Rising to notoriety on the strength of their ability to balance and blend drum'n'bass, jungle, and breakbeat styles in a live context, Plexus hardly disappoints with their eclectic and genre-stretching debut. Although the differences are subtle and possibly imperceptible to the novice fan of electronic music, percussionist Tobias Ralph, bassist Ernie Adzentoivich, and multi-instrumentalist Allen Towbin create an inimitable brew of mix-and-match textures and rhythms that have a distinctly human face -- creating something vaguely new in the process. Where the majority of contemporary drum'n'bass artists have fallen victim to drab self-indulgence and downright boring experimentation, the approach here is refreshingly concise and visceral. The arrangements, comprised of percolating sputters to driving breakbeats, from soothing keyboards to menacing basslines, spin through a variety of complex and enveloping textures en route to combining to form a final product both danceable and meditative. Although the presence of the New England Conservatory of Music's Ran Blake lends the project an academic bent, the tracks skillfully avoid becoming overly studied or pretentious and should be accessible for the expert and neophyte alike. On the whole, an impressively realized debut.
© Matt Fink /TiVo