Plök

Sing Us Yr Guillotine Gospel

Written by: TL on 28/03/2010 22:37:47

Some years ago, I witnessed Funeral For A Friend play at some Coca Cola sponsored event that I never understood the purpose of in Lille Vega, Copenhagen, and among the three support bands, none of whom did even remotely fit the profile of the headliner, were the Danish four piece Plök from Odense. I remember their set as being highly quirky and relatively entertaining, even for one who didn't know the band, mainly due to its strangeness, so, leaving intrigued, I carried Plök's memory around until I was recently presented with their début album "Sing Us Yr Guillotine Gospel", which I of course signed up to review then.

In all honesty though, I'm beginning to wish that I hadn't because the record is a major headache for your average hobby-reviewer, who already tries desperately to keep up with releases from more and more bands and promos from more and more labels. Why? Because helpful concepts, such as being "conventional" or "easily enjoyable" have been thrown out the window during the making of this record, as Plök have sought to express all of their nerdy oddity in an absurd cacophony of noisy, abrupt electro-punk. One obtrusive part follows another, as one nonsensical song follows another, full of hysterical and electronically distorted singing that often sounds more like manic chatter. The stream of madness only being occasionally interrupted by eerie samples of voices that rant against modern society. Rants however, that seem more like hostages in Plök's bizarro musiverse, than expressions of any serious desire to criticise anything.

Plök are clearly aiming to experiment, and to be weird as fuckin' hell, and at that, they succeed unquestionably. The question that keeps popping up in my head, though, is whether they aren't really more strange than they are good. Even after a good handful of listens in relatively close succession, the only things I take away from the record are the odd repeated refrains from songs such as "Time Out The Stroboscope Emotional", "AllIReallyWantIsABattleship" and "Bada Bing, Bada Boom". And that's not really enough I think, because let's face it, on one hand there are many more sensible and easily accessible bands out there that will stimulate your musical craving more easily, and there are even few ones that are even weirder and more fucked up than Plök, who still manage to make more memories in your mind than they do - Horse The Band and Rolo Tomassi especially come to mind, also as the only comparisons I can come up with. In the end, this record will likely make Plök a niche band of sorts, with a handful of diehard fans who appreciate their madness for the sake of it, while the rest of us will have to wait around for something that manages to be a little more forthcoming, without being too compromising. For now, for geeks only:

Download: Time Out The Strobe Lights; AllIReallyWantIsABattleship; Bada Bing, Bada Boom
For The Fans Of: Horse The Band, Rolo Tomassi
Listen: myspace.com/plk

Release Date 12.02.2010
The Binary Icosahedral Group

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