Reachy Prints
During their stunningly varied and adventurous career, Andy Turner and Ed Handley have issued a string of releases that have shaped the vanguard of British electronic music. With *Reachy Prints*, Plaid offers a striking follow-up to 2011’s *Scintilli*, presenting deeply textured electronic grooves, vivid melodies and ethereal production. After opening with the delicate shimmer of “Oh” and the understated, fluttering groove of “Hawkmoth”, the album takes a dark turn with the warped bass synths and lurching, insistent patterns of “Nafovanny”. The blithe “Matin Lunaire” brightens things up, while the duo’s dusky tracks—include the looming, bass-heavy fog of “Ropen” and the funky closer, “Liverpool St”—help make *Reachy Prints* a rousing success.
Plaid have been reliable fixtures in “intelligent dance music” since the genre first rose to prominence in the 1990s. Their latest, Reachy Prints, is full of new sounds, but their experimentation is tempered with strides towards a greater accessibility.
Plaid's first proper album in nearly a decade, Scintilli, was a slightly tentative return that ultimately felt like a warm-up for Reachy Prints.
Returning in 2011 with the somewhat underwhelming Scintilli, Plaid have kept their hand in, but Reachy Prints sees them return with gusto to the ambitious sonic realms of their golden age, and deliver an album that almost ranks with their best
Album review: Plaid - 'Reachy Prints'. "Andy Turner and Ed Handley have their controls set to ‘cerebral’ and no one cares to intervene…"
Plaid's tenth album of lovely, delicate, melodic electronica sounds oddly in tune with modern pop, writes <strong>Paul MacInnes</strong>