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Issue #78s Sept. '05 Psychoanarchitecture, by the Argentinean born, LA based
producer known as Pleqq, is the
next stop in
Acid-House/Dance-Trance Techno/Electronica. This 9 composition CD lives
up to
its title. Psychoanarchitecture
does
what electronica was intended to do: take music and create a type of
anarchy
from within, all the while staying true to its origin in form and
structure.
The architecture of the medium is rebuilt by using the same foundation,
then
twisting the footings of the psychological interpretations of said
construction
by implementing the instruments of technology. Pleqq
utilizes electronic board manipulation, a host of synths,
computers, software along with a whole lot of imagination and talent.
The
result is a futuristic landscape of sounds that flow from ear to ear,
speaker
to speaker, layer to layer, and level to level. Suspend the here and
now and
travel with the sound to a not-so-distant future. Take all the Sci-Fi
you’ve
ever heard, ram it together, give it a beat and a soul, and
viola`… My earliest exposure to
electronica was the early 70s hit, Popcorn, by Hot Butter. Using a
primitive
version of a moog, this studio musician created a simplistic yet
entertaining
sound that found its popularity with the kids through a show called
Wonderama.
It would be several years before I became familiar with The Alan
Parsons
Project brand of electro-prog-rock, which led me to the dawning of
electronica
in the early New Wave movement. Bands like Gary Numan and The Tubeway
Army, M,
Mi-Sex, New Musik, Animotion, and others brought the Electronica of the
moog/synth
into the band as a regular instrumentation of sound. From there
electronica
found its way into the clubs and DJs with extended mixes/re-mixes, and
soon the
DJs took over with club mixes. Round about here I dropped out of the
electronicia movement. The disco influence turned me off and by then I
was not
about to drop acid and get onto the dance floor to shimmy and shake
along to
House, Club, Dance, and even rave electronica. The genre left me behind
and it
didn’t matter. Now with the maturation of
computers, electronica has truly come into its own. An artist can take
sound
and manipulate, deconstruct and reconstruct note patterns and chords
not
typically associated with music. While there may be a true
“C” chord played,
after it has been squeezed through filters, compressed, decompressed,
stretched,
flattened, blown-up, and then layered, re-layered, scattered out and
brought
back again only to be placed down along side a compulsory rhythm
– is it then
still considered a “C” chord? Maybe, maybe not, but
in doing so it’s creating a
sound, and when one can create a sound, one is creating music, no
matter if it
can be easily identified, or just enjoyed for what it is, or for that
matter
what it might be. At various times Psychoanarchitechture
by Pleqq gives off the feel of a
video
game and a Sci-Fi movie all wrapped up in one. “T.M.B.,” “Chrome
Cake,” “Troika,” and
“Squid Pulp”
all giving the Beats
while thoughts of Tron and Lawnmower Man glide through our brain. Climb
inside
the computer, stroll along the inner workings of the www, listen to the
drum
machine beats bouncing off everything. The synth notes ring out within
the
echoing rhythms drenched in the trippy drama and color of
hallucinogenic vibes
stretching and morphing into, around, atop and through each other
– throw in a
dash of industrial noise, press whip and leave the cover off the
blender –
whatever splatters, splatters and whatever sticks, sticks and those
that want
to dance while covered in the Electro-Goo will have a trance-like blast
doing
so. Speaking of an
industrial/sonic, electro-dance wave pulsating you out onto the dance
floor, “Absolutely,”
with its Alan Parsons leanings, “Leisure
Loot,” doing the Acid-House thang, and “Travelog,”
with its
adventure soundtrack circling in on itself, leave it all out on the
club’s
floor for you to sweat yourself blind and skinny. Not to wear you out
completely, Pleqq drops “Ixchel”
in at the two-thirds point, taking it down a notch for a flowing
electro-ballad
that actually slips by in a bit of restructured semi-waltzy beats. Finally, “Psychotropical”
concludes the disc and our rocket ride through this futuristic
landscape of
texture and sound by touching us down on an electronicia beach, where
we are
asked to enjoy the weather in a wash of sonic haze. And, as we gaze
into the
sub particles of sound, absorbing the power shining on and sinking into
our
bodies, we soak in the aura unleashed upon us, allowing the future
through our
ears to tan our brain cells appreciatively. Pleqq
- Psychoanarchitecture
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