Wednesday the 27th: Plini - Every Piece Matters

     Need something a little laid back for your Thursday (or Wednesday, if you're with me in maintaining the fiction that this is a Wednesday post) morning? Australian guitar wizard and friend of the blog Plini has got you covered with a tasty new single. And the best part? You can help out a good cause while you acquire and enjoy some good jams. Win-win!

     Plini has announced that all proceeds from the new single "Every Piece Matters" will go towards the Every Piece Matters initiative of charitable organization Raw Impact in support of families in Cambodia, continuing the work he started back in 2014/2015 with single "Ko Ki". So if you've got some dollars burning a hole in your Paypal account, why not send them Plini's way? And if you don't, why still spread the word and the tunes around, because the world could use more mellow and proggy jazz fusion that's doing some good on the side.

Monday: Plini - Paper Moon

     Everybody around here should already know that Mellow Monday doesn't have to mean Lame Monday, but just in case somebody still hasn't gotten that memo, let me set you straight with a little help from a master of laid-back badassery.

     Plini's latest EP, the trilogy-concluding The End of Everything, is more of the same from the Australian axeman, stylistically-speaking. But the improvement in musicianship, songwriting, and production from Other Things to The End of Everything is audible and welcome -- which isn't to say that things were sub-par to start with. Plini's just gotten that much better as he's gone along.

     And that's clearly evident in the epic "Paper Moon", an eight-minute masterpiece of proggy, jazzy grooves and sparkling melodies that goes through a couple of different changes in mood. It's one of those songs that flies by way too fast and leaves you hitting repeat, well, repeatedly. Why not do so while you join me in awaiting an LP, or even just an international tour...if you're listening, Plini...

Plini - The End of Everything

     This one's easy. So easy, in fact, that I almost can't believe I haven't done it before now. But then yesterday, as if in answer to my neglect, the stars aligned, the heavens opened up, and Plini released a new music video... of sorts.

     The latest EP from the Australian guitarist, The End of Everything, dropped last month, and silly me, I've yet to feature any of its three slices of awesome. I get to change that today, thanks to yesterday's release of a music video to accompany title track "The End of Everything".

     But remember that "of sorts" from earlier? The twist here is that the video is only partly a music video, while at the same time being partly a documenting of their process of crafting a custom guitar strap for Plini's sexy Strandberg. All the visual is secondary, however, to what's coming out of your speakers and going into your earholes, which is a suitably epic-cum-jazzy opening to the end of Plini's trilogy of EPs. Only question left is, when does the LP drop?

Monday: Trees on Mars - Ode to the Vulture

     We're still playing a bit of catch-up here at Loud Noises, and for today's belated Monday post we're going to do it with a little bit of InstruMetal Monday. What kind of instrumental metal are we dealing with this time? Get out your music blender, kids.

     Take some Scale the Summit, add maybe about a third as much Russian Circles, set your dial part-way between post-rock and post-metal, blend liberally, and you've got a rough recipe for Trees on Mars. Season that with a guest solo from none other than Plini and you've got a recipe for your Monday song.

     Have a listen to "Ode to the Vulture", a track from Trees on Mars' 2014 debut LP The Sapling. And while you're at it, have a look at it too, because today the link happens to take you to a full-band video to boot! Enjoi!

2014 Round-Up: 2015 Top Prospects

      Since we're already almost a sixth of the way through 2015, it's about goddamn time I got part 2 of my 2014 round-up posted, right? Lucky for me, none of the records I anticipate below have come out yet, but there's one or two that are right around the corner, so you'd better get reading!

Tool - ??? (???)
     I thought I'd get this one over and done with right off the bat. Everybody and their mother's dog knows that Tool operates on a much longer album cycle than virtually anybody else on the planet, but since it's been almost nine years now since the release of 10,000 Days even Maynard and company are getting to be about due for some new material. The last year or so has seen a number of rumours and vaguely enticing social media posts that seem to suggest work on a new record is ongoing, perhaps even nearing completion, but just when we might get to hear any of this new material is anybody's guess. I'll believe this one's coming when I'm holding a copy in my hand.

Uneven Structure - La Partition (summer)
     It's been nearly four years since France's Uneven Structure blew me and a lot of other listeners away with their so-much-more-than-just-djent debut LP Februus, but the band is finally putting the finishing touches on the follow-up to this masterwork of dense groove and atmosphere. The internet buzz seems to think that this one will be out by the summer, and I for one hope the internet is right for once. La Partition could well be a monster, so keep your eyes and ears peeled.

