Paul Bradley & Colin Potter – The Simple Plan (standard edition) CD ICR DISTRIBUTION

Recorded and completed at the end of 2008 and on into the first months of 2009, ´The Simple Plan´ offers a change in focus from previous collaborations between these two artists. Comprising five tracks, ´The Simple Plan´ is purely instrumental, recorded in real-time and subjected to only minimal digital processing. Before recording began, the decision was made to create a simpler, more organic piece of work, using computers only sparingly to record the tracks and help with arrangements. There was to be no extended manipulation of sounds, so what you hear, is basically what was played together with no overdubbing and captured live in the studio as both artists alternated between playing vintage synthesizers (the active use of synthesizers being a first for Paul Bradley) and guitars whilst being aided by a selection of new and classic effects pedals. Although not completely analogue in realisation, it was analogue in its intent. All at once harmonious and dissonant, melodic and atonal, calming and animated, these juxtapositions marked the beginning of significant new chapters in the personal lives of both artists and this influenced the work to an almost undeniable degree and is something that subsequently underpins the fundamental nature and feel of ´The Simple Plan´. There is somehow an abstract sense of desire and resolve that although never initially intended as a concept, naturally informed the final recordings. REVIEW BY JIM HAYNES Colin Potter and Paul Bradley have been collaborating over the past eight or nine years, between Potter’s ongoing involvement in Nurse With Wound. On previous releases, Potter and Bradley have mustered monolithic, clinical studies in tectonic low-end rumblings and unsettled drone vibration work. The drone is still the principle sound element for The Simple Plan; but, here the two set out to record in real-time with synths, guitars, and a bunch of effects. The five extended renderings are dreamy driftscapes that certainly harken to the ’70s mantras of psychedelic ambience touched with phased guitar dissonance, glistening surfaces of reflecting-pool ambience, and meditative looping jams. The massive 18 minute “Gloaming” is the center piece of the album with sitar-like harmonic overtones arching out of a pastoral set of interwoven loops with smaller glistens, shivers, and sparkles glowing from the underbelly of this cinematically expansive piece of psychedelidronemusik. Certainly, those Eno collaborations with Cluster and Robert Fripp come to mind (especially Evening Star); but even the recent crop of psychedelic dreamscapers like Emeralds, Celer, and William Fowler Collins draw comparisons to this nice piece of work. Lovely. REVIEW FROM TOUCHING EXTREMES Abrupt changes in life determine a lot. Subsequent occurrences go well enough, or the chosen course leads to disaster; we’ll never know in advance. But after a page is turned, there’s usually no way back and the truth must be accepted as it is. Both Paul Bradley and Colin Potter recorded this music under the influence of “significant new chapters” in their personal existence, deciding to leave the results of the studio procedures virtually untouched and with just a minimal intervention of the computer, utilized only to record and arrange the sounds. Reality may indeed change, although when people like Bradley and Potter are involved you instantly identify the consequence in terms of sound. It’s spelled “magnetic drones”. In this field the pair belongs to the upper echelon, regardless of the instruments used (in this occasion, synthesizers and guitars processed by “a selection of new and classic pedals”). *The Simple Plan* constitutes the original root, five tracks whose mood – always confined within the borders of virtual stillness – ranges from extremely harmonious to reasonably contaminated, in either case filling the environment with a blend of resonant vibration and mild unease. The 135-copy special edition reviewed here, now sold out, comprises a bonus disc – * Accretion* – containing three beauties born from the reworking of the basic material yet sounding even more intense, to the point that this writer maintains a slight preference for the latter CD (though the sonic essence is exactly the same). The electronic cloud that cuddles our nerves in everlasting stasis (repeat mode is obviously suggested) symbolizes the ideal practice for forgetting – at least momentarily – about any aching that might be trying to attack your determination in remaining balanced despite eventual negative circumstances. It is also a symbol of the fact that certain things remain unaltered, as one can still count on the earnestness of elected sculptors of hypnosis when all that’s needed is a couple of hours of mental peacefulness. Words aren’t contemplated when the explanations are given by morphing layers of waggling pulses, and this work offers plenty of that. REVIEW FROM WONDERFUL WOODEN REASON This new collaboration between these two, now ex, north England musicians is the first to feature them both playing entirely live (in a studio) with only the bare minimum of digital interference with the sound. Using vintage synths, guitars and a battery of effects pedals they create several pieces of Cluster style cosmic drone that build, soar, swoop and then soar again. The sound is a lot harder edged than may be expected from these two if you have any experience of their respective back catalogue but the unexpected is always good especially when it’s pulled off with aplomb. Exemplary examples of dronescaping that should probably be sought out by anyone with an interest in the genre. ** This is a review from Dutch magazine DARK ENTRIES. It was in Dutch & has been translated by an online auto-translator,which is why it looks a bit wierd – but you should get the gist ** O.K. … After 4 minutes of listening to this album I had goosebumps from the sound alone! .. This is pure fresh distillates of beauty …. Colin Potter and Paul Bradley names together this album on when they were both in their lives at a crossroads arrived. Their aim: during the process of composing itself simultaneously as a person to transform itself by the current situation clearly in mind. In this way, the music appropriate soundtrack to a serene manner applet on what is happening in their lives occurs. Whether they are for themselves succeeded in I do not know, I can only agree that this album is a transformative and almost sacred influence on the listener. As low opener Embrace Simplicity is clear that if the muse is being accessed by 3 drones swirling mix to flow, what effect do not miss. Throughout the album, the sounds of synths and guitars transformed by a variety of effects pedals, and afterwards was only here and there a little tweaking. The overall result is a harmonious ambient album which accumulates towards the end very slowly may wegkabbelen. So great ambient, with a high Holy Eno content. An uplifting and refreshing sounds shower that washes away the headaches temporarily …