Artist: Plastiscines
Title: Barcelona
Label: Because Music
Genre: Rock
Bitrate: 182kbit av.
Time: 00:20:25
Size: 28.00 mb
Rip Date: 2009-10-14
Str Date: 2009-11-02
01. Barcelona 3:23
02. Barcelona (Lifelike Remix) 4:26
03. Barcelona (Headman Remix) 3:19
04. Barcelona (Rory Philips Remix) 5:45
05. Barcelona (Utters Remix) 3:32
Release Notes:
Hometown: Paris.
The lineup: Katty Besnard (vocals, guitar), Marine Neuilly (guitar),
Louise Basilien (bass), Ana∩s (drums).
The background: Ah, the female Strokes: what took you? In her previous
role as head of music director at Nylon, new NME editor Krissi Murison
û and we interrupt this report to wonder how backward the music
business must be if, 30 years after Thatcher, a woman getting a senior
role at a magazine becomes headline news? û signed this band. And what
a band they are: they're the female Strokes, is what they are. The
French female Strokes. As retrograde and (not) revolutionary as that
sounds. Four spunky, sassy (etc) blondes and brunettes with the
attitude of the young Chrissie Hynde and the attractiveness of the
young Christie Brinkley. Well done you. Because you've just read our
mind: Plastiscines need to torch the paper they look good on.
They've heard the right records û B-52s, Blondie, Buzzcocks, Stooges,
Slits, Ramones û and they make all the right moves, to the point where
you're almost willing them to get it a bit wrong. Actually, back up a
sec û the Slits? They have none of that female reggae-punk quartet's
melodic invention, or playfulness with regard to sexual identity and
rock'n'roles. Blondie? There are no ventures into disco or rap on
Plastiscines' locally released 2007 debut album, or on their new one,
About Love, which was produced by Maxime Schmitt, who has worked with
Kraftwerk, making that one of the biggest red herrings of recent times.
Krautrock this ain't. As for the B-52s, they took liberties with rhyme
and rhythm; they were zany and had zing! And the Stooges were as much
about avant-jazz and white noise as they were ramalama garage rock.
This is all straight and rote, unexperimental and uneclectic: bang
bang, bash bash, strum strum, rail rail against rules and boys.
Ramones? Ramones were an apocalypse in torn jeans. Plastiscines may
have the T-shirts but there's little of Da Brudders' tense hi-jinks or
taut comic drama here, despite the one- and two-minute-long songs.
They're short, occasionally sharp, but hardly shocking.
Actually, their latest single, Barcelona, clocks in at a comparatively
epic prog-rock length of three minutes and 21 seconds, but they don't
exactly use the extra space to stretch out or pile on the
pressure/pleasure. It's just a little bit more of the same, which is a
shame because we want to like Plastiscines, we really do. But we can't
get worked up about a band who don't seem to get worked up themselves û
you get the feeling that they want to do this rather than need to.
Plastiscines are apparently one of several young Parisian bands,
referred to collectively as "les bΘbΘs rockers", who have been
criticised back home for being spoiled little bourgeois boho kids of
rich parents playing at being rock stars, and that sort of makes sense.
There's no urgency about them or their music, no rooms on fire. Is this
it, and all that. Like we say, the xy chromosome Strokes.
The buzz: "Purveyors of soda-pop punk that buzzsaws through your brain.
Fun and fast and frantic and did we mention fun?"
The truth: It's a version of an idea of a conservative notion of punk
pop. Played by girls.
Most likely to: Change their outfits.
Least likely to: Change the world.
What to buy: About Love is released by Nylon on 14 September.
File next to: The Runaways, the B-52s, the Primitives, Tiny Masters of
Today.
Links: myspace.com/plastiscine
sire@hush.ai