Chimp Spanner - ??? (???)
     Regular readers will know that I'm a fan of progressive instrumental music, so the prospect of new material from everybody's favourite one manimal army Chimp Spanner is something I'm 100% onboard with. 2014 saw a new track called "Aurora" unleashed upon the interwebz in demo and playthrough form, but Mr. Ortiz was otherwise largely silent, studio-wise, instead spending the year playing shows and festivals around England and across Europe. That's all well and good, but Chimp Spanner fans elsewhere in the world (read: me) are due for their own dose of Paul Ortiz, and a new record would be the perfect way for us to get it.

Blotted Science - ??? (???)
     Speaking of instrumental prog, tech supertrio Blotted Science also seem to be working on some new jams. Their 2011 EP The Animation of Entomology was an absolute beast, a labyrinthine slice of technicality and compositional virtuosity -- guitarist Ron Jarzombek utilized a "Twelve Tones in Fragmeneted Rows" system of his own design to cook up all the weird and wonderful riffs and chord progressions on the EP  (ask your music-nerd friends to explain it to you). Of course, you don't have to have a graduate degree in music theory to appreciate the madness contained on this EP, or to be excited about the prospect of further experiments from the Blotted Science laboratory.

Dance Gavin Dance - Instant Gratification (April 14th)
     By any standard of modern music you'd care to name, Sacramento post-hardcore act Dance Gavin Dance have had a pretty prolific run so far. Five studio albums, an EP, and a live record in the last eight years or so would be a good track record for any band in any genre, but for band that writes stuff that's a little heavier, a little more technical, it's downright impressive (even if DGD aren't the heaviest or the most technical band in the world...). DGD has undergone several line-up changes over the years, particularly in the vocalist department, so it's always good to get the news that the guys are back at it again with new material.

Coheed and Cambria - ??? (spring/summer 2015)
     Times flies when you're having fun, doesn't it? It seems like Coheed's stellar (pun sorta intended) double album The Afterman came out just yesterday, but second installment Descension is already two years old. Seen in this light, I guess it shouldn't surprise me that Claudio and company are gearing up for another record. Coheed and Cambria's catalogue has its ups and downs, but The Afterman was a bit of a return to form, so the prognosis (pun kind intended yet again) for album number eight looks good.

The Fall of Troy - ??? (???)
     Like Dance Gavin Dance, this is another one of those bands that tr00 metalheads might look down their nose at a little bit, but I've been a Fall of Troy fan a long time. As such, the news that they were getting back together definitely piqued my interest. The subsequent news that they might be working on new material hooked me even more. There's not a whole lot of word on what form new material might take, or when we might hear it, but the fact that singer/guitarist Thomas Erak has left his gig with Chiodos seems to bode well for a return to full-time TFOT recording and touring. The stars fell out of alignment for me a few years back when I had tickets to one of their farewell shows and the couldn't attend, so here's hoping that I'll get another shot to catch them on the road, preferably supporting a new record.

Deftones - ??? (???)
     A new Deftones record is always something to get interested in, if not excited about, and this one should be no exception. The chances of this one being the "lost" album Eros, the last recording the band did with late bassist Chi Cheng, may be slim to none, but the fact remains that Chino and Company have been pretty strong on their last couple of outings. Assuming that the band's next effort is more Koi No Yokan or Diamond Eyes than Saturday Night Wrist -- which might be a pretty big assumption, who knows -- new Deftones material could kick a surprising amount of ass.

Mandroid Echostar - ??? (???)
     As is the case with so many of the entries on this list, there's not much information to go on here -- no title, no release date, no single, nada -- but Facebook tells me that the actual recording process is indeed complete and the band has moved on to the mixing stage. These guys are not only "friends of the blog" (oh how I love being able to say that, even if it's only very loosely true), they're also stupidly good at crafting catchy, shredtastic pop-prog. Keep doing Canada proud, boys.

letlive. - ??? (???)
     I got into The Blackest Beautiful in a big way. Chief among the reasons for this is definitely the fact that, as I've said umpteen bazillion times before, letlive. feels like the successor band to perennial tease Glassjaw, and boy do I loves me some Glassjaw, especially Worship and Tribute. That album's got such a vibe, such an energy, and letlive. manages to tap into that same kind of vibe and energy in spades. I've have no idea what direction the follow-up to The Blackest Beautiful will take, nor do I even know what direction I want it to take, but I can't wait to hear it.

