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Pia Fraus is a young Estonian group who have managed to impress the critics in a short amount of time. In Solarium, the band's 2002 album, was hailed by many as a pop masterpiece. Plastilina is a not a new release, but rather a collection of tracks culled from the band's debut album Wonder What Its Like. One composition ("Deep Purple Girl") was re-recorded for this EP...and a hidden bonus track is also included (a "sanfu remix" of "Summer Before Spring"). Plastilina features wonderfully refreshing upbeat pop that accentuates this band's flair for writing catchy tunes and presenting them with style. This EP is undoubtedly intended to whet folks' appetite for the band's next full-length. [Rating: 5]
reviewed by: Babysue LMNOP Reviews |
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After their successful and impressive 'In Solarium' CD of last year, Estonia's leading shoegazer/dreampop band return here with a collection of some of their earlier pre-'Solarium' tracks. And this stuff seems lighter, upbeat, and more pop-oriented than the later work, rendering regards for bands like LUSH and STEREOLAB rather than MY BLOODY VALENTINE. It's a fun and cool sound, if a bit derivative, with richly melodic, multi-layered female vocal harmonies and cheery keyboard textures adding to the wall-of-sound guitars. Pleasant, airy, and definitely a good summertime listen for those wanting something to bop around the house to!
reviewed by: Godsend Online |
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Fans of Loveless-caliber dream pop have been suffering for what seems like ages. There have been a slew of hopeful contenders vying to fill this aching void, but never too much success -- and certainly none have made their contribution to the genre stand out as their own independent piece of work.
With 2002's full-length In Solarium, the members of Pia Fraus gave fans of groups like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, and early-'90s Ride what they had been waiting for. And, being the considerate folks from Estonia that they are, the band is not making its newfound fans wait too long for a follow-up to its debut effort. The Plastilina EP brings together five tracks from Pia Fraus' limited-run demo disc, Wonder What It's Like, which drip with the same sickeningly sweet pop harmonies that would be found in the band's later work, layered deep with spacey, noisy guitar work and enough reverb to give depth without going overboard. Hand-picked by the band as its favorite early tracks, these songs show the promise that would soon be realized with the 2002 release -- and to think that the average age of the group was only 19 at the time of recording! reviewed by: Jennifer Jones for Venus |
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Yet another super-young band, Pia Fraus is a shoegaze-loving group of 6 who create music that is perfect for summertime. On last years In Solarium, they let loose with 10 glossy tracks that totalled up for a brisk 36 minutes of music. Their guitars shimmered like they'd studied Kevin Shields obsessively, and their multi-part harmonies gave everything a soft singalong coating. The group is now busy recording their second full-length release, and this EP is the cherry-picked tracks from their first self-released disc that caught the ear of the Clairecords label in the first place.
Listening to this batch of 5 tracks (6 if you count the 'hidden' one), it's easy to hear what caught the ear of the label. Although the tracks have a slightly rougher edge, it's actually something that works for the sound of the band. The completely clean sheen that somewhat put me off from their aforementioned full-length is nowhere to be found here. They're still poppier than a lot of bands doing similar things, but it's those slight rough edges that take them to another level for me. The release opens with "Moon Like A Pearl" and really doesn't back off a whole lot in 25 minutes. That opening track is just over 2 minutes of dreampop bliss, and "Obnoxious" keeps things chugging along with a more spoken-word style vocal and plenty of swirling guitars and keyboards. "Summer Before Spring" has one of the tightest hooks on the release, coiling around nicely during the verses before rocking out more during the choruses. Heck, all the songs on the release pretty much get stuck in your head, and the slightly gritty guitars remind one of that early 90s bliss pop (especially of the better work by Lush) that has been imitated by many but very often done not-so-well. Interestingly enough, the bonus track on the disc is easily one of the best. A programmed beat driven version of summer, it punches things up with thumping kick drums and plenty of hi-hats and handclaps, yet it fits the vocals and delayed guitars like a glove. It makes me wish the group would inject just a bit more programming into some of their tracks, if only for a bit more dynamics and a sonically wider rhythm palette. That's a fairly minor nitpick, though, and this short release is just the right amount of music from the group. If they can wind a bit more of their early sound into their newest release, I'll be honestly even more excited about it. reviewed by: almostcool.org |
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