Plaid - C/D S/D

got a big soft spot for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2k1j7UAe0k

For me, any plaid I've heard outside of the Trainer stuff (the first disc is great, but the second is really fantastic) hasn't been worth bothering with. Same with post- Bytes Black Dog Productions, except their more contemporary stuff is looking fairly good, I should look into more of that.

I love love love Radio Scarecrow and Further Vexations. Anyone heard Music For Real Airports (lol title) yet?

wait... what are these things willem?

2008, 2009 and 2010 albums by The Black Dog, respectively.

a more accurate update to Eno's work
lol blurb

I have only ever heard "Eyen" and I love it. Is it representative?

new Black Dog FACT mix:
http://www.factmag.com/2010/04/26/fact-mix-144-the-black-dog/

yes Eyen is your typical mid-period Plaid. If you like it you'll love Double Figure and Restproof Clockwork.

It took me a while, but sometimes Spokes is a really great album. A lot of the tracks sound very physical, mechanical even, like a giant clock framework with hundreds of moving parts.

Dunno, Eyen is a lot more widescreen than some of their other stuff, less playful. That said their first three albums are pretty diverse and I reckon you'd like them a lot Spencer.

of the first four tracks on Double Figure it's my least favourite for the reasons you mentioned Matt (i like my Plaid a bit slapstick and cartoonish - there are some abstract moments, particularly on Double Figure and most of Greedy Baby, which just don't gel well with me).

Anyone seen Plaid with the gamelan orchestra?

Anyone getting excited about Scintilli in September? The new track is kind of everything I hoped for: http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/16233-missing/

Hmmm... Been listening to the new album a bit. It's pleasant enough, but not exactly ground breaking considering it's been years since Spokes came out.

new album is really incredible. maybe their best one.

i think "pleasant enough, but not exactly ground breaking" sorta epitomizes their whole career

OH MY FUCK THEY'RE TOURING THE STATES AND PLAYING A 250-PERSON VENUE IN PHILLY FOR $13 AAIAIIIEIEEEEE!!!!!

Don't know if I ever linked to this review I wrote about Scintilli. Actually it's a bit of a ramble about IDM in general but w/e.

Do we have a good Black Dog thread around here? Because I've been hooked on Bytes a lot lately; it reminds me quite a bit of something like SAW 85-92 but to my ears it's actually a bit more enjoyable since they have a real melodic gift that shows on pretty much every track. What else is good?

frogbs your post mirrors the posts at the top of this thread.

for some reason i thought this thread was 10 years old! I have Balls but not Spanners yet - the 79.999 minute length puts me off a bit, but I'm starting to "trust" the Dog to deliver the goods, since I did grab Book of Dogma and I'm surprised by how often I've listened to it.

Spanners i the only one I've heard, but I always found it unsatisfying. Has Bytes aged well?

yes and no? I mean you don't really hear those kind of analog synths anymore and it was recorded on pretty cheap equipment (you can hear some defects in the recording, similar to SAW 85-92, but maybe a bit better), but the melodies still sound good. The early singles are the ones that have aged not so well; like Plaid's first album back in 91 it just sort of points the way toward something more interesting. Bytes would be like their Orbital 2 moment - very much an early 90's thing but it does a great job of showing off what was so great about those times.

I still like Spanners! Especially the first handful of tracks, which are quite lovely, "Psil-Cosyin" of course but also "Chase the Manhattan." Haven't listened to Bytes in a VERY long time, though.

I'm getting into Spanners now and even though I kinda wish they trimmed 10 or so minutes off it here and there it really is a neat album.

Can't remember starting this thread. Big love for Ladyburst and Eyen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrN0DP97M8E

Double Figure and Jackson and the Computer band in heavy rotation this week. I'm going through some warp(ed) nostalgia trip.

Byte's is great one of my favs better than spanners overall infact i had to buy it on CD cos i wore the vinyl out

"Squance" is one of my favorite songs evar

Curious what the connection between this Craig Leon album from 1981 (which James Holden has been praising lately) and early Black Dog/Plaid is – the sound's weirdly similar, as are some of the titles. Leon produced the first Ramones album among many others.