Tesseract - ??? (???)
     A new Tesseract record. With Dan Tompkins back in the mix. Need this Tesseract-loving, Dan Tompkins fanboy say more? No word on when this one's dropping, but in my opinion it can't be soon enough. For now I'll just have to content myself with waiting for the live album/DVD Scala/Odyssesy that's still, at the time of this writing, "coming soon".

The Ocean - ??? (???)
     I may be a bit of a latecomer to the 'The Ocean' party, but I got into the band's last record Pelagial pretty hard. Progressive post-metal with a veritable fuck-tonne of groove, and a high concept to boot? Sign me up. The guys in The Ocean have some pretty deep shoes to fill (see what I did there?) with a follow-up to Pelagial, but if they can pull it off, it would very likely be an Album of the Year contender.

Plini - The End of Everything (March 11)
     Last but most certainly not least is another "friend of the blog", namely Australian guitarist Plini, whose third EP The End of Everything will be coming out in just a couple of weeks' time. Since Plini's previous work is some of the most badass-yet-chill songwriting I've ever heard, the culmination of his trilogy of EP's is definitely something I'm looking forward to -- I've got my preorder in and everything. If guitar-based instrumental jams in which songwriting doesn't take a back seat to technicality but is rather served by it are your thing, The End of Everything should be perfect for scratching your itch. Now all Plini needs to do is stop going to school and traveling around helping people long enough to write an LP already.

     And there you have it: a small selection of upcoming and possibly upcoming albums that I'm looking forward to this year. I'm sure I've probably missed scads of records-in-progress by scads of great bands, but these are some that I've read about, or at least heard rumours about, that have got me stoked up for the next ten months or so.
     Now, you may have noticed a trend in the entries above, namely the profusion of question marks sitting in for actual album titles and release dates. You may also wonder why this profusion is so...well, profuse. In a nutshell, it's because that's the sum total of the information I have about these records. Contrary to what you might think, I have very little insider information about any of the above (read: none).
     But rather than just write about the few albums I do have solid title-and-date information for, I thought it'd be more fun to give you a cross section of some of the stuff I'm looking forward to, or just hoping for, in 2015. If even half of the aforementioned new material ends up coming out this year, 2015 is going to be nice and heavy.

James Norbert Ivanyi - Thumb Trick

     Time for something weird for your Wednesday song. Not necessarily weird enough to warrant calling it Weird Wednesday or anything, but definitely something with an interesting, and somewhat sinister sounding, vibe.

     Picture, if you will, the following: a progressive metal/heavy rock band reminiscent of Opeth, but sans Mikael's dreamy croon (ie: instrumental) and with the jazzy feel turned up to eleven. Now take the whole thing and warp it ever so slightly, just to the point that it starts getting twisted and evil-sounding around the edges.

     What you end up with is an approximation of the work of Australian one man army James Norbert Ivanyi (hey, I wonder if he knows Plini...), whose sophomore album of instrumental coolness The Matter Circumvention was unleashed back in January. The whole record is a beautifully cohesive piece, but to get a taste like the one I've just tried to describe, I'm going to recommend you start with "Thumb Trick", which should have enough brooding menace and proggy groove to whet your appetite for the rest of the record. I know it's early in the year yet, but I smell some 'Best of 2015' accolades in The Matter Circumvention's future.

Saturday: The Helix Nebula - Sailing Stone

     Will tonight be the night I finally get caught up with the Real World calendar? Read on to find out!

     My boy Plini is all over the place these days. Not content to just finish up the third EP in his badass trilogy, he's also done some guest work recently, for Skyharbor's sophomore effort Guiding Lights as well as the EP Meridian by fellow Aussies The Helix Nebula.

     The song in question is "Sailing Stone", for which the guys in the band have recently released a playthrough video, and the solo Plini recorded is about a minute in. But you shouldn't just skip ahead; no, you should really stick around for the whole thing, because it's a six-plus-minute slice of proggy instrumental metal that keeps moving the whole time and never gets boring. The next release or two from The Helix Nebula could be especially tasty.

Plini - Ko Ki

     What can I say about Australian one man band Plini that I haven't said before? Not much, except that he's doing some humanitarian work in Cambodia in the new year and could use your help.


     Plini's going to be doing some work in a village called Ko Ki, and as a bit of a fundraising effort he's a released a song by the same name. "Ko Ki" is kinda sorta par for the Plini course, but that can never really be a bad thing: sparkling guitar melodies with more than a hint of jazz fusion flavour, this time accompanied by a piano section and some seriously funkified bass.

     So check out "Ko Ki" for the latest from this Australian master, and if you've got some spare change and can help Plini help some people in need, even better.

