It’s the answer to a question nobody asked. Plastic Present represents a counterpoint to southern electronic
rock, the point being … what’s a good
electronic rock band from Florida? Never mind. Daniel Saylor lives three hours
from me over there in Orlando, and somehow he finds a way through the heat and
humidity, the tourist season, the constant construction and traffic, and the
just south-ness of Floridian life to
actually form a coherent thought, record it, and make it sound good enough to
release. Not only that, he made it sound so
good that he released it through Brighton, England, label Third Kind (one
of the best). How’s that for a
cultural surprise?
Plastic Present takes on a
lot of the characteristics of electronic Radiohead or solo Thom, but without
the constant barrage of depressing vocals. It only starts there, though, and
spirals out from there. And sometimes there are vocals, but not often. And
sometimes Saylor has help from erstwhile bandmates, but a lot of this work is
really on the solo tip. Breakbeats and synths do battle for the tonal high
ground, and both win and lose constantly, bringing about a tenuous balance that
shifts one way or the other depending on how the next track begins. A second
battle occurs between the syntheticness of sound sources and the obvious human
manipulation of it (not to mention the playing of actual instruments at points)
– the cross-section of human anatomy adorning the cover suggests that humans
win. But the “plasticness” of Plastic
Present suggests otherwise. Again, there’s no winner, but everybody wins.
So … what was the question in the first place again? No idea. What I do know is that Plastic Present is very good, and I still can’t believe it came out
of a middle-Florida swamp. A paved-over swamp, sure, but a swamp nonetheless.
PS: The last song has some rap.
https://danielsaylor.bandcamp.com/
https://thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/
--Ryan
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