Anyone looking for an easy listen should avoid Plantoid. Their debut album, ‘Terrapath’, had moments of magic but was so frenetic in its constantly shifting math rock riffs, jazzy perambulations and tempo changes as to be somewhat exhausting and impenetrable. Fortunately, their follow-up, ‘Flare’, sees them putting the progress into progressive. While it maintains their capacity for dazzling chord progressions and lengthy compositions with five of its nine tracks timing at more than five minutes, this new release is softer and more malleable with songs that segue naturally into shoegaze and dreampop moments.
Initially, it seems that opening track ‘Parasite’ is going to be a continuation of ‘Terrapath’. Its first minute consists of Tom Coyne’s pummelling guitar riffs and Louis Bradshaw’s drum fills before the tempo is dialled down. Chloe Spence’s vocals are given space to breath as she reflects on how depression and anxiety can feel like a parasite leeching energy. Whilst the music sounds lovely and this passage constitutes the majority of the song, there is a tightly coiled tension, a sense that another drum and riff barrage will be along shortly, as happens for the final minute of King Crimson-like complexity. It does reflect a change in Plantoid’s approach to song construction. Whereas ‘Terrapath’ had the music created first with Spence being set the challenge of figuring how to sing over it, this time a lot of the songs were shaped around the singing which allowed her space to experiment with her vocal technique.
‘Flare’ moves to a different level with ‘’Ultivatum Cultivation’. Driven along by a relatively constant groove, the terse verses and flowing chorus mirror the push and pull of emotional conflict as Spence’s vocals take flight. ‘The Weaver’ deploys both experimentation and restraint in its use of jazz licks while letting the drums ring out in the barn where the album was recorded. It shows them mastering the use of space while Spence tells of someone lost and finding their way home through a variety of challenges.
The rhythms give a buoyant, poppy quality to ‘Dozer’ alongside its shifting, stabbing guitar parts, barring the mid-song turn into experimentation and the backward masking that ends the track. The video conveys the song’s theme of craving relaxation in the sunshine. The initial journeying along ill-maintained roads fits with the motorik rhythm (far from the imposing modern structures that Kraftwerk evoke) under cloudy skies gives way to frolicking in the sun and eating grapes. It is a good example of visuals enhancing a song’s mood. ‘Good For You’ is a slow builder with a regular pulse, starting like the trickle of a lake and with Spence’s vocals initially hushed as they evoke memories and nostalgia. Continuing the dreamy feel, ‘Worn’ is a song about being worn out and evolved out of a jam. Recorded in one take and featuring restrained use of timpani, its imagery of a flare being shot into the night gave the album its title.
A rare sub three-minute track, their Jackson Pollock moment ‘Splatter’ arose out of challenging themselves to write a fast, raucous song. It is one of the record’s high spots, a giddy collision of riffs and rhythms, its mood summarised by Spence singing “oh shit, it’s messed up” as if in a delighted running commentary on the tune. Its title giving a clear indication of its tempo, ‘Slow Moving’ has melancholy running through its guitars and vocals, reflecting on being stuck in a rut and unable to avoid repeating mistakes. Although even without a stopwatch, it is possible to reach the conclusion that ‘Flare’ has more quiet than loud moments, the final number ‘Daisy Chains’ allows Plantoid a chance to let loose. Starting with bulging math rock riffs, it does ease back before building to Mogwai-like guitar noise, akin to the feel of a plane taking off.
‘Flare’ represents a more immediately approachable version of Plantoid. While still highly technical, it shows that precision and invention can still be compatible with emotion. It is a record that will reward repeated listening.
Plantoid: Flare – Out 30 January 2026 (Bella Union)
– Dozer (Official Music Video)
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