Sunday: Plini - Tarred & Feathered

     In addition to marking the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of Russia during the second World War, June 22nd also marks my birthday. More importantly, however, at least as far as you're probably concerned, yesterday also the marked the date of birth of Australia's one man prog army Plini.

     That makes it the perfect occasion for a Plini song, no? I've already featured most of Plini's catalogue here at Loud Noises at one time or another (like I've said before, hurry up and release an LP already!) but there's a couple of tracks I've heretofore glossed over, and since Plini doesn't write a bad song, there's still enough material for me to pick "Tarred & Feathered" from last year's Sweet Nothings EP as yesterday's birthday song.

     Ever wondered what Plini would be capable of if his virtuosic jazz fusion were to be unleashed upon an acoustic guitar? Wonder no more, because "Tarred & Feathered" will give you exactly that kind of slice of fried gold.

Plini - Atlas

     Everybody's got a band or two they like that they wish would more productive (*cough* Tool? *cough*) so it's always good to see a kind of flip side to that coin, namely an artist that's always cranking out new stuff like it's going out of style.

     Australia's Plini is thankfully one of the latter types of musician, a guy who's always putting out something new. If you've been reading Loud Noises for a while you've probably heard Plini by now, but if you haven't you're in luck because he's got a tasty new track out.

     "Atlas" has all the virtuosic guitar work and sparkling melodies one should expect from Plini's work, and is even a little "heavier" than a lot of his stuff. There's even a part, around 2:05 or so, that easily ranks as the most metal riff of Plini's catalogue. Note to Plini: please quit teasing me and release an LP already!

2013 Round-up: Loud Noises Ten Best of 2013

     Well, it's finally time to sit down and look back on the year that was and celebrate the fact that 2013 was a very strong year for heavy music of every stripe. My belief that we shouldn't judge a year until it's actually done, coupled with my very gradual (read: glacial) working pace over Christmas, has put me several weeks behind where I originally intended to be on this, but now that 2013 exists only in our memories, and I've got all my ducks in a row, I'm ready to jump on the bandwagon of musical criticism (every other metal website out there has of course had their "Top X of 2013" lists up for, like, two months now).

     Now, before you read the following list and then explode with rage at my selections, let's establish right now that these are my personal favourites from last year, the albums that I would say I spent the most time listening to and enjoying. I am in no way saying that these are definitively or objectively the ten "best" albums from 2013. Yes, the words "Ten Best" do appear in the title of this post, but in the context of being the Loud Noises Ten Best, not the Ten Best. So there. I refuse to take any responsibility for any butthurt you might incur from the omission of your favourite band or album.

     So, without further ado, and in no particular order, please enjoy the Loud Noises Ten Best albums of 2013.

- Tesseract - Altered State
     Tesseract's first LP One left me such a fanboy that I probably would have lapped up new material like a cartoon cat with a saucer of milk regardless of its quality. What good fortune then that follow-up full-legnth Altered State is so goddamned awesome. Call it metal, call it prog, call it djent if you feel you must, but whatever label you choose to apply to Tesseract, you can't deny their infectious groove and rhythmic power. More than perhaps any other band represented on this list, Tesseract are a band you can put on for your non-metal head friends and still reasonably expect them to enjoy it. Yeah, you read that right: Tesseract are an accessible metal or "heavy" band, but in a way that renders "accessibility" a good quality instead of a dirty word.

- The Ocean - Pelagial
     If you'll pardon the nautical pun, Pelagial is album with a very deep concept. The idea, if I understand things correctly, is that the sonic journey of the album from start to finish is supposed to represent or replicate the experience of descending into the depths of the ocean. Of course, Pelagial doesn't adhere to this template rigidly, but rather does so just enough to sketch out the concept's bones. The prettier, prog-rockier early parts of the record, replete with piano parts, give way to denser, more prog-metally parts, and things get doomier mood-wise as we get further down. Interestingly, Pelagial is also one of several albums I've come across lately (another being Tesseract's Altered State from above) that come with both a regular version of the album and an instrumental one. Regular readers will know I'm a fan of instrumental music, but it's a true testament to The Ocean's songwriting and musicianship that Pelagial is just as enthralling without any vocals at all.

- Revocation - Revocation
     Thrash is dead! Long live thrash! I've heard the whole movement of which Revocation can be considered part called retro-thrash, or re-thrash, but there's nothing retro about the Boston band's badass sound. What Revocation plays is decidedly modern thrash, an evolutionary leap forward from the kind of metal bands like Metallica used to play back in their heyday. And yet, Revocation has a classic feel too, like it would be at home alongside any era of fast and furious metal. Revocation is also one of those albums that satisfies with its own awesomeness at the same time that it whets the appetite for more awesomeness to come. Songs like "The Hive", "Archfiend", and "Invidious", to name just a few, make me very excited to hear what Revocation will come up with next time out.

- letlive. - The Blackest Beautiful
     Yet another year has gone by without a major new release from post-hardcore legends Glassjaw, making them the genre's equivalent of Tool in terms of productivity. An album like The Blackest Beautiful, however, is enough to make you say "go ahead and take your time, Glassjaw". I don't know that everybody would agree with me on this one, but I really feel that letlive has the vibe of a "spiritual successor" to Glassjaw, especially with The Blackest Beautiful. They've got the same blend of energy, aggression, and pop sensibilities and vocal stylings. Glassjaw's Worship and Tribute is still a classic, but letlive might have crafted the modern equivalent in The Blackest Beautiful. And if they haven't done it here, their next album is going to slay.

- Misery Signals - Absent Light
     This one is a little like Tesseract's Altered State, in the sense that I've been a Misery Signals fan for a long time and would probably have been satisfied with just about whatever Misery Signals came up with. I don't know if it's possible to re-bottle the lightning of earlier Misery Signals albums (2008's Controller is still my favourite) but Absent Light is still a rock solid balance between the dense technicality of Misery Signals' more recent work and the earnest aggression of their early stuff. As a supporter of the band's Indiegogo campaign, I for one am fully satisfied with the album that the band came up with, and would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

- East of the Wall - Redaction Artifacts
     A word I often like to use about the sound and style of the band above, Misery Signals, is "dense". This is a word that could also be applied to East of the Wall's latest, Redaction Artifacts. "Dense" in the sense that there's so much going on. If you read even the occasional post around here, you'll know I like to try and compare bands to other bands, to help all of you get a bit better handle on things before you press play. East of the Wall had me stumped, and in the best possible way. Redaction Artifacts is unorthodox, but not inaccessible, technical, but not overly so, disharmonious, but not amelodic... I could keep pulling juxtapositions out of my ass all day, but a better use of your time would be to just go on Youtube and find out for yourself exactly why East of the Wall and Redaction Artifacts resist my attempts at classification and description.

- Anciients - Heart of Oak
     As I've made clear in an Anciients Song of the Day, Heart of Oak is a hard album to pin down. It's a well-forged alloy of Mastodony post-metal, Opethian prog, straight-up death metal, and healthy helpings of classic metal and rock. Sprinkle in some impressive drum work, some vocal variety, and some truly tasty guitar leads, and you've got a delicious brew that is, incredibly, only the debut LP from this Vancouver band. I can only imagine what a little maturity will do for a band that's already this technically sophisticated.

- Plini - Other Things
     I don't know if it's cheating a little or not to include an EP on my list of ten best "albums" of last year, but I don't really care. Plini is an incredibly talented guy, and he's put out some incredibly rad music in the past year, but his first EP Other Things was how I initially discovered his work, and of all his releases so far it's the one that's spent the most time coming out of my speakers since I got it. More than almost any other act on this list, I can't wait to hear what's next from this rising star, and that's saying something. It'll be absolutely criminal if Plini doesn't eventually get huge.

- Protest the Hero - Volition
     Another longtime favourite of mine, Protest the Hero could almost do no wrong on this one. Me and thousands of other Indiegogo contributors basically said (or gambled) as much when we threw scads of money into a Protest-shaped hole in the internet. News of drummer Moe Carlson's departure disheartened as much as word of his session replacement Chris Adler excited. In the end, we needn't have worried about a thing: Protest's technicalilty is still top notch, and while the prog is dialed down, the songwriting is dialed way up. These are some of the best songs -- not collections of cool riffs and parts strung together -- of the band's career.

- Circles - Infinitas
     The debut LP from Australia's prog-djent darlings Circles demonstrated that not only can the band craft riffs but songs as well. That was the thing about the band's 2011 EP The Compass: it was full to the brim with tasty riffs and bits, but the songs weren't always cohesive wholes so much as these riffs and bits strung together serviceably (sound familiar? *cough* Protest the Hero *cough*). Don't get me wrong, I really really dig The Compass, but for the most part you can't really build any kind of a career with just a good collection of riffs. You need some solid songs. Circles seems to think so too, as they brought an album's worth of solid material to the party with Infinitas. With initial outings as strong as The Compass and now Infinitas, this is yet another case of me being well stoked to hear a sophomore LP.

     Aaaaannnnd there you have it. Not exactly ringing in the new year punctually, but as they say, better late than never. Right? Right?!

CHON - Knot

     I've considered featuring today's band before, but for whatever reason I've never gotten around to giving them their day of song. Tonight I intend to rectify this glaring oversight.

     Jazzy tech band CHON come recommended from varied corners of the interwebs, from Heavyblogisheavy to Plini himself. Everybody seems to dig this proggy outfit from San Diego, and with good reason: their stuff is intricate and complex while still being replete with laid-back grooves.

     What better time to finally make good on my intentions to let you know about CHON than now, given the upcoming release of the band's EP Woohoo early in February? That's why tonight's song is "Knot" the first song released off of Woohoo. It's a quick, jazzy look at the kind of thing CHON is all about.

Plini - Orm

     My boy Plini has been busy this year. Not only has he released a pair of stellar EPs in March's Other Things and October's Sweet Nothings, he's also teamed up with British guitarist extraordinaire Sithu Aye to put out a split EP I at the end of November.

     The styles of these two very talented guitarists are perfectly matched: virtuosic technicality, jazz, rock, and metal influences, and instantly catchy melodies. If the back of the disc's sleeve didn't let me know who did what (including some guest spots from fellow axemen David Maxim Micic and Jakub Zytecki) I'd be hard pressed to tell who wrote which song, a testament to the blend of melody, groove, and skill exhibited by both guys.

     That said, I think I'm still giving the Plini the edge as my personal favourite, and not just because he deigned to answer some questions from little old me. Your song this evening, therefore, is the EP's opening track, "Orm", a Plini contribution with guest solo by Sithu. I sincerely hope that Plini can keep up this pace of musical output, because if he can, 2014 should be a very good year for Australian instrumental guitar music.

Plini - Away

     Since I received my copy of Plini's new EP Sweet Nothings in the mail today, we're going to stay the instrumental, somewhat jazzy course tonight and feature a track from Australia's most underrated export.

     The entirety of Sweet Nothings features oodles of Plini's fretboard-melting guitar work, so picking a song today is kinda hard, but in the end the weird groove of the main riff to "Away" has my vote. Labyrinthine and relentless, it drives the song forward like a intricate, mellow train. It would be right at home in a metal song, but instead Plini gives it a different, laid-back intensity. If that makes any sense.

     The only problem for you is that I can't seem to find an upload of just this track, so you'll have to listen to the whole EP stream to hear what I'm talking about. Oh wait, that's not a problem at all.

Song of the Day: Plini - Other Things

     I'm not going to make it a theme week or anything (largely because I can't sustain this hellish pace) but today we've got another song from a band... ahem, artist with a new release coming out this October. It's going to be a good month.

Song of the Day: Dead Letter Circus - Lodestar

     Australia is home to some really cool music right now. Just ask Plini, Closure in Moscow, or everybody's favourite, Karnivool, to name just a few.

Song of the Day: Plini - Cloudburst

     We've already established that it was my birthday yesterday (it's cool that you didn't get me anything), but I wasn't the only one symbolically aging a year yesterday while really only celebrating the passage of another day. No, I was in pretty good company.

Song of the Day: Plini - Selenium Forest

     As you may or may not have noticed, the second installment in what will hopefully become a long running series of Twenty Questions Q & A posts went up this afternoon. In it I asked a few (twenty, actually) questions of none other than Australia's Plini, a very talented guitarist/songwriter I've featured before here in the Song of the Day.

Twenty Questions - Plini

I feel like I should open this post with something about striking while the iron is hot, but that saying has always bothered me a little. Sure, I get what it's getting at and everything, but even without being a blacksmith I can tell you that if you're striking the iron while it's cold you don't quite grasp how the process works. (And yes, smithing enthusiasts, I do know about cold working.)

Anyways, my point, if you'll allow me to mix metaphors here, is that I'm going to strike while the iron is hot and keep the ball rolling along here in the land of the newest Loud Noises feature, Twenty Questions.

Today we're doing some traveling, from Canada to Australia, from rockin' prog to smooth instrumental guitar work, and from Mandroid Echostar to Plini.



 LN: For any of my readers who aren’t familiar with you, who are you, where are you from, and what do you do?

P: Hello. I’m a 20 year old architecture student from Sydney. But I spend a lot of my free time sitting in front of a computer writing geeky guitar music pretending I’m a rock star 

LN: Plini is an interesting sobriquet. As a student of ancient history I have to ask: is Plini a reference to either of the ancient scholars named Pliny? What’s the story behind your nom de guerre?

P: It’s my first name on my birth certificate! Named after a character (not either of the Roman dudes) in a book my mum was reading. Apparently Pliny the Elder is also the best beer in the world but I haven’t tried it :( 

LN: Your musical style has a variety of facets to it – melodic, heavy, jazzy, not-so-heavy... What or who would you say are some of your influences?

P: So much stuff, way too much to list but the stuff that probably comes out in my playing the most obviously would be all my guitar heroes - John Petrucci and Dream Theater, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Opeth, Guthrie Govan, Tosin Abasi... and more recently Jakub Zytecki and the dudes from CHON and Corelia. On the lighter side, Little Tybee, Django Reinhardt, Jon Gomm... it’s pretty much an endless list haha. 

LN: How does the fact that Plini is basically just you impact on your ability (or even desire) to tour?

P: I would love to play live and eventually tour, I know a bunch of really talented players who I could probably convince to learn my stuff, but with studying full time I don’t have the time or drive to really do it... yet. But some day I’d love to for sure. 

LN: On that note, just how solo a project is Plini? How solo would you like to keep it/do you intend to keep it?

P: I might eventually have session players for all the other instruments, but at the moment I like doing everything myself (other than guest parts, which are super fun to get cos there are so many people around the world whose playing I love). 

LN: What about vocals? What influenced your decision to have Plini be an instrumental project?

P: When I sing I sound like a dying animal, so it was a pretty easy decision to keep my voice away from everything. I do love vocals though so I’m gonna work with some awesome singers on some things and plan to do a lot more of that! Might eventually put some time into my own voice but not for a while... 

LN: What’s the Australian music scene (or the scene in your part of the country) like right now? Anything you’re really into, or that you think the rest of us should know about?

P: The other day my good friend Jake (who plays in 2 of my favourite metal bands, The Helix Nebula and Point Below Zero) showed me Maze, a local band who broke up a while ago but their EP “Empires & Endings” is one of my favourite things at the moment. Their singer Tobias (who I’m definitely gonna work with soon) started a new band with Northlane’s drummer called Glass Ocean, who sound realllllly promising. Other Aussies I love at the moment - Absent Hearts (a great Australian dude named Scott’s collaboration with Dan Tompkins who used to sing for Tesseract), and of course Karnivool, one of my fave bands of all time for sure. Karnivool’s singer’s other band Birds of Tokyo is also amazing. I don’t really know about the Australian music scene in terms of what’s ACTUALLY popular but I love all these dudes and there seems to be quite a lot of talent coming out. 

LN: I really like the cover art for Other Things. It says on the back of the EP that the art was done by Alex Pryle at Dead Crown Design, but perhaps you can talk a little more about the design itself. Was it all Alex, or did you have some input? Is it connected thematically/emotionally/conceptually somehow with the content of the EP?

P: It was pretty much all Alex, I said I wanted a handwritten font, I can’t remember who suggested having the heart and moon and trees and cogs... feels like we both came up with the same ideas at the same time and he just made it happen. I had some very minor changes to suggest like the colour tone of the front cover (“make it more like sunset... now make it less like sunset...”) and I told him to put the guy and girl from the front cover together on the disc... but I feel like he basically inserted himself into my brain and made exactly what I wanted before I really knew. As for connections, the objects refer to the song titles, I feel like the overall atmosphere is a pretty good representation of the music too. Can’t say enough good things about Alex, really great dude! 

LN: Other Things is a pretty solid debut EP if you ask me. What’s next for Plini?

P: It’s the first part of a trilogy of connected EPs that I’d like to release this year, whether the third part comes out at the end of this year or the beginning of next year I don't know but the second part will be out within the next couple of months. I’ve also got another EP, a split EP/collaboration with a good buddy of mine coming out probably before the sequel to Other Things. Then after that I have so much shit planned/sketched out that I want to do... Eventually I want to do a full length album but I don’t want it to just be a collection of 10 songs so it’d be something huge I spend a lot of time on... 

LN: Have you had any interest from any labels? Is that something you’re interested in/looking for, or are you content to stay indie and continue distributing your stuff online via means like Bandcamp?

P: A few have contacted me, small indie labels, but what they can offer isn’t that much of a step up from what I can do myself with the help of all the lovely dudes in bands far more popular than me that help spread the word and share my music. Plus I’m all over the place with the ideas I have for releases and release strategies so I like having it all in my own hands. Hand addressing CD envelopes isn’t the most fun thing I’ve ever done in my life, but the fact that there are people around the world who are buying my music is so ridiculously astonishing, that makes it fun :) 

LN: Speaking of labels and the ‘industry’ part of the music industry, what is your take on the success of indiegogo campaigns to crowdfund albums by bands like Protest the Hero and Misery Signals? Does it give you any ideas?

P: I was so happy to see how far over their goal Protest went, they’re a favourite of mine (Mis Sigs too) not only for their music but they seem like really friendly, honest people. I’d consider doing something like that at a way smaller scale, just pre-orders to fund the printing of CDs or merch really... but I’ve saved up and bought the gear that I think is enough to write and record and produce; I don’t think I’d do something like that to fund going into a studio to record because I don’t think for what I do, I need that level of equipment or budget. Maybe one day I can get an orchestra on a CD though... 

LN: What are your thoughts on Google Play?

P: Don’t know anything about it honestly, when I signed up to get my stuff on itunes and spotify, it was an option, but had an extra fee which I didn’t want to pay because my music is ultimately meant to be free anyway... I guess I should check it out if it’s gonna the next big thing in music sharing though 

LN: OK, a couple of quicker ones, some of which may also be sillier as well. Star Wars or Star Trek? Why?

P: Haven’t seen Star Trek, grew up with Star Wars and I love every single movie, including the prequel trilogy. And I’m sure I’ll love the new Disney trilogy too haha 

LN: Pat Metheny or Michael Hedges?

P: Not familiar with Michael Hedges but I’m a big fan of Pat Metheny! 

LN: Who’s your favourite classical historian, and why?

P: I don’t know my classical historians as well as my guitarists, but there is a lot of valuable stuff in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy that I think a lot of people today could (and should) learn from. 

LN: If you could make everyone stop what they’re doing and listen to one song right this minute, what song would it be?

P: Human Nature by Michael Jackson, if not the original then the Bad Rabbits cover. You can’t listen to that song and not be happy and I think people should stop what they’re doing and be more happy 

LN: If you could ask any member of any band any question, who would it be and what would you ask?

P: Either Guthrie Govan, can we jam and record together... or Hans Zimmer, can I come to your studio and have you write orchestral arrangements for me? :) 

LN: Dream Tour: who would you open for, or who would open for you?

P: I think I would die if I got to open for Dream Theater. More realistically though I think it would be super fun to go on tour supporting my boys in The Helix Nebula or Corelia or CHON. If I were touring and got to choose an opening act I would want either a ridiculously talented solo act like Jon Gomm, or a super fun/tight band like Dirty Loops. It would also be amazing to be part of a G3 type thing. So in answer to your previous question about touring, yes I really would LOVE tour someday haha. 

LN: Almost done. What have you been listening to lately?

P: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ album “The Heist” is one of my favourite recent albums, alongside Little Tybee’s “For Distant Viewing” (cutest music ever), Tesseract’s “Altered State” (their new singer rules), Disperse’s “Living Mirrors” (for me Jakub Zytecki is the most exciting young guitarist alive right now), Letlive’s “Fake History” (catchy as fuck), The Dear Hunter’s “Migrant” (they are way too good at writing songs), Zedd’s “Clarity” (favourite producer at the moment), Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack for “The Holiday” (I wish I could write romantic comedy soundtracks), The Dillinger Escape Plan’s “One of Us Is the Killer” (you can’t go wrong with TDEP) ... and these are just in the last week really... 

LN: Last one! What’s your favourite metal album of all time?

P: Way too fuckin hard to say! Got into metal with bands like Lamb of God and Trivium, then onto Meshuggah and Opeth and Dream Theater... I guess Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence by DT would be up there but this question is unfair, you can’t spring something like this on me at the end of an interview!



And there you have it. Just like last time, big thanks/shout out to Plini for taking the time to give me some great answers to what I hope were some halfway decent questions. If this is the first time you're ever hearing about this Plini fellow, make sure to check him out on Facebook, Bandcamp, Youtube, and SoundCloud (among other places) to find out what all the fuss is about. You'll be glad you did.

Like last time, I'll offer a few thoughts that occurred to me while reading Plini's answers before we go:
- Plini is a very cool first name.
- Neither Plini nor any of you out there should feel discouraged in the slightest if you're not up on your classical historians. Trust me, it's information that, much to my dismay, isn't exactly the most useful in everyday life.
- It's very interesting to me that both of the people I've interviewed so far have advocated Michael Jackson songs. Two data points does not a statistically viable study make, but that's still 100% of Twenty Questions respondents so far.

Until next time, stay frosty everyone.  

Song of the Day: Plini - Moonflower

     Short and sweet defines today's Song of the Day post: short little post for a (relatively) short little song.