I'm definitely not keen with everything on Spanners but it's one of those albums I just can't help myself with, I have to hear the whole thing every time. Bytes is also incredible. Was kinda shocked to load up iTunes and see just how much I've played both those albums.

Gorgeous lead track from the new album, if it's all like this I would be very pleased.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ6I6J0yrHQ

Hawk Moth is indeed superb. Anyone listened to Reachy Prints yet? I'm not sure I love it yet. Like the last album, there are some gorgeous moments but also a lot of songs which sound like Plaid just being Plaid.

any opinions on the new one?

Apart from Hawkmoth it may as well be offcuts from Scintilli. I had a bit of trouble with Scintilli itself because it sounded like Plaid settling into a well-trodden path, but at least there were a few imaginative moments. This new one goes right over my head every time I put it on.

I haven't cared about them since about 2002 but I love this new one, less meandering pissing about then there used to be, the whole album is much tighter and the melodies are gorgeous.

Did you listen to Scintilli, Matt DC? If you like this one I think yo'd really like that one.

the first Plaid album i've been able to engage with.. the odd-numbered tracks are all great. as somebody said upthread, it feels very concise and punchy. sounds great in the (rental) car

With all the Ae excitement going on, let's not forget there's a new Plaid album on the horizon. 'The Bee' has been released as a preview. I was very disappointed by Reachy Prints, save for 'Hawkmoth', but this sounds quite interesting. An almost classic rock tinge to it at the end.

Man, people don't really care about Plaid anymore.

The new one is ok. I assume your;e disappointed, dog latin.

I used to be a huge Plaid fan right up until that soundtrack for the Japanese movie. I just lost interest after that. Those Black Dog archives kind of kicked off around then too and I got my fix from those tracks.

the one track that's getting all the radio play (ok, 3 plays) is good, makes me want to check out the lp. but then i said that about the last one and still haven't.

the website is shiny

Enjoying it so far! Quite low-key but some nice almost-cheesy synths, especially during the first half. 'Melifer' has me grinning like a loon each time the outro synth line kicks in ...

it's very pretty but they don't sound like they're exactly sweating very hard to try out anything new.

"CLOCK" from the new album is glorious. Plaid are great at what they do.

okay so I sorta gave up on these guys after Spokes, but I decided to grab Scintilli and I'll be damned, this is like everything I want out of a Plaid album (including being LESS THAN 70 MINUTES LONG). are the next two as good as this?

Last two are great. Plaid are cursed by consistency and it seems people lost interest in them. Higlhlights : nafovanny,
Wallet, clocks and the first track on the newer one which has a stranger things vibe

I started off with a copied cassette of Rest Proof Clockwork and when I got the CD never bothered with the end, so I've gone for nearly 20 years of listening to it without hearing the gorgeous hidden track at the end.

ah man that is such a beautiful tune. I can't believe it was just chucked on the end like that. This era is my favourite by them

i've fallen in love with the black dog's "otaku" recently. never got into any plaid albums, despite major love for "object orient". i should try again.

Plaid are like certain IDM acts such as µ-Ziq and Squarepusher (and even Boards of Canada to an extent) where there's some pretty obvious melodic motifs that have now become stylistic identifiers. I've always felt they've lacked the textural or timbrel uniqueness that goes along with it for those other artists, which is why they often get the "video game soundtrack music" label and sound a bit more generic.

This album seems to offer up some new sounds and more acoustic instrumentation but also couples this with their tightest, most focused arrangements in years. Very little noodling here, and more than a few unique song and sound ideas. Really stoked with this new one and feel it's their best since Spokes, and I've dutifully been following them the entire time. Definitely something special here.

When Scintilli came out, I wrote a fairly long and boring review in the Quietus comparing them to Autechre and how each band's trajectory has followed parallel but entirely different timelines.

