This year is already shaping up to be a great time in music. I’m enjoying the debut albums that I’m hearing, one of them being Plantoid’s Terrapath. The album released on February 2nd through Bella Union.
Plantoid hails from the UK. The band consists of Chloe Spence on vocals, Tom Coyne on guitar, Louis Bradshaw on drums, and Bernardo Larisch on bass. That’s what I’ve extrapolated from their social media, though there may be more instruments in play here.
This band is an interesting fusion of ideas. They play progressive rock that includes layers of jazz, psychedelia, and indie rock. When I say “jazz”, I don’t mean that they use a saxophone; I mean that the compositional and playing styles are jazz in how they use swing and blue notes, especially within the rhythm section. Their music is infused with dreamy, quirky, and ethereal sequences that are truly beautiful and hazy, and they have that indie or art rock production and tone that are almost reminiscent of punk or math rock trappings at times.
So, this band has a few main song styles, then. Some of their songs are technical, sweaty affairs with some math rock energy. Some of their songs are floating, dreamy pieces that focus on Chloe’s great vocals. Some of their songs have bluesy grooves that are highly attractive and easily draw in the listener. All of the songs tend to have this milky haze that coats them like a shoegaze record, and the heavier sections are fuzzy and distorted in a colorful way. It’s an ethereal journey that is punctuated with rock sections, essentially.
To be completely honest, I tend to prefer the psychedelic sequences over the rock portions. Songs like “Pressure”, “Insomniac (Don’t Worry)”, and “G.Y. Drift” are distorted, riffy tracks with lots of blood and grit in them, and I do really like them. Songs like “Only When I’m Thinking” or “Softly Speaking” are ambient works with intimate vocals, and I adore them both. I think the closer “Softly Speaking” is one of my favorites for how emotional and otherworldly it feels.
I think the band’s sweet spot, though, is when they perfectly combine all of their ideas with jazzy grooves. The opener “Is That You” is a good example with its hovering slow burn structure and riffing, foggy second half. Another is “It’s Not Real”, which is an instrumental piece with delicious bass lines and lots of nuance. “Dog’s Life” is a great way to sample the band, I think, because it has probably the best combination of everything; it has subtlety but also a deft and rhythmic core, but also the textured riffs for emphasis. One of the best overall is “Wander/Wonder”, which has a deeply jazzy bass and drum performance, while also reveling in Chloe’s vocals in a few spots, and then bringing in Tom’s excellent finger work near the end.
Look, this album can feel quirky and strange at times, but other moments will feel familiar and starkly beautiful. Terrapath is a perfectly portioned serving of ideas and personality, and the more I listen to it, the more I crave it. It’s like an album that is cool as hell, but also above even the notion of coolness. It’s accessible, but also profoundly odd. I really like it.
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Find Plantoid online:
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The PROG Mind 