Plant 43 - Reflection/Reaction Parts 1, 2, 3 (Plant43 Recordings)

 

Title: Reflection/Reaction Parts 1, 2, 3 

Artist: Plant43

Label: Plant43 Recordings

Cat Number: 010, 011, 012

Genre: Electro/Electronic Nebula Circling

Pt. 1

1: Fierce Machines

2: Silent Core

3: Dark Veneer

4: Life In The Pod

Pt. 2

1: Submolecular Shifting

2: Eccentric Elliptical Orbit

3: Encased

4: The Forgotten Storm

Pt. 3

1: Tidal Flexing

2: Reflective Waves

3: System’s Edge

4: Mind Drift

These three quartets of tunes, released over June, July and August 2023, were composed by Emile Facey, aka Plant43, over the winter of 2022/23. Each edition of the trilogy is beautifully realised,  and conceptually marks the time from winter through to spring. Now I don’t know about you, but I had very little fun last winter, falling on my arse a handful of times and spending nine hours in my local A & E with a suspected broken wrist. That was in early December so, by my reckoning, somewhere amongst ‘Fierce Machines’ and ‘Silent Core. It’s a sure thing that I wouldn’t have been indulging in any break dancing in my sorry state. That’s not to say that these tunes aren’t conducive to such physical activity. ‘Fierce Machines is anyway, starting things off in a sci-fi electro boogie stylee, perfectly balanced between various shades of grey with some high end tinkling sprinkled across the top, like electro chocolate chips. ‘Silent Core’ is a much more deliberate and bass-propelled track, but it has its own brand of funk, the type you can still throw shapes to while avoiding thin ice. The pace is picked up once more by the synapse snapping ‘Dark Veneer’, and ‘Life In The Pod’ adds a flourish of apprehension. Pt. 2 opens with ‘Submolecular Shifting’, which throws more punches than Conor McGregor at a wedding, bringing us to ‘Eccentric Elliptical Orbit’, a pairing which has much in common with how ‘Pt. 1’ opened proceedings.

Like ‘Silent Core’, ‘Eccentric Elliptical Orbit’ is more an internalisation of physicality and corporeality. Something eponymously perceived on ‘Encased’ which, in spite of its narrow confines, manages to throw mind bombs. ‘The Forgotten Storm’ once more indicates a change of pace and puts the listener in a finely detailed landscape of frictional electro gloom. ‘Tidal Flexing’ opens ‘Pt. 3’  in a similar way to how ‘Pt 2’ signed off. Which is one way of building up to ‘Reflective Waves’, possibly the densest and most epic track across all three releases. It’s a piece of techno/electro drama, swirling synths and mucho big room potential, without feeling in the least bit played out. It reminds me of vintage Sterac/Steve Rachmad, so you can’t really go wrong innit. We’re back in more familiar territory with ‘System’s Edge’, which clearly nails its electro credentials to the categorisation checkpoint as well as melodically bringing the chills. I thought we were in spring by now? Definitely not if Mind Drift’ is anything to go by. We’re in a spell of prolonged cold weather with no improvement on the horizon. Rather like this shite British summer, although it’s quite nice today. Anyway, despite this slight deviation, this is a perfectly proportioned fluctuating package. I suppose what I mean by that is that the peaks and troughs are all in relative equilibrium across the three releases. Each of them are essential and on coloured vinyl, which I’ve noticed is suffering a small backlash on the socials recently. Don’t believe everything you read and treat yerselves. You won’t regret it.