PBII: Plastic Soup (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

For the history, PBII, which publishes here its first album, is not an unknown band, since it succeeds Plackband, already old group and author of two studio albums at the beginning of the years 2000, passed globally unnoticed. At the beginning of 2008, 3 members of this defunct band decided to resume the adventure by adding a new bass player, while wishing to give a new musical direction to the band. "Plastic Soup" is the fruit of this new formation which still evolves in a mostly neo-progressive universe.

And indeed, listening to 'Book Of Changes', it is difficult to deny the roots. During the 8'30 of this first track, all the standards of the neo are declined: keyboards with modern and crystalline sounds, tasty guitar soli, percussive melody, and more than visible references. One thinks in particular of Marillion period "Season's End", or of Arena or Edgon Heath... Nothing new, but the whole is so well realized that the listening pleasure is immediate. And then, little by little, as the tracks go by, PBII makes its basic purpose evolve and ventures into less standardized and much more personal universes.

Thus the percussive 'In The Arms Of A Gemini' introduces a resolutely modern style, with electro sounds, the whole supported by a dynamic bass. This one is also strongly emphasized in 'Criticize'. World and jazz influences come to slip into compositions like 'Fata Morgana' and its orientalist purpose, or the UFO 'Ladrillo' and its Andalusian guitar, which we have trouble understanding its place in the global purpose. Then certainly, PBII also provides us with some more caricatural passages, such as this first part of 'Living By The Dice', pale imitation of Genesis during 3'30 ... but it is to better rebound in the continuation of the piece with a nice rise in power and a jubilant melody.

Largely superior to the productions of the first version of the band, "Plastic Soup" presents us a band that tries to dust off the neo-progressive rock by injecting a good dose of modernity, while keeping the bases and the references. Unlike their compatriots from Flamborough Head or Leap Day who too often indulge in a very stereotyped style, PBII dares to go off the beaten track, and the least we can say is that the result is really convincing. - Official website

PBII

PLASTIC SOUP

AUTOPRODUCTION

PROGRESSIVE ROCK