BTW, feeling that they do have an album of remarkable work in them, I started making a playlist of Plaid's best stuff from the last ten years. I can't say I've listened to the later albums enough to really be able to discern what the true highlights are though. Any glaring omissions, or tracks I should simply leave off? I'd rather make it under 70 minutes (i.e. album length) if possible https://open.spotify.com/user/1153731601/playlist/2PSCZXrZuV22bRyTahthcX?si=8kGcDLf9TYy_DDW2vOPQgA

So I dug this out again this morning and it sounds really good in the car. I might have been quick to judge too harshly. It's not a million miles away from what's gone before but it's certainly a software upgrade.

Opening track has a bit of an MBV vibe to it

Maru reminds me of LP5-era Autechre in a nice way

Loving this discussion and it's been a while since I've been on a Plaid kick so I went back and listened to a couple anthologies, Parts in the Post and Trainer. The former, the remix collection, is a goddamn classic. So many bangers and memorable bits and a ton of variety. For those stumbling into this band fresh, it's a fantastic starting point. Trainer was great too, and has a nice rawness to it that's missing from anything newer. Forgot how good these guys were for the better part of a damn decade. Nit picking the last 10 years feels like playing with house money. These dudes have been around

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0007582

60 minute mix for freak zone

I need to spend more time with it but Polymer may well be my favourite Plaid album, period.

…when I'm listening to it, at least.

Resident Advisor on Dancers and Nurula: "the melodies are unconvincing, the arrangements toothless"

Nurula is only good, but Dancers?????

well, i came round to this album in the end and that's the opinion i had at first. it's far from toothless - I prefer Nurula to Dancers I think. The best song is Crown Shy

I think it's a great album, but I've realized my taste is far from fashionable. I don't keep up with electronic trends. Thought it'd resonate a bit more than it did.

resonate with the wider public/critical sphere you mean? I guess they're a band who've large been seen to have been spinning their wheels for te best part of 15 years, spinning out variations on a sound that was perfected c2001 and not doing much outside of it. Polymers is far from daring, but they've really nailed it on this album. It's not going to win many new fans but it definitely helped me appreciate them again. By far their best since Double Figure

The Orbital remix of Maru is so damn good, I've been playing it every day

The Skee Mask remix of Maru is sick as well

has anybody been to recent shows? seeing them in seattle and wonder what to expect.

a new release, a collection of 28 recent remixes by Plaid: https://touched.bandcamp.com/album/stem-sell
limited vinyl/2CD with proceeds going to cancer charity

seems more uniform Plaid sound compared to Parts In the Post,
sounds almost like Plaid album proper (and better than Polymer at that)

(the seattle show was amazing, to answer my own question, and a great last show to see before the pandemic)

this comp is awesome and anyone who likes post-BD Plaid should jump on it

listening to "After The Movie" and feeling high as anything

double figure turns 20 today

Gross

what exactly?

God I loved that album so much.

I was 14 when that one came out and I loved it. No real interest to revisit it, I tried a couple years ago and the nostalgia factor was what kept me listening... it didn’t age too well.

Looking at the tracklist I think this could’ve been more of a classic if you trim it to 10 tracks. It’s also frontoaded, the opening two tracks might be the best ones.

I have an old mp3 which is certainly Plaid, entitled "Knives Drawer", maybe got it off gabba/amp. The internet seems to know nothing about it, anyone have an idea?

new album is pretty nice. they have a weird thing going for me, most of their best tracks are on their 1995-2001 albums, but the ones from Scintilli on are the ones I always reach for. they just feel like better listens back to front. They Might be Giants are another band like this. no real surprises on this one, though "Wondergan" and "Nightcrawler" were both neat curveballs. last two tracks probably the best.

Yeah I agree. I preferred Polymer to this one on the whole. No surprises on this one other than maybe Wondergan, but it's not an unpleasant listen. They must have made 'Return to Return' at least three times by now.

I also find it amusing how every Plaid album that comes out these days has some sort of concept draped around it, even though they all just sound like Plaid albums

wasn’t much into the track but the video for “wondergan” is pretty cool