Been giving the cd Pierres Plastic Dream a spin tonight...i forgot how good the Our Plastic Dream tracks are,fab uk psych of the top drawer"Someone Turned the Light Out",A little bit of Shangrila",Encapsulated Marigold","Paint Yourself"and"Rubber Gun"all tickle my uk psych fancy,in fact this whole cd is rather enjoyable,you also have the orchestrated pop Barry Ryan like double sider by The Owl"Shades of Blue & Greenwater Flies" and"Run to The Sun"and Beach Boys like sounds of The Jeeps except for the track"Dont Do It"which is pretty good fuzzed up garage pop!!You also have the 2 rockin soul tracks with JJ Jackson"Come See Me" and"But Its Alright".and finally 5 tracks by The Silence which are decent pop beaters....its hard to believe i got this cd when it first came out in 1999,i remember hearing those first few tracks by Our Plastic Dream and being blown away,and i still am...of course all those recordings was by one Pierre Tubbs and recorded between 66-68.Anyone else have this cd?Any thoughts on the recordings by Pierre Tubbs??
This CD was one of the better purchases I made in 1999. Its a interesting compressed history of Pierre Tubbs creations. I bought it (like most of us) on the strength of the Our plastic dream single and in the hope there was more like that to come.
There was, not a lot but a few good period pieces. The first 5 songs are all good and are worth the price of the CD just as they were. Of the 3 unreleased recordings I particularly enjoyed the kitchen sink psych stylings of Paint Yourself.
What I found interesting was that Pierre Stubbs seemed more influenced by the statside scene rather than the local scene, and outside of the Our Plastