Bleep

Back in the late-90s, Plone shared space with fellow hauntological retro-futurists like Broadcast and Pram, and their debut LP For Beginner Piano (Warp, 1999) became an important piece in the development of British electronic music. However, while band members Billy Bainbridge and Mike Johnston have been active musicians over the past few years - Bainbridge as part of Seeland, Johnston both as Mike In Mono and through his work in ZX Spectrum Orchestra - Puzzlewood represents the first new Plone material of the 21st Century.

Anyone who feared that Plone might not be able to recapture the sense of carefree whimsy that defined their early work need not worry - Bainbridge and Johnston have delivered fourteen tracks of perky, playful electronic composition here. Plone eschew genre constraints across Puzzlewood in order to play dress-up in whatever style takes their fancy at a given moment. As such, they have created a record which brims with a sense of compositional adventure.

One minute we find ourselves kicking back on the same sun-lounger Todd Terje provided us with for It’s Album Time, the next we are floating on beautiful beds of synth through psychedelic-ambient pastures. In Puzzlewood’s midsection the gentle library-disco of ‘Day Trip’ gives way to ‘Just A Shadow’, a track which sounds like it could be the theme for a trippy 70s TV quiz show. No matter what sound Puzzlewood has bedded down in, all of the music here bounds out of the speakers with a cheery joie-de-vivre. This is a delightful listen which will put a spring in your step.

Full of the joys of Spring, Plone’s new LP Puzzlewood is a hugely exciting release for long-time followers of Warp, Ghost Box and British electronic music as a whole.