plini reminds me of something my dad would listen to, which isn't necessarily disqualifying, but sort of is in this scenario.

this isn't the first time i've bumped into plini; he's come through detroit repeatedly over the last several years, often opening for some kind of instrumental metal band that i've mused about checking out, but in the end never have. it's a space that i can delve into, but only sparingly, and that i have next to no patience for cliches in, which is what often does it in.

my dad had a tendency of buying records he didn't like on a whim, and i'd often end up with copies of them. so, he'd pick up the new bozio-levin-stevens supergroup collaboration thinking it's a lineup that can't miss and it must be the greatest thing since relayer, only to find himself bored by the technicality of it, and wonder if maybe i might like it better. he never said it directly, but i think he thought to himself that i would inherently have the ability to appreciate whatever he couldn't, and he was actually sometimes right; one example is that i ended up with a stack of keneally records that he didn't want (they were 'weird') and that i'm actually quite fond of.

this record has a muted holdsworth sound to it, especially in the tone, but it's really 98% dream theatre, or 98% dream theatre side project. that was the liquid tension experiment, when levin joined dream theatre. haven't heard that one? it was one of the cd-rs i got, and i'm sure young plini had one, too. ask him about that, i'm sure he'll tell you a bit about it.

as is always the case with these things, i find them mildly interesting, but they break down after a few listens because they're written in blocks. it's a thing that happens when you get these people together and ask them to jam, without actually writing anything, and without any intent of getting back together again. so, it's all very nice and correct and everything, even with a little tension in the textbook places, but it doesn't transcend beyond the expectation.

and, it's often a bit cheesy.

i will no doubt eventually end up at a plini show, and i'll probably enjoy it, at least passively. but, i need him to take it to the next level in every way - i need it to be more abstract, more emotional and more technical all at the same time.

don't skip it, anyways. i'm sure it's worth a beer.

https://plini.bandcamp.com/album/sunhead