OOP Plaid Dog Productions

Speaking of OPO I dug out the Parasight EP recently and spent a couple of days caning it. That and the first two Bedouin Ascent records are among the very best electronic (or any) music of the early 90s IMO.

Actually for me personally Bedouin Ascent edges it but this is the BDP thread.

Otaku is good too. A shame the Rising High catalogue doesn't seem to be getting much of a decent afterlife.

How does TBD compare to Plaid

I love plaid and all their remix work-collabs (particularly mara carlyle - the lovely, whom her husband of plaid produced)

I only have one plaid album that I have heard a mere handful of times, so I cannot really comment.

I think MHO is pretty close to conventional wisdom:

Plaid = whimsical, pretty melodies and harmonies (I don't mean this to sound dismissive AT ALL)

post-breakup tBD = bass and atmosphere, dat kick

as Voltron circa Bytes (and I really need to relisten to Temple of Transparent Balls) = perfect fusion. Plaid but harder-hitting. tBD but with more fun and play in it.

Plaid = whimsical, pretty melodies and harmonies (I don't mean this to sound dismissive AT ALL)
post-breakup tBD = bass and atmosphere, dat kick

perfectly describes why I clearly prefer the tBD side of the fence.

don't dismiss Plaid. their trilogy (Not For Threes, Restproof Clockwork, Double Figure) is solid, classic turn of the century Warp par excellence. So much to enjoy on those

I will buy Plaid as and when I get the opportunity via my cheapskate options.
whereas I will continue to drop ££ on tBD cos I know they will always hit my ambient/techno requirements.

P brane Ep by plaid is essential

If you like Plaid and really(?) haven't listened to Bytes (and indeed Spanners which is often more Plaid-like) and the other Balil stuff like the aforementioned Parasight EP (play Island immediately,) Nort Route and his As One remix, as well as Otaku which I think is an Andy Turner tune, then you are probably in for a bit of a treat.

Whether it was Ken feeding them strange ideas and/or potions or just something in the air there's some rare inspiration to this stuff.

I think I like Bytes more than anything by Plaid. I revisit it more often than SAW1, even.

good timing as there is a new tBD album, 'fragments', due in a couple of weeks.
that said, its nothing like the Bytes era.
much deeper/moodier/atmospheric.
hence why it hits the spot for me.

Oh cool, I actually had no idea.

Tracks like Psilcosine (track 5 off of Spanners) build up and build up and just as it's about to get good it stops.

this seems to be a common technique for plaid, lots of tracks that do that, Do Matter, Little People, Coat, Drowned Sea. sometimes it works, sometimes it’s more just irritating, and i wonder where does it come from (the technique not the irritation). it’s like fear to be too pretty or too emo or thinking it’s a proper build up for when they have an especially haunting melody.

as for the answer, OTAKU, forever

new tBD thing "Fragments" is reallllly working for me. I love them when they hew towards the idm side.