Coraline Seksinsky
WKNH Music Director
Plains are a psych punk band from Newmarket, New Hampshire. Their newest record, Peace in Restland, was released this month. They wear a simple front of guitar rock, but I think there is a lot more going on here. A sensitivity which is distorted in the literal distortion.
This release bends the temporal planes like a time machine. Fusing a seventies garage rock swagger with a modern sense air, space, and movement ala Galaxy 500. The riffs are familiar, they have a rushed cool about them.
This play between a modern day indie punk excitement and the airy sense of space is a central element to the album, which runs ten tracks of fairly short, contained tunes. The album is very tonally consistent, none of the songs really deviate from this fusion of modern air and a classic sense of rock swagger and riffage.
One might think that riffs and solos that owe a heavy debt to the heyday of muscular blues inflected rock n’ roll might mesh with the haze and wash which covers every inch of this album, but it does wonderfully.
The performances bare wonderful talent and expression. The record opens with the self-titled track, “Peace in Restland” is a lilting and sorting instrumental track nested in the ambiance of animal field recording sounds; trees rustling, birds chirping, things like that. And to the band’s complexity, this track feels more indebted to Scottish post rock master Mogwai than any of the other tracks.
They aren’t afraid to go in this experimental direction, to live in that kind of serenity before diving into the ruckus. Beyond that first track each song plays with the serene/hard hitting dynamic.
Each song offers its sweetness, a swaying pull, and a loving thrust. I was plains do their thing live last week and as an aside I must say they perform this material well. For those who love the gritty and the delicate thrust together.
For those that love riffs and really sick solos and head nodding jams. Please check out.
Coraline Seksinsky can be contacted at wknhmusic@gmail.com
