PLANK! - EP

PLANK! are a three piece who play (mostly) instrumental music. Repetitive, hypnotic music which flirts with Krautrock and in particular stalwarts of that 'genre' Neu! and Amon Duul II. They've even nicked Neu!'s punctuation.

It's within this context of heavily patterned drumming and bass melodies, of trance-like grooves and repeating loops, that each song finds its own heartbeat and forms a structure out of seemingly nothing. There's a buoyant but melancholic arc to the (bad)punningly entitled 'Arse Nick' whereas '1001 Nacht' toys with 'kosmische' avant-gardist psychedelia by throwing a bit of experimentalism the listeners way.

Once 'Phlaa' gets going the song's similarities to Neu!'s seminal 'Hallogallo' are too obvious to be coincidental. They clearly have an affection and appreciation of the musical legacy to which they are adding their own stamp.

Personally I could do with more, a lot more, the songs on the EP are way too short and at an average of four minutes that's a rare thing indeed. The impetus just about begins before the music levels off and ends with an often abrupt flourish. Sadly. I'd happily take a full length album of this music if they're willing to spend time putting one together. EP closer 'La Luna' is a beautiful example of spaced ambiance that is treated with the throwaway frivolity of a band easily bored with the rhythms they've discovered. Pity.

The musical interplay throughout comes from the synchronous drumming and bass although the occasional guitar riff gets a look in particularly on 'Arse Nick' which creates musical spirals which reach into each other and draw out some interesting results.

It's arguable where PLANK!'s music sits within the current musical context, it's certainly not populist and deliberately so but it's also drawn aside from the plethora of post-rock, psyche-rock bands of the last ten years or so. PLANK! could be viewed as custodians to this marginal sound and one which is much deserving of rediscovery. Bloody good ones too.

www.myspace.com/plankuk
www.mekongdelta.co.uk

Kyte - Two Sparks, Two Stars EP

I’m an unashamed lover of Kyte’s cinematic style and otherworldly music. The seemingly simple way they build songs from a few glockenspiel notes and piano chords into a quiet roar of Nordic sounding majesty is utterly spellbinding. They really do evoke a twilight fairytale world of mystery populated by curious sounds and emotions which seems perfectly at home as winter draws in.

The orchestrated sound of Two Sparks, Two Stars sees a progression from the band’s more precise eponymous mini album earlier in the year which was much more about the cyclical building of tracks upon tracks and for all the album's beauty, and it is a thing of aching beauty, this EP shows the band with more dimensions, more experimental yet retaining their ability to write superbly lush songs like opener Eyes Lose Their Fire.

Not that it’s all their own work. The cover of Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill will probably sneak up on a fair few people as it’s so perfectly molded into the Kyte oevre that it takes a little time to actually realize it’s not their own tune, a rare thing to achieve well and rarer still with a familiar song.

Of the EP’s four tracks it the final installment Light Outside Here which tugs on the seasonal heart strings most of all. Not for any specific Christmassy references though simply down to it's texture and ambience. Kyte make you want to curl up in front of a warm fire and dream impossible dreams.


www.myspace.com/kyteband
www.mekongdelta.co.uk