PlasticGroove is that band with the black and white cartoon cut out masks and the suits.
When asked about the masks, one of the semi-anonymous members explained the masks were to bring the focus back to the music, not the celebrity behind the performers. The interviewer didn't ask about the suits...
The mask idea isn’t a new one; Slipknot is probably the one example from the Rock section of iTunes and Daft Punk the electro. New or not the quirky cartoon masks would set the band apart if the music ever failed to, which isn’t likely. No other band today effortlessly merges 80’s bass lines and synth with 90’s rock and metal riffs.
PlasticGroove are not destined to be one hit wonders. Each of the three singles I listened too had a different vibe, a different sound, almost a different genre entirely, yet retained a certain PlasticGroove feel. They’d do well as a live band, with their masks and danceable songs.
Strange Lands Fall
The track is very much like Pet Shop Boys, the old Pet Shop Boys, not that newish song I’m with Stupid, made famous by the lads from Little Britain. The music sounds like something off the soundtrack to ID’s 1993 DOS-based FPS shooter Doom. Dark. Ominous. Dreamy. Atmospheric and rocky simultaneously.
The video, filmed in a car park, features a Wellington Roller derby team, circling the band like sharks. Towards the end the Roller girls usurp the band, leaving the masked members to dance and groove, or in the case of the shorter one, stand there looking around.
Right Now
Right Now sounds like a punky take on Walk like an Egyptian by the Bangles with a Metallica-esque guitar solo thrown in the middle. The song ebbs and flows, hard and distorted down to quiet moments of bass and drums. A song that teases and plays, making you jump then making you wait in eager anticipation for the next jumpy bit.
The video for the song is a journey though my old home town, Wellington, cut with the band performing in their characteristic masks, their audience, or perhaps a silent member, a mannequin dressed in only a mask and a pair of pink crotchless panties.
Junky Monkey
Junky Monkey is more raw, chaotic and reverby than the other two tracks. Darker too, if you get past the allusion of a monkey as a whimsical creature and instead look as the foul beasts as the de-evolution of a human. Sort of Alice in Chains like at times. Acid Rock with a cowbell.
PlasticGroove’s tracks are available where ever you find PlasticGroove on the net. Look out for their new single Pointless this February. Show your support for PlasticGroove by liking their page on Facebook and voting for them at http://www.theaudience.co.nz/
PlasticGroove are a retro futurist Kiwi band from Wellington, New Zealand. A multi instrumentalist attack combines 80's new wave and modern rock influences into a toe tapping, head banging, butt shaking frenzy.