FLUX

John Chedsey (courtesy of Satan Stole My Teddybear website)

Flux is the new project by James Plotkin that replaces his previous band Old. James certainly makes some major changes to his usual sound with this album, most of which are due in part to the addition of Ruth Collins as a vocalist. Previous Plotkin material was for the most part free of all vocals, so it makes sense that his music is now drastically changed with the addition of a vocalist. Musically the album is very difficult to describ. On one hand it has a certain progressive rock feel to it that reminds me a little bit of Rush, yet on the other, it is far too off the beaten path in terms of compositional technique for that comparison. Most of the album is a collection of looped guitars, electronics, and percussion. At times it is arranged much in the same way that the Drum'n'Bass electronic movement composes their music while other tracks are very mellow and laid back. Needless to say, the entire album has a very unique sound to it that defies simple classification of pigeonholing. Flux is definitely a band that is succeeding is developing a certain sound all for themselves.

Jester (courtesy of the Sonic Boom website)

OLD guitarist JAMES PLOTKIN's solo venture into a more commercially-accessible land manages to be both musically structured in a Pop sense while being both intense listening and hard-hitting. Whether the force of this album is through studio technique or compositional prowess depends on the listener's point of view. Curiously enough, from the very first listen it struck me as being a bastard offspring of "My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts", the BRIAN ENO / DAVID BYRNE milestone album of 1981. Okay, so it most definitely lacks that album's subtlety, but has the same manic intensity. PLOTKIN should be bloody proud of himself, as this pushes boundaries in the region of almost hysterical guitar playing and a rhythmic attitude which tries to trip you over in it's strict anti-4/4 approach. "Hollow Spaces" has such a bright, flashing, dazzling sound to it - reminding me of the music GLASS uses to portray teeming city streets in COPPOLA's "Koyaanisqatsi" turned into a seductive, if crazy full-frontal overdriven pop music. The intensity hardly ever abates - even on quieter passages it waits at bay, ready to leap out like some psycho-mad hunter stalking his prey. This is music which could only be made by someone who had been born into the hustle & bustle of a thriving metropolitan concentration of humanity. If PLOTKIN aimed at a specific sound, it was at dazzling brass sections, and on the few occasions he misses, he walks into JOHN ZORN's wildcat territory. Difficult to compare easily with anything else. The mix seems to put every sound forward - I feel inclined to say louder than life. It's in-yer-face, big, brassy and braves new terrain.

Antony Burnham (courtesy of the Metamorphic Journeyman website)

Generally one tends to associate RELAPSE RECORDS with loud , very aggressive and very challenging music. That's why "Protoplasmic" came as such a surprise, as rather than being filled with in-your-face rage, this recording is instead a rhythmic collage, an excellent blend of punky minimalist Rock (not unlike that of such great but virtually unknown bands as POLYROCK and TIREZ TIREZ) combined with more Experimental textures, sort of like GLENN BRANCA toning things down and giving a close listen to early TALKING HEADS. FLUX is the combined product of JAMES PLOTKIN and vocalist RUTH COLLINS, although in truth, the guitar and electronic rhythms so completely overshadow the voices that this may as well have been an instrumental record. "Patterns Of Traffic" is wonderfully disjointed, its guitar / bass / drum trio creating sort of an early ENO meets SLAPP HAPPY, cyclic patterns with an erratic non-linear beat and a woman's spoken voice. "Hollow Spaces" is a series of overdubbed guitars paying a mix of erratic patterns, strummed electrical rhythms that seem as much Folk as it is Punk. "Unknown Codes" introduces electronic to the delightful chaos, with a HELDON-like bass line overlaid with a disjointed tempo, twanging guitar chord clouds, and a vocoded spoken male voice: definitely BRANCA meets BYRNE meets COCTEAU TWINS. "Stretched Out" is more Avant-Garde, with its cyclic rhythms being created from a mix of rumbling piano, scraped strings and disgruntled synths - it is ominous, somewhat third world, yet still very experimental and minimalist in its own perverted way. "Protoplasmic" is a sheer delight, exciting and challenging, yet familiar and comforting. It is very likely the best thing that this label has yet to RELEASE.

Review from INDUSTRIAL NATION #16

While other bands alienate their established fan base by revolutionizing their sound while retaining their name, thus guaranteeing that old fanatics will purchase the album on the basis of name recognition alone, James Plotkin provides ample warning that times have altered the style of OLD, the previous moniker of Flux. Surprisingly, _Protoplasmic_ does not drastically diverge from the path of previous OLD albums. In fact, the album can be dubbed as an "ambient pop" version of OLD's best moment, _The Musical Dimension of Sleastak_; the density has been thinned out and slowly evolving soundscapes have supplanted drastic alterations, yet both retain the same emphasis on surreal and mechanistic melodies. The addition of the stoic Ruth Collins on vocals only confirms this dehumanizing aspect, as does the dub-like percussive programming of Scorn's Mick Harris, who handles the production. While this serves to alienate the listener, it also generates the psychedelic aura of each piece. The sparse ambience only accentuates this unreality. Each melody slowly melts into space, before Plotkin's sense of repetition replicates the same melody, before once again disintegrating or supporting a completely unexpected new texture. Also, not only does the prim spoken word style (which states only the most absurd of lyrics, of course) of Collins' vocalizations appear blissfully incongruous amidst the playful melodies, Plotkin occasionally layers or repeats her voice, furthering the nihilistic inhumanity of it all. Anyway, _Protoplasm_ should satisfy most old OLD fans, while others should approach with caution, for it gets a bit odd in here.

8 out of 10

Andrew Lewandowski (courtesy of the Chronicles of Chaos e-Zine, September 14, 1997, Issue #24)