Music Blogs

Holly Golightly? Scottish loops'n'samples slinger Plum is a 20-something electronic-based musician with her two feet firmly planted in a zillion different camps. Plum has been described as the female Fourtet, and with good reason: Combining her naturalistic, gentle vocals and guitar with all manner of sampled and live instruments, her EP The Whispering Chamber (Summer Rain Recordings) matches the sound of coquettish woodland nymphs with sampled electronic bits ricocheting off some abandoned satellite. But beyond that natural/synthetic mold so common to the music of Fourtet, Plum also recalls English knob-twiddlers Laika, Lemon Jelly, and Plug. Give a listen, Plum will set your head reeling, and your thoughts to daydreaming mode.

"My EP The Whispering Chamber will be released on 19th November electronically," Plum wrote me late last year. "I am originally from Scotland, and am finding it a bit daunting being female (where are the rest of us in this electronic mash of testosterone?). I love to use samples I collect myself and recreate memories in my music. My music has been really well received in America, and I've had a fair amount of airplay in New York on Home Grown Radio NJ. I've had over 11,000 plays on MySpace and I've got a number of remixes in the pipeline from ex-Boards of Canada musician Christ. to Planet Mu's Frogpocket, to Singapore artist Sonic Brat. It's hard to promote yourself, but hopefully you'll have a listen--my music is soft and kind of childlike."

"Plumbada" begins with an off-kilter drum roll leading into a deep bucket wash of dub-like textures and Plum's sweet vocal, layered for ultimate doper's effect. Childlike, perhaps, if your child is knowledgeable in the ways of African rhythms and ominous soundscapes. Plum blends dulcet vibraphones, turntable squeegees and acoustic guitar on "Fairies," her spoken word narration adding a deliciously dark mood. But "Toys" may be my favorite from The Whispering Chamber, an up-tempo beat blast with what sounds like an African child's laugher filled voice looped and deconstructed, then matched with bouncy instrumentation straight offa Sheryl Crow's "All I Wanna Do."  It's an infectious track bubbling with quirky sounds and happy summer vibrations.

Plum has also released a remix EP, Glory Feast (Summer Rain). "Toys Amyl JP MC remix" is a stunner.

Plum: "Plumbada"  (MP3, 2:25)

Plum: "Toys"  (MP3, 2:56)

Ashtech's Demon Days: After Plum's sunny, friendly climes, Ashtech's midnight prowl will put the dread back in your step. Assisted by hot producer Gaudi (Bob Marley, Lamb, Fatboy Slim, Scissor Sisters, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, 1 Giant Leap), bassist/producer Ashtech mines deep dub for sinister playgrounds.

Dub, you say? Not another dub record? With so much King Tubby/Lee Scratch to choose from, whether on purchase or lifted from Soulseek, why would you possibly need more? Walking Target (Interchill) answers that logical question with beats that equal silken sledgehammers to the skull, delicate melodies wrung from Pro Tools databases, and enough Om-worthy reverb to happily launch you into deep space. Walking Target updates the old dub paradigm with thoroughly modern sounds, from the clipped snare hits of "Imaginary World" and the electro hum of "Earthforce" to the Massive Attack thump of "While The Music Plays" and "Essential Credential"'s essentially lounge riddim quotient. One seriously unlikely track, R.E.M., manages to float earwigs drilling through your ears with slow motion, oily bass and raindrops peeling through space. Weird stuff. (www.Interchill.com)