Search - Plaid :: Rest Proof Clockwork

Plaid are making the only truly timeless techno music.

10/14/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

" Unless you count Bjork, who appeared on last year's overwhelming Not For Threes. This album isn't quite as indelible as that masterpiece, featuring too many Electric Boogaloo / Herbie Hancock funk-downs for my taste ( which runs more toward the oneiric and otherworldly ) but the decision NOT to include famous chanteuses this time out was a good one, as Plaid's music is always at its best and most unsettling when stripped of comfortingly familiar presences. The bottom line: If you're a newcomer to Plaid buy Not For Threes first. Then take a plunge and buy Black Dog's Spanners by the same musicians -- the most Mozartean, well-structured electronic music I've heard. Then you'll be ready for the after-dinner mint which is Rest Proof Clockwork."

Wise, witty and wonderful

09/01/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In their previous incarnation as two thirds of The Black Dog, Plaid's Ed Handley and Andy Turner helped create the godlike Spanners, the crowning achievement of Sheffield's beeps 'n' beats movement and Nevermind's only serious competition for Best Album of the Decade. They've never been as in-yer-face as Britbeat crossover successes like Fatboy Slim or The Chemical Brothers, but their music is wise, witty and wonderful. The follow-up to 1997's 'Not For Threes' is achingly beautiful in the way that only Plaid can be. As usual, they have so many great tunes at their disposal they frequently use more than one during a single song, mixing up heartwarming electro and smoky dub with jungle beats and funky off-the-wall rhythms. The titles - spellcheck nightmares like Shackbu, Ralome and Pino Pomo - are as opaque as the music is soulful and sexy; the gorgeous melodies are the sound of boxfuls of techno ping-pong balls bouncing down flights of musical stairs; the electronica is so warm and welcoming you want to lie down and take a bath in it. The world feels like a better place after you've listened to Rest Proof Clockwork."

Diverse but superb.

Mons | Norrpan | 01/23/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Plaid make remarkably good electronic music. Not quite as 'rock n roll' as Aphex Twin , cerebral as Autechre or funky as, say, Jimi Tenor. Plaid occupies some middle ground that leans a bit towards AOE Adult Oriented Electronica, or if you will, a more Burt Bacharach version of Richard D James (which is meant as a compliment, by the way). Rest Proof Clockwork is stylistically VERY diverse, which I think is a bit of a disadvantage. Shakbu and Little People are all jumpy, scratchy hip-hop slices with a rich, ambient topping; Ralome is a beautiful, guitar-propelled ambient piece that wouldn't sound out of place on a Pat Metheny album. Tearisci is VERY reminiscent of Erik Satie while Last Remembered Thing sounds like an outtake from a Caustic Window album. There are also tracks that sound like loungy film music, tracks that are 'ethno' in a marimba sort of way (like a refined Orb) and tracks that simply defy description.
Rest Proof Clockwork straddles a wide range of styles and influences and therefore is somewhat lacking in homogeneity. BUT the quality of the music is consistently superb. One feels that behind the gadgetry, software and men-in-white-coats image that a lot of Electronica conjurs up, there are great composers of music ready to burst out of the electronica straightjacket chrysalis like butterflies. Plaid then are probably one of Warp's more polished acts and if you are a Warpy kind of music fan, deserve your listening attention at the earliest possible opportunity. If I have any complaints it's the anonymous-sounding name and the ridiculous album titles."