With a number of releases already to his name, Mark Lippett has gradually enhanced his growing reputation for dark and deeply textured ambient music under his Planivaar guise. Yet the artist now claims that ‘Bulb’, his new EP, is a “darker, more troubled cousin to all of his previous works”. By his standards, that’s really saying something.
Much of ‘Bulb’ is based around drone. ‘Closed Eyes’ features vague fragments of strummed melody and distant radio frequencies. ‘Here’ is a little more coherent as background layers of Talk Talk-like guitars compete with sound samples whereas ‘Broken Clocks’ offers a chink of light when elsewhere all is shade. However, ‘Desert’, the final instalment, is the one which really burrows its way into the brain. Here, the drones give way to quivering piano keys as events take a haunting turn guaranteed to stir anyone who had drifted in and out of consciousness during the first three tracks.
Once again, Lippett seems in touch with nature but after the undersea mystery of ‘The Green Boat’, the music here is evocative of the plants, small animals and insects that hide away in the forest and carry out their own secret lives.
Web Sites:
Planivaar MySpace
Split Femur Recordings Label Site
Further Listening:
Mole Harness, Talk Talk
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