Nole Plastique describe Escaperhead as a sixties psych-rock influenced venture cross-bred, of course, with their penchant for experimental electronics and digital knob-twiddling. The thing has the makings of the second coming of Caribou's Andorra, but instead Nole Plastique have created a far stranger brew of otherworldly "pop." This, of course, means Escaperhead is a much less accessible piece of music that Andorra, but it happens to be an engaging one nonetheless.

Much like the decades of psychedelia that they draw inspiration from, Nole Plastique seem determined to smash convention with this record, and this is communicated well in the cacophonously melodic, Mouse on Mars-esque pseudo-orchestration of "In Things Around" and the strangely listenable sonic cornucopia of "Blue Fries." Meanwhile, NP is at their best on moody Mars melody "...Rolled in Slice' and glitch-cum-guitar-exploration "In Case You Fall In."

At times, NP could be criticized for being a touch too loose and disorganized - Escaperhead lacks the sort of instrumental textures found on more polished pop outings. However, this can be attributed to the psych-folk leanings of Kutnov and Belousov. On the other end, I wonder if some of these songs ("Sunset Stipple," "Wavy Red") might have sounded better if the vocals were a touch more tuneful, but perhaps NP's years behind laptops and knob panels have limited their vocal registers to an extent.

Overall, however, Escaperhead is an experiment that works. These eleven soundscapes are beautiful moodpieces - collisions between sixties rock and futuristic electronics that evoke sunsets, busy streets, intergalactic expeditions... Check your expectations at the door.

80%

Matt Shimmer

Here are flavours of the psychedelic 1960s with outer space excursions. Here are keyboards, electronics, vocals and guitars going forwards, backwards, upside and down. Here are vocals not dissimilar to the one of the late Syd Barrett and Peter Perrett of the Only Ones (that reunited last year!). With a couple of exceptions the album lacks the strong melodic sense of the best songs from that distant decade. This is compensated by a strong experimental side of strange sounding instruments, effects and sound collages. The lo-fi leanings are also present with somewhat careless production, ditto instrumental handling and deliberate distortions here and there. Which add to the experimental side.

The tracks that combine melodic elements with a strong experimental bias are particularly successful, like "Sunset Stipple" and "Wavy Red" that originally might have started as simple songs in the Barrett's solo era vein and then shaken into different beasts by strange sounding drums, twisted guitars etc. Or what about the instumental "In Case You Fell In", a collage of highly original sounds with some sweet and simple melody lines in between?

If you're seeking something fresh and original stuff far from well trodden musical paths, Escaperhead is not a bad place to start, not bad at all. Further information at the Nexsound home page and Nole Plastique's Myspace page.

Copyright © 2008 JP

The interesting things are those that Nole Plastique left out, by circumlocuting basic songstructures, avoiding kitsch and working distorting effects into the single tracks, which, by the way, mostly flow into one another like stoned out trip through a second hand rarity records store. The fall onto a nice, laidback, “trippy” melody here and there, bang a little on the bongos, let all instruments fall into place at the right time in the right speed, to make you happy and feel light. Ease and beauty, just the way life should be. But the structural fundament of the mix makes for an interesting counterpart by destroying the harmony, by rippling through the mellowness like the evil tide of an undercurrent makes a perfect beach unfit for enjoying. It is nevertheless all songs, or treated as such, and that makes for another level of interesting structural theory all together.

Putting the alternatives not taken into the focus makes for a lot of interesting if-clause introspections. If Nole Plastique were settled at the West coast of the USA then they’d probably be mixed into the freak folk scene and would have released on Paw Tracks, but then they would be all washy and diffuse and the clear and crystal elements of their music would be missing. If they had a lot of money to spend on recording and were keen on exploring a melody to its end then they would probably be the next Flaming Lips, but then again those lose ends and ideas and melodies only hinted at are a fascinating part of their mix. Like the backwards vocals on “…rolled in slice” or the bongos I heard somehwere and the birdsounds I heard somehwere else. Atmospherically this is like Fennesz “Endless Summer” album time travelled thirty five years backwards to inspire Brian Wilson as he was stoned out somewhere on a beach fusing the vibe of certain damaged melodies.

Nole Plastique is currently the duo of Roman Kutnov and Alexei Belousov who have been helped out by a few people on this, their latest recording and first full length album, especially Nexsound label head and renowned Ukrainian noise avantgardist Andrey Kiritchenko. If you have heard them before then you might be surprised about the way the have taken, but then again maybe not, because their noise has always contained a high dose of harmony and romance. So this change is not as drastic as for instance the one of Accelera Deck, but still. Now they have let go of all the disharmonies and distortion they ever had, changed the percentages of "mixing, shaking and breaking" and present life as an endless stream of sunny days and softly flowing sounds.