Wonder Wonderful Wonderland

Plasticlands' evolution from 84’s Colour Appreciation to this mind warp in 85 was remarkable.  Totally psychedelic, way beyond other bands with similar chemical allegiances, this album was a brilliant commentary of acid fuelled dementia, beautifully moulded by producer Paul B. Cutler.

‘No Shine for the Shoes’ kicks things off with tripped out lyrics, reminding me a heavy-duty mushroom meltdown.  Glenn Rehses' vocals sounding a little like a sympathetic cheese grater.  ‘Gloria Knight’ follows a simple enough (in theory) sixties tune with intense sound effects and distortion.  The album was obviously a well-crafted creation, a long way ahead of other sixties influenced garage bands.  This band re-defined psychedelic.  This becomes apparent with the next track ‘Transparencies, Friends’ which travels into the land of the paranormal/ghosts in a song with tripping harmonic vocals (with organ) adding to the intense mystery of the track.  ‘Fairyland Hysteria’ kicks off with a huge feedback wail, followed by a thunderous guitar onslaught with great harmonies and chorus adding up to an engaging few minutes about hallucinations of grandeur.

‘Don’t Let It All Pass By’ is arguably the most lysergic of the tunes on this album.  Vocal interplay over-topping a beautiful organ sound.  ‘The Gingerbread House' closes off Side 1, once again focusing on a tripped-out excursion into the land of demented Grimm Brothers fairy tales.  The song first sounds enticing, which leads the childlike listener into a house, where of course a very nasty witch lives inside, whose bad karma is described through fuzzed out guitars and paranoid and edgy vocals.

“Flower Scene" starts off Side 2, with the most overtly pop influenced slice of psychedelia on the album.   This is a great tune with clever changes in texture and great bass interplaying with sophisticated backing vocals.  ‘Process of the Silverness’ works well enough being a more standard 60’s like song (only weirder).  It’s basically another fuzzed out extravaganza, technically spot on and sounding like no other band.  They would have been as heavy as fuck live.  ‘Non-stop Kitchen’ sounds like a disco track gone mad.  Rehse singing about tripping in his kitchen and getting attacked and overwhelmed by all his kitchen appliances - especially the spoons.  The song works OK if you get off on funky bass, drums and minimal guitar with some great fuzz at the end.  ‘Grassland of Reeds and Things’ is a very odd piece of psychodrama, probably with African percussion put into the pot, this song may have been recorded late at night with the studio filled with hash smoke and incense (maybe).  ‘Gloria Knight (Reprise)’ sounds like filler to me - fuzzed out filler of course.  The album closes with ‘Wonder, Wonderful, Wonderland’, a similar sounding tune to the 'Gingerbread House’ without the old witch to put you off your game.  This is a lovingly crafted masterwork.  Plasticland really were amongst the best of their generation and it is a sad world to see them remain relatively obscure and unknown.

james_jones

Plasticland

Curve ball into the psychedelic 80's 

Plasticland

Hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Plasticland emerged at a time when a new breed of East Coast and Midwest bands was reviving interest in '60s garage rock, while in California a handful of group’s embraced psychedelia and folk-rock under the banner of the paisley underground. But even though Plasticland had a fair amount in common with both movements, at heart they were following a very different path -- at their best, Plasticland aspired to be the first American freakbeat group, seeking to re-create the brief but memorable era when British and European bands were mashing up R&B, proto-punk, and psychedelia into a gloriously volatile formula. Kicking off their debut album with a fuzz-laden cover of the Pretty Things' "Alexander," Plasticland were not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeve, and this album manages the remarkable feat of sounding powerfully addled and psychedelic with practically no hippie vibe to be found; the songs are superb evocations of classic freakbeat, roaring forth with soaring melodies that occasionally go into minor-key skydives and are punctuated by chimes, toy pianos, autoharps, or whatever arcane music-producing devices were on hand at the moment. "Disengaged from the World," "Sipping the Bitterness," "Pop! Op Drops," and "Euphoric Trapdoor Shoes" are as good as any of the vintage singles that influenced Plasticland, and the band's production is savvy, making use of classic engineering techniques that serve the songs well without allowing their paisley nostalgia to drown out the melodic elements of the songs. Most bands as preoccupied with a certain moment in rock & roll history tend to find themselves hoisted by the petard of their own obsessions, but Plasticland is that rare example of one such band getting it exactly right, and these speedy acid fantasies are a very potent good time.