Plains - Underground
CDR 3" from CLaudia (CLaudi_013)
Archived item from CLaudia
Plains live at the Underground Bar, 5th June 2006. Recorded opening a show for Birchville Cat Motel and Sam Hamilton. This was Plains last performance before Mark moved to Tokyo, and it turns out quite a bit more energetic than the first album "Into Tone" on Scarcelight. Here the improvised soundscapes are a bit more fragmented, with melodic rumbles through the background, and a surface bubbling of psychedelic noise. Tim Coster - Field recordings, Computer Richard Francis - Computer Rosy Parlane - Computer Mark Sadgrove - Feedback, Linux Csound Clinton Watkins - Samples Paul Winstanley - Feedback 17 minutes, 41 seconds REVIEWS: Plains Underground CLAUDIA 3" CDR Auckland, New Zealand supergroup featuring, for this live performance from June 2006, Tim Coster, Richard Francis, Rosy Parlane, Mark Sadgrove, Clinton Watkins and Paul Winstanley. All members work with computer or feedback/electronics, and the resulting 17 minute improvisation doesn't stray too far from the usual model for digital group interactions. However, while the lexicon is unsurprising, with low-slung purr, scratchy field recordings and peals of high-end, Underground is one of the few computer group improvs you'll want to return to. THE WIRE 279, May 2007 The big band is popular: Mimeo or Freq_out are well-known and much bigger than New Zealand's Plains, which is band with Tim Coster (field recordings, computer), Richard Francis (computer), Rosy Parlane (computer), Mark Sadgrove (feedback, linux csound), Clinton Watkins (samples) and Paul Winstanley (feedback). As far as I know, they come together to play live music, and 'Underground' is such a concert, from june last year. It's a highly atmospheric piece of music. One could all too easily think things would be rather noise related, but these gentleman know how to be in control of their sounds. Things hiss and crack, and float by, even when two are created with feedback it's still an achievement to be so quiet and controlled. Somehow I don't think they will be on tour pretty soon, which is a pity, since I wouldn't mind seeing this live once. (VITAL WEEKLY)