Author: Fantastic Plastic Machine

Format: Import

Release Date: 15-05-2001

Details: Amazon.ca One-man music machine and cultural trendsetter Tomoyuki Tanaka (a.k.a. Plastic Fantastic Machine) is back in a big sassy way with his third release, Beautiful. Other than an overall mellowing of PFM's occasionally over-amped arrangements, the biggest surprise on Beautiful is the generous use of strings that make the record a bit of an odd duck, more appropriate for the boudoir than the dance floor. In fact, only the endlessly spunky "Take Me to the Disco" is a bona fide dance track here. Otherwise, Beautiful moves through a record collector's dream that includes the super-sophisticated, string-driven groove of "On a Chair," the fluty Latin jazz of "Whistle Song," the lazy, jazzy funk of "Black Dada," and the insanely overarranged spoken-word hoedown "Love Is Psychedelic." But despite all the musical territory covered there's a real cohesion to the whole affair; it's distinctly urban and hip without being pushy about it, with a sly sense of humor riding just under the surface. Occasionally Tanaka's broad palette gets a bit overloaded, with the strings going in one direction and the groove another, but for the most part he manages to pull it all together in a balancing act that both Burt Bacharach and Howie B could be proud of, and that's really saying something. --Carl Hanni

UPC: 607217704228

EAN: 0607217704228

Binding: audioCD

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood