HANDMADE CITIES

PLINI Handmade Cities

Wonderful atmospheric and sometimes-djenty instrumental jazz-prog fusion from Down Under--composed and performed by Aussie legend and multi-instrumentalist, Plini, with some tremendous help on drums and bass from virtuosi Troy Wright and Simon Grove, respectively. Listening to this work repeatedly never seems to shake my tendency to compare this music to that of Canadian father-son fusion artists, Dean and Taylor Watson: the album starts and ends with more metal-influenced music like Taylor, and is filled with fine jazz-rock fusion in the middle.

1. "Electric Sunrise" (5:05) opens with layers of acoustic guitars strumming slowly on layers, which are then joined at the 1:10 mark by several electric guitars and bass. What an opening! At 1:44 the music shifts drastically into singular djenty guitar and space. That's it! But then the full number of tracks previously layered together join in for a melodic 'chorus' hook, but then it's back to sparse djenty guitar with a little electric jazz-fusion lead accompaniment (and then takeover). The song gets toward the end it gets a little heavy-handed walls of sound-ish but then it ends with the same opening soundscape. (9/10)

2. "Handmade Cities" (4:45) sounds like an extension/variation on the themes, sounds and styles of the opening song. In the second minute things shift more into 'it's own' territory with some awesome lead guitar soloing. Then, at 2:15, things quiet down temporarily with some slow guitar chord strums, but then the rest of the tracks slowly build up from heavy potential to loud kinetic energy to full-blown djent by 3:15. Lead guitar melody hook keeps it all together in this slightly confusing, cacophonous section. Still, a great song. (9/10)

3. "Inhale" (4:57) a very atmospheric song that immediately won me over and remains my favorite song on the album. Kind of reminds me of ANTOINE FAFARD's great recent stuff. (9/10)

4. "Every Piece Matters" (3:40) more laid back musical foundation with some astounding guitar and keyboard (MIDI- ed?) leads and including some chorale vocalise toward the end. Another top three song. (9/10)

5. "Pastures" (7:34) solid jazz-fusion composition in the style and sound of some of Dean Watson's beautiful music. (9/10)

6. "Here We Are, Again" (2:37) opens as a cute little effected guitar and keyboard duet before keyboard-generated orchestra and choir brings it into a Post Rock-like crescendo. (9/10)

7. Cascade (6:00) is certainly a song that showcases Plini's guitar prowess, but it also satisfies in the way that it fits modern prog soundscapes and constructs. Great piece! (9/10)

Total Time 34:38

A near-masterpiece of progressive rock music, (that I've rated down slightly for it's EP-like brevity). Definitely an album I recommend all prog rockers to check out for the wonderful production and multi-track layering accomplished here.

The first full outing from Australian guitar virtuoso Plini. Its a pretty run of the mill instrumental-only tech/extreme jazz record, with some songs like Every Piece Matters being on the jazzier side and Cascade being on the heavier djentier side. It can feel somewhat bland and overdone at some points, but the guitar work here is honestly so clean and flawless throughout that its hard not to not give it 4 stars. Definitely a heavier Jazz-fusion record, so if you're into some of the bands like Cynic but maybe can't digest the vocals or the more death metal aspects of that band than this can be a great bridge album, as it is fairly listener friendly and as I mentioned, contains phenomenal guitar work. 3.51 stars

I was introduced to PLINI by a friend a while back and I listened to this album. I thought it was just going to be Djent but what I got was great instrumental jazz rock with just a little bit of djent at certain parts. The number one thing you notice about the album is Plini's very excellent guitar playing. The album only has guitar, bass, and drums with some keyboards in the background, which makes it sound very jazz-fusion like since it only has 4 instruments max.

If you like instrumental jazz rock with some prog rock and metal thrown in, chances are you will enjoy this album.