Plini – ‘Handmade Cities’ [Review]
Instrumental guitar fans: Lend me your eyes. You know Animals As Leaders? They’re pretty sick, right? Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes know their shit. It’s pretty undeniable.
Glad we agree on that. Now, you know Steve Vai? Pretty insulting question, I know. Sorry. The guy’s a universe-class legend. Again, that’s just a straight plain fact.
Now, imagine Animals As Leaders teaming up with Vai for an entire album, calling in occasional cameos from Allan Holdsworth and his and Vai’s extensive back catalogue of virtuosic collaborators. Excited, moist, tumescent – the simple thought of that dream becoming a reality is guaranteed to make you at least one of those things. Good news ahead…
It’s already a reality.
Plini has made it so.
Handmade Cities is going to blow your mind. A little bit of kind-of-bad-ish-but-not-really news: Animals As Leaders, Vai, Holdsworth and co weren’t actually involved in the making of this album. But that’s not that big a deal, because Plini has assimilated all of the above and more into a fucking insane style of his own – and his backing team, comprised of bassist Simon Grove and drummer Troy Wright, deserve to rise to the same heights as Bryan Beller, Jeremy Colson, and the other musicians who share stages with said legends.
If life were a game of Pokémon Go and Plini were a Pokémon, it would take thousands of Plini Candies to get him to evolve this far. Electric Sunrise immediately throws down the gauntlet to those obsessed with working out time signatures before dealing out djent-spiked gut punches; Handmade Cities features some sexy-complex funk amid tumultuous chaos; Inhale leans hard on the Holdsworth for a solid chill without sounding derivative; and Every Piece Matters chugs and uplifts in equal measure. Then Pastures drops Dream Theater and Devin Townsend into an already incredible lineup of notable influences; three-minute breather Here We Are Again brings in solemn strings, Flying Lotus-esque electronic elements, and epic classical swells; and Cascade includes fragmentary nods toward Mattias Eklundh and Guthrie Govan while bringing proceedings to a close…and that’s it.
Seven tracks running over thirty-five minutes may be short for an album, but instrumental music tends to be most effective in moderation. Clearly aware of that point, Plini has made sure Handmade Cities doesn’t outstay its welcome. The result is nothing short of outstanding.
Handmade Cities is going to make you laugh in disbelief. It’ll also make you cry and think and gurn and do this:
Ultimately, Handmade Cities is nothing less than flawless. You can easily hear the love and passion that’s been poured into it, but there’s something more in there too, something intangible yet transcendent, something that will always remain beyond words. Whatever that thing is, it’s made Handmade Cities one of the best instrumental guitar albums I’ve ever heard.
TMMP RATING: 100% (I couldn’t think of a reason to drop even a single percentage point here. Essential Fucking Listening!)
What do you think of Handmade Cities? Let me know via Twitter here.
For more Plini-flavoured goodness, check out my (extremely tongue-in-cheek) review of The End Of Everything here.