The Electric Nature - Plastic Mind

A Closer Listen

Plastic Mind is a “lost” work, unearthed and put on display by Already Dead Tapes & Records; any irony in the label’s name is unintended.  But as more and more music looks to the past for influences, the listener will only know this from the description, which also to our delight contains the words “closer listening.”  Michael Potter (The Electric Nature) made these recordings on “an old Dell computer, a half broken Squier strat, and an earbud turned microphone,” the epitome of DIY culture; kids, please do try this at home.

The album, fittingly enough, begins with “Junk,” although it’s not junk; a dialogue sample refers to “hipster b-bop junkies,” while “Baba O’Reilly” guitar lurks in the background.  Simultaneously, the guitar begins to pulse while the electronics start to flutter.  The sample shortens and repeats, eventually reduced to a single word.  After flirting with post-rock, the piece settles into a groove, an example of the artist’s dexterity.  Throughout the album, transitions will be smooth, but difficult to predict.

The warmth of vinyl crackle leads off “I Saw You in the Dead of Night,” more languid and relaxed than intimidating.  The crackle becomes the percussion, reminiscent of the trip-hop era, which was a whole ‘nuther decade before this decade-old recording.  When the layered voices arrive, one goes back even further, to 10cc’s 1975 hit “I’m Not in Love.”  A bicycle bell rings; the children are safe in the streets.  The title track references “Spirit in the Sky” (1969!) while the voiceover is reminiscent of the more recent, but backwards-leaning Public Service Broadcasting.  The broad amalgamation of influences makes Potter sound like a crate-digger and a resurrectionist, the title eerily similar to the fate of this tape, yet everything save for the sentences seems to have been recorded live.

“Shut Yr Eyes & You’ll Burst Into Flames” is the album highlight, a synth excursion punctuated by speaker-shifting dialogue samples.  The opening chords recall David Bowie’s “Heroes” before the track heads into a different, darker direction, joining the pantheon of similarly-titled instrumental post-rock tracks by Joy Eternity (2012), Kontake (2014) and Collector (2017), although this one was recorded before them, so technically The Electric Dream should have bragging rights.  By the time listeners encounter the fuzzy krautrock of the nine-minute “Space Race,” they will be infused with a sense of gratitude for this archival release.  (Richard Allen)