Got this in the mail over the weekend, and have gotten
my head wrapped tightly enough around it to hopefully
drop some helpful opinions. Not that it's a
particularly difficult album; it pretty much continues
in the smooth-but-angular vein cut out by their
previous material. There are no real departures here
from the typical "Plaid" sound (whatever that means to
you), which is cool cuz it's a NICE sound, and it
probably takes as much talent to find a niche and
stick with it without stagnating as it does to
constantly break new ground.
Double Figure starts strong with four great tracks in
a row. "Eyen"'s first minute finds Plaid playing all
pretty-like, with guitar work similar to "Ralome" off
of Rest Proof Clockwork. Eventually a beat is dropped
and the tune evolves, and by the end of the track,
they've added all sorts of fuzzy synth lines and other
neat insturmentation while managing to keep it all
tied to the opening theme for a cool ass aggro-ethreal
vibe. "Assault On Precinct Zero" is smooth, smooth
synth pop, and one of the best songs here. Beginning
at track 8, Plaid start throwing short interludes
between tracks, as was the style at the time during
their BDP years with the Bolts and the Phils and the
whatnot. What's sweet about the Taks on Double Figure
is that they're actually sorta nice melodic pieces
that bridge gaps between tracks instead of the random,
jerky tangents on Spanners and Bytes. "Tak 1"
introduces "New Family" quite nicely. "Zala" begins
the second half of the album with a tense, cartoonish
freak-out that sets the tone for what's to come. The
rest of the tracks here are more dissonant than what's
been heard previously, up until "Ti Bom" and "Manyme,"
where the album ends on a jazz tip. "Manyme" features
a bunch of pretty processed vocals, "Ti Bom" a bunch
of rolling drums. Cool.
So what we've got is a solid but not groundbreaking
album (which is a good thing, IMO). There are nineteen
tracks (including the Taks), and things rarely sound
same-y. The only real weak point here is "Twin Home,"
which ain't terrible, but just leaves me all like,
"eh." This is good music for kickin it on your balcony
on a nice clear night this summer.
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