Whatever happened to... Plone?

Plone return!

https://ghostbox.co.uk/

mmmm… orange….

Based solely on the clips on soundcloud, this is an AOTY contender:
https://soundcloud.com/ghost-box/sets/puzzlewood

My vinyl copy of Puzzlewood arrived yesterday. Album is everything I was hoping for and more.

Where did you order it from Jeff? I thought they'd cancelled the physical pre-orders. I'm really excited to get this.

From State51 via the Ghost Box greedbag page. They opened up this week to clear some pre-orders, but it’s like just one person doing everything (or something) in order that they can work safely. So you may still need to be patient. I was really surprised to get my copy 8 days early.

Ok, cool. Thanks for letting me know. I must have missed when they announced they were available again. I'm in the America so it's not as easy to get but there are some options. Just weighing up if I need the coloured vinyl or go for the regular. How many different coloured records do I actually need?

I think the orange vinyl version was snapped up in minutes. I missed out on that. The black version is cool though.

Yeah, it looked like they were mostly sold out. I was able to put one in my cart this morning but by the time I went back to it just now, it had gone. Ordered the black from State51 and I'm excited for whenever it makes it here.

For anyone grey enough to remember Plone’s ‘For Beginner Piano’,

Fuck off

Such a great album. So happy to have them back.

TUNES aside, such delicious use of synthesisers and mixed to perfection. Those lovely physmod strings and filtered noise made to sound like a brushed snare on Watson's Telescope. Mostly I like this more than FBP.

this is great, and very 'ducky' from what I've heard so far. maybe missing some of the darker moments from FBP? A lot of it sounds like early learning TV themes, which isn't a bad thing. I love the cod reggae on track 2

The house and disco genre exercises in miniature are so cute. Yeah, less overt melancholy than before.

Dunno about the failed attempt at gossip up thread but at the time I heard they had a decent advance for the record, immediately spent it all on modular synth gear (v. expensive in them days) and spent longer making it than the label wanted. Which is all perfectly relatable and admirable.

Making the album, that is. Horrible sentence, sorry.

this is all so well crafted and joyous, and yet I'm feeling a wee bit exhausted by it.

maybe I'm tired and the whole Covid thing is making me less receptive to this music, but at only 39 minutes, the relentless cutesiness gets a little samey.
It has some absolutely magic moments, but it can feel like listening to a succession of eighties kids' TV themes. Fun for a minute, but unsustainable.
it could have done with some of the spooky or more melancholic moments they were good at to diffuse the primary colours.
'Top & Low Rent' came on shuffle afterwards and it was a welcome salve.

even the name 'Puzzlewood' sounds like a nursery school. I do realise this is sort of Plone's whole shtick but there's an element missing

https://www.exkalibur.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/jigsaw-puzzle-one-piece-missing.jpg

all told, Miniature Magic lives up to its name

It starts well and the final two tracks are nicely bonkers but I got a bit lost in the middle. "Plock" and about 2/3 of FBP are pretty much the best things evah so I'm prepared to believe this will grow on me.

Completely in love with Puzzlewood

There are a couple of Plone tracks on the new Ghost Box comp that came out a week ago.

https://ghostboxrecords.bandcamp.com/album/intermission

(track 15 is by Plone but the credit is missing for some reason)

i love this record
'build a small fire' personal fav