Plastic Waves - Plastic Waves EP

Plastic Waves
Plastic Waves EP
2016
Spotify

Plastic Waves is the solo project of Andre Bellido and plays with the psychedelic genre like very few others are doing today. Bright Light Social Hour might be a bit similar in style but their sound is much more tied in with the psychedelic rock of the 60s while Plastic Waves is pushing an often neglected style forward. The sounds bend and move just like the shapes of a mushroom trip, but also stay quite grounded in some really good synth and rock work throughout the record. The Boston based musician allows his tracks to slip and move building ever bigger and bigger. On "Friendly" however Bellido breaks out the big guns and lets the wailing guitars and drums do the heavy lifting. It is this ever bigger build to a place you are not quite sure of, but the music sucks you in pulling you along this journey as a willing participant rather than a passive listener. At times the record can be soothing and light like on "Pushing Me Down" while at other times it flips the genre on it's head and just lets loose in an all out rock session.

At just under 20 minutes Plastic Waves serves as more of a taste of the direction Bellido is going rather than a full presentation. However within these five songs there is so much depth and so much instrumentation that you cannot help but fall down the Rabbit Hole with Plastic Waves. "Melancholy Sleep" was the first song that Bellido wrote, and it does not have the refinement of the rest of the record. That song in particular tends to follow the usual formula we are used to in psychedelic music. There is swirling guitars, and more than a fair bit of jam banding that feels heavily referential rather than a new take. The track also closes the album on that same fading jam that is so ubiquitos with this kind of music that it ends up being a bit of a let down. The bones however are all here for a really special record that may take a genre thought dead and bringing it to an entirely new generation. Plastic Waves is worth your time, but what comes next may be even more so.

7.4 out of 10