Labels: Unlabel
Review by: Alex Deller
Having stood tapping my watch through numerous support slots clogged with drab, pasty-faced Mogwai tribute bands over the years, I have to admit to approaching home-grown indie acts with a certain degree of caution. Sometimes these fears will prove ill-founded, as with Planquez, who’ve cheekily sent a cdr copy of their uber-limited 12″ in for review and momentarily managed to silence the grump in me. They’re by no means perfect, but these four songs bubble and groove in such an amenable manner that it’s hard not to take a shine to them. Driven by a bright-sounding bass guitar and some droll semi-spoken vocals, the music is Slintish to the extreme, with ponderous, hypnotic grooves and tightly-reigned dynamics the order of the day. The hushed eeriness of Louisville’s finest is fondled by Shellac’s measured crunch and draped with a snifter of the second Bob Tilton album, all helping serve up a mighty pleasant twenty-five minutes’ worth of listening that should warm the cockles of anyone impatiently ticking days off their calendar until All Tomorrow’s Parties rolls around the corner.