Felix NEill

Plone were part of the same midlands "Retro Futurist" enclave that spawned Broadcast, Fridge and Pram at the tail end of the Nineties. Although it's difficult to tell at this distance how much of a scene there actually was, or whether as frequently happens, a bunch of different groups with different approaches but a broadly similar sound came to prominence at the same time and were lumped together by the music press. It always amuses me to note how much the bands in question hate it whenever this happens.

Anyway, whatever the truth, Plone were a bunch of guys who had moved away from more traditional guitar based approaches to more keyboard and sampler based sounds. An interview with them is online here and predictably enough, based upon the intricate and refined music they made, reveals them to be inward looking geeks and gear-heads. That isn't intended to be a criticism.

It's probably fair to say that this is one of my favourite electronic albums ever. Taking it's cues from John Barry-esqe spy movie themes and the now commonplace influences of the radiophonic workshop and assorted library music weirdos, this is music with a vision that was truly ahead of its time while being totally inspired by the past. It was, if you will, retro futurist.

There's a classic early cyber-punk short story by William Gibson called "The Gernsback Continuum" which left a massive impression on me and with which I have always associted this album. If I can quote from Wikipedia in order to illustrate:

"The Gernsback Continuum" is a short story by William Gibson about a photographer who has been given the assignment of photographing old, futuristic architecture. This architecture, although largely forgotten at the time of the story, embodied for the generation that built it their concept of the future.

During his assignment to photograph 1930s era futuristic architecture, Parker begins to realize a "continuum," an alternate reality containing the possible future of the world represented by the architecture he is photographing – a future that could have been, but was not, thereby contrasting modernism to postmodern reality. Parker's glimpses of this fantastical utopian future, characterised by massive multi-lane highways, giant zeppelins and Aryan inhabitants become increasingly frequent and disturbing until, on the advice of a friend, he immerses himself deliberately in the grittiest 'realities' of our world (such as pornography and news stories about crime and war) that are at odds with the idealised world of Gernsback and others. Slowly the images fade to insubstantiality and the story ends with Parker able to ignore the sight of a nearly transparent flying wing. Parker realizes that he would rather live in world characterized by pornography, crime and random events than that of Gernsback continuum.

While always fully understanding the reasons for seeking out a grittier reality, the appeal of this album and that of related works such as the early releases of Broadcast has always transported me to this weird parallel reality where airships cross the blue sky and assignations with heavily accented, silver-suited brunettes with blood red lips take place under the Gothic towers of an Eastern European railway station. Basically, this intricate, beautiful music conjures places and times that are probably better than those we are experiencing now. From the Sparky's Magic Piano-isms of "Plock" to the wondorous closing salvo of "On My Bus", this is a an album I return to again and again and is a real Jewel in the crown of the Warp story.

Billy Bainbridge from Plone now works with Tim Felton of Broadcast as Seeland and have recently produced one of the albums of the year which I urge you to seek out if you haven't already. I cannot wait to see what comes next from them. Combined with the "Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age" which also appeared this year, this seam continues to be a rich one indeed.

Beautiful, spooky and a hugely innovative precursor to the whole Hauntological movement that is characterised by the Ghost Box label.

Don't miss.

Link Expired.