The Last Mixed Tape reviews Grand Delusions, the debut studio album from electronic act Plutonic Dust.
Grand Delusions asks you to follow it down a rabbit hole. Taken by the hand by Veronica Moran’s enchanting vocal, the album leads you through darkened clubs and sweaty dance floors, scored by Plutonic Dust’s great pulsing electronic sound. Indeed, you find yourself immersed in it before you realize you’ve come along for the ride.
From the big-fuzz driven synths of ‘Kill For Gold’ to the rhythmic persistence of ‘Hoops’, the music of Grand Delusions is purposefully dense and twisted. Plutonic Dust’s sound is awash with electronic textures, echoing vocal lines and disco beats making the album as bold stylistically as the group’s highly regarded live shows.
In fact an argument can be made that Grand Delusions itself is made for mass consumption. It needs to feed off the energy of a late night crowd, willing to give in to themselves completely to the music’s hypnotic pops and clicks whilst also reveling in the communal abandon that rises from these moments, the great connection between audience and sound. As songs such as ‘Bright Lights’ come bounding in, the record’s commanding presence takes full effect and by that time you are either with it or against it.
So what is Grand Delusions? Well, I would regard the album as a catalyst for an experience rather than evocative of moments past. Plutonic Dust are a group whose music creates new memories or incites us into doing. At the start of this review I said that the record wants to take us down the rabbit hole, and that Moran’s vocal acts as our guide, luring us through the music. This is most certainly essential to the album success, because we want to experience new things, we want to immerse ourselves in the communicative trance of musical hypnosis and Plutonic Dust allow us to do exactly that on Grand Delusions. That is, if you are willing to.
Rating: 9/10
Grand Delusions by Plutonic Dust is due out on April 9th.
