single songs is on the track Dang Spot (track 9). On this song, they begin with a short ambient interlude with intangable voices and a very simple melody. As the beauty that is the intro progresses, a second melody is delicately drawn into the fray. After a few sampled screams and screeches, the main body of the song starts, a very playful melody counteracted by variations of the same melody in different octaves backed by an off-kilter looped drum-beat. As the song continues, the seem to go to progressive influences and slowly change the song in subtle ways over time.

This very characteristic of most of Plaid's songs. It may not be overly new or original, but it truly is beautiful and alot of fun.

I just wanted to chime in and agree with the gentleman below that "Ralome" is one of the most outrageously sublime and transporting pieces of music I've ever heard...compares with some of my favorite tone poems by Debussy and Vaughan Williams. Wow! I got this album on vinyl from the Warp site and when the needle dropped on that track I was blown away. The whole album is great; musically witty with little motifs that get stuck in your head weeks after hearing them, then you wonder if you really heard the music or if it's just backwash from a strange dream you had...all of Plaid's albums are great but this one is my favorite.

More domesticated-sounding than Not for Threes, this is still another masterpiece. Plaid blurs the line between techno, electronica, and new age in some spots (e.g. ralome, buddy). You even get more of those blip songs (i mean those quirky, short track interludes of aural brilliance, like "lat"). baa baaaa ... Dang spot is the first obvious standout. All I can say is BUY IT. Plaid are incredibly talented, perfectionistic electro-tunecrafters that never fail to deliver. Oddly enough, I can hear some of these tunes being played in an elevator in 20 years though :P Well, they'll never lose their shine.

Plaid was, is and will be one of the most erudite acts in electronic music. They master a variety of styles (middle eastern music, medieval music, jazz, Caribbean music and the whole pop alphabet) and use this wide palette at their advantage. In this CD you'll find echoes of lounge music, Windham Hill-style guitars, some Brahms, music for chanteuses, and much more. As a result, the music is much less boring than typical electronica, but also a little less focused than other works by Warp label artists. As a die-hard Plaid & Black Dog fan I am therefore a little ambivalent. If we put things in perspective, Black Dog has had maybe more influence on current groups more than Aphex Twin; check Plone, Two Lone Swordsmen and BOC. "Spanners" is still an amazing CD. And about this one, the melodies and musical literacy of the CD easily beat 95% of the current Warp production. There is no doubt that Plaid are fully trained musicians and not DJs turned producers. But is this enough? Sometimes, like in the last, hidden song, Plaid indulge in traditional song forms that they know all too well, and are by now dry and trivial. When I compare this "safe bet" to their early works, or those of AFX or Autechre, I find it more polished, but less exciting. I think that Plaid should take more risks.