Ready! – Plastic Section (Outtaspace)
Self-consciously retro rock and roll bands can be a real problem. There are ones that overplay their hand and fall back on gimmicks. They almost always have a name with “Thee” appended to the front. And then there are those that apply their three chords with genuine regard for where the music emanated.
Plastic Section is part of a loose Melbourne aggregation of bands in the latter category; their peers are The Breadmakers, The Vibrajets and The Cha Cha Chas. Each faithfully plunders the past while applying their own take.
Of course Plastic Section are as analogue as they come with a big streak of rockabilly down the middle, summoning the ghosts of Link Wray, Eddie Cochran and Duane Eddy. “Ready!” is 16 tracks, 14 of them original, stripped of any pretension and lovingly wrapped in reverb. It’s their third or fourth long-player.
The record took a day to record, another day to mix and a year to press. Rocket Science’s sonic master Paul Maybury captured its sounds at his Secret Location studio, and Mikey Young - garage rock’s version of Don Bartley, mastered it. It sounds stellar – in the most archaic sense.
You just can’t beat guitar, drums and bass with a raw vocal adding the words. Simple songs, arranged simply. Drummer Sue and bassist Pip lock in the rhythms and six-string, hollow-body twanger Ben does his thing.
They ain’t no spring chickens. Plastic Section had its origins in Bangkok and coalesced with a different line-up in Melbourne. Outtspace released their last record two years ago and before that they were on Off The Hip. That should give you a clue.
It’s rhythm and blues as previous generations knew it - not the abomination that carries the label these days.
You don’t need a track-by-track dissertation of songs you probably don’t know - unless you’re among the coterie of fans that follows the band live. You just need some life advice: Run, don’t walk, to wherever you procure your phonographic recordings and plonk your hard-earned on a copy of “Ready !”
It’s the real deal.
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