Let Planes Circle Overhead

Tantric music has its charms, but more often than not, it's boring as shit. What's tantric music you ask? Well I'll tell you, you nosey bastards.

We all know what tantric sex is and the music works on the same principle. It starts out soft and mellow, keeps building and building, gets harder and harder, but never busts a nut. This can be done correctly - Sonic Youth and Isis are two that come to mind. Or, it can be done incorrectly - like everyone else. I was hoping to add Let Planes Circle Overhead to the short list of groups able to pull it off and for the first couple of listens I thought they did. Then I did what has come to be the norm in order to give a fair assessment: I waited a few days and then played the album again.

To say it wasn't quite the same is putting it mildly. Everything that I thought I liked from the first couple of listens I now disliked intently. INTENTLY. What I used to think was at the very least a good background album to wash dishes or do my pilates to now drove me batshit to the point of distress. All the symptoms were there: the clammy hands, the flushed cheeks, and the shortness of breath. I sat there, with my allegorical pants around my ankles, waiting for the aural spoo that never came (pun intended). I was incensed and appalled (with a side order of relief that I had a bad review to write as the good ones tend to be boring as shit).

Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against ambience. But it's really hard to pull it off without it sounding like self-indulgent bullshit. These assholes didn't even try to hide their narcissism. It's the only emo-instrumental album I can lay claim to hearing that makes me just as frustrated as lyrical emo. They let their guitars cry for them. Pussies. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure their mothers love them but I bet they hate the album. I'd track them down to confirm this, but they didn't have the sack to include their last names, possibly sensing such repercussions.

Their album's in a store somewhere, but don't buy it. They're on Myspace, but don't be their friend. They're probably hungry, but for the love of God don't feed them or they'll never go away.

Postscript: This album came out last year and I'm still pissed.

1.7 / 10 — Kevin Fitzpatrick