Back in 2005, I remember reading a review of "Silent Alarm" by some hot new band called Bloc Party that remarked (and I'm paraphrasing here as, despite this being the internet age, I can't be bothered to go trawling for the actual article in question) that the release was less a collection of good songs and more a collection of good moments.
There are moments during Plugs' eponymous debut album when such a description feels apt. Partly it's down to the various different styles that hang over the release, infusing it with an almost "spotter's badge" feel to the listening experience. And partly it's down to the fact that, well, there are some really great bits in "Plugs", followed by some not so great bits.
When Morgan Quaintance announced his departure from bawdy nu-ravers Does It Offend You, Yeah?, it was because he "wanted to do a bit more musically and creatively, and I think that the only way I could do that was in my own group." Plugs is his own group, a receptacle for Quaintance's outpouring of creativity. This means that the album's ten tracks skitter all over the musical landscape, taking in at times revivalist post-punk, brooding dystopian electronica, and late seventies AOR. And hip-hop instrumentalism. And lo-fi fuzz rock. And psychedelic flamboyance...
Brooding electronica is perhaps the most apparent though, and not simply because it bookends the album in "Agree To Be" and "White Light". The opener drifts and flitters synthetically before washing out in an enveloping static. A track or so later, and "Rise Up" pedals doggedly for a more ambient atmosphere, albeit a deeply metronomic one that was previously occupied by Ratatat's 2004 self-titled debut, and in which murky basslines, motorik drum machines and freewheeling synths leave the middle reaches decidedly barren. Quaintance's apparent love for claustrophobic electronic soundscapes reaches a shiny pinnacle with the intermission-esque "Rainbow Bridge". Despite the name, it's a decidedly monochromatic affair that - much like "O Soundtrack My Heart", the Australian band PVT's whirringly oppressive first attempt on Warp Records - leaves the listener in no doubts as to his love for John Carpenter, Vangelis and the "sounds of the future", early eighties-style. Ditto chunky two-parter "On And On", the band's second single whose denouement offers an ode to the sleek racing synths unleashed on the world by Jean-Michel Jarre.
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That's not to say however that Plugs have forsaken pop music entirely. Whilst the decidedly catchy "Set Fire" strives to make curious bedfellows of coldwave synths, fidgety post-punk guitars and a chant-along chorus (and that's without mentioning the squelchy electro bass that Quaintance's former bandmates would have been proud of), early single "Black Microdots" leaps from syncopated organ-led deep-space prog to an immensely satisfying, soaring soft-rock fade-out (the sort that Midlake did rather well during their "The Trials Of Van Occupanther"-era). Less satisfying, unfortunately, is the odd Beatles-esque power pop of "White Lights", the sole track on the album that fails to really work at any point during its duration.
Ultimately though, "Plugs" will offer multiple enjoyable moments to listeners with different tastes, often within the same song. Yet despite the seeming disparity of influences, it's not quite the musical hodgepodge it appears on first listen, and there's enough of its own identity to keep people interested. At the same time, it would likewise be inaccurate to describe "Plugs" as Quaintance's tribute to nightmarish futurescape soundtracks. There's simply too much going on to allow for that kind of single-minded vision.
Plugs online
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