The Orchestra (For Now): Plan 76
Vinyl | DL available from Rough Trade
Out Now
Winning the Green Man Rising contest last year and cultivating a live reputation long before any recorded release, ingenious collective The Orchestra (For Now) share similarities with fellow Windmill alumni; thankfully, like anyone they vaguely sound like, each subsequent release of theirs confounds expectation enough to keep their anticipation alive.
While sharing a similar title with their debut EP, this latest EP is a sonically successful evolution to the ‘London prog’ leaders’ debut. It starts with Impatient, which acts as a continuation of black midi’s abrasive prog legacy, the strings becoming more distorted with each lugubrious verse, whose lyrics – like a less austere King Crimson – echo a different era of the genre. Unlike the previous track’s more conventional hit of hardcore-adjacent choruses, Hattrick evokes artists from prog’s most complex, multi-movement recordings. Specifically, the rhythmic and instrumental range of Tubular Bells is condensed into six minutes.
By the time of Amsterdam, the more pronounced heaviness between this EP and its predecessor masks the band’s potential – and that of the percussive crescendoes on a track like this – if there were more, and more effectively employed, quieter moments of meditation. It’s still a lasting hit of their tragi-comic tone, with droning cello and a wailing lament as their ballast.
Using some uncharacteristically straightforward lyrics as a playful ruse, The Administration coyly avoids categorisation musically, imitating classic soundtracks first, then ripping through crunchy noise rock chords.
A lot of the band’s appeal comes from the feeling of parts of different songs being interwoven. The last track, Deplore You/Farmer’s Market, builds tension between a brighter slowcore beginning and a belligerent final third, all fervent repetition, edgy screams and tightly wound guitar solos – bridged by an abstract middle, in which the string’s saccharine melody carefully uncoils into aggression.
The septet’s debut EP involved moments of improvised brilliance, piano parts which leaned into the melodrama and thrilling momentum throughout, and a lead vocalist with as much charisma as Black Country, New Road’s Isaac Wood. Although Plan 76 isn’t as odd or consistently fascinating, it serves as a satisfying prog metal side of the coin, while also showing how they travel between control and chaos in a more extreme way.
Follow The Orchestra (For Now).
Find Plan 76 on Bandcamp here.
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Review by James Kilkenny. Read more of his Louder Than War articles here.
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