Pluramon’s latest effort sounds pretty similar to the woozy anthems on Dreams Top Rock; scuzzy guitars wrestle and writhe and quiet breathless vocals attempt to cast spells on all who will listen.
Pluramon’s latest effort sounds pretty similar to the woozy anthems on Dreams Top Rock; scuzzy guitars wrestle and writhe and quiet breathless vocals attempt to cast spells on all who will listen.
Pluramon – The Monstrous Surplus
http://www.karaokekalk.de/ http://www.konkurrent.nl/
How did we miss this, sitting in our review pile, unloved and ignored for so long? Still, we can make amends. We’ve praised Pluramon lavishly in the past and on this evidence we see no reason to desist now.
Featuring Julie Cruise on four tracks, Julia Hummer on some others and nearly four years in the gestation, Pluramon’s latest effort sounds pretty similar to the woozy anthems on Dreams Top Rock; scuzzy guitars wrestle and writhe and quiet breathless vocals attempt to cast spells on all who will listen. The opener Turn In is like classic shoegaze (I feel all dirty using that word, but…) if ever anything sounded like 1991 it’s this.
Marcus Schmickler does have a beautiful way with guitars, the mixes are almost perfect in their weight and arrangement; nothing ever feels out of place. This skill somehow makes the LP very romantic; If Time Was On My Side is a beautiful example of this, mixing heart-achingly sensitive chord progressions with a melancholy drugginess. This sonic beauty even overrides the bizarre cover of Sham 69’s If the Kids Are United…
The LP never raises really its pace above a steady plod, making it feel a lot longer than the 45 minutes it plays for, no criticism this, you just have to be pretty blissed-out and patient… Luckily each individual piece never outstays its welcome, as Schmickler is pretty adept at realising when to break the musical spell. There’s a also a great deal of lyrical fantasising on Cruise’s and Hummer’s behalf, and Jutta Koether’s spoken word pieces are fascinating, in that you feel something totally at odds with the beautiful song swirls is being explored by the vocalists.
Interesting, check it out.
Words: Richard Foster