Despite the lack of vocals, Plank! aren't named after the Eric Sykes silent movie, but rather German producer Conny Plank, who manned the desk during many of krautrock's finest moments.
A key influence on Brian Eno in the 1970s, he's also the man who turned down the job of producing U2's Joshua Tree on the basis of 'I cannot work with that singer', which is surely reason enough to name a band after him.
It's early days for Manchester trio Plank! but you have to suspect the great man would approve if he were still with us. Bassist Edward Troup and drummer Jonathan Winbolt-Lewis supply the motorik pulse over which Dave Rowe plays guitar and keyboards, combining the two very effectively when they play live.
They appear to know their krautrock onions, with traces of La Dusseldorf, Faust, Neu! and Manuel Gottsching all swirling around in their sound. Despite having only released an EP and single to date, they already seem to be evolving, with the Pig Sick remix on this rather lovely orange vinyl single (limited edition of 400 in a joint venture between Akoustik Anarky and Static Caravan) introducing a crunchy electronica that sees them edging into math-rock territory.
Flip it over and Self Harm has a proggier edge, like ELP feeling the funk or Van Der Graaf Generator (another Manchester band!) at their sunniest. There's even a video stolen from Ken Russell's Altered States. They clearly have a taste for this kind of vintage body horror, having previously used David Cronenberg's Stereo for their video for 2009's La Luna.
Plank! also carry a definite patchouli-scented hint of prog when they play live, with Rowe demonstrating some impressive chops at times and a saxophonist joining them for two songs of their set at the Manchester International Festival last week.
Interestingly, Rowe chose a Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion T-shirt as stage attire that night - and not one of those diamante-clad ironic ones that you'd see David Beckham or Peaches Geldof wearing but a faded from being worn since 1991 type. Perhaps this was just a sly wind-up to the fashionistas but you could just as easily see Plank! heading off in a Muse-ish stadium rock direction as a more interesting Mogwai-style course.
An album is currently being recorded (working title: Gourmet Chillier), so it'll be interesting to see where they end up. Right now, the possibilities seem vast.
No comments:
Post a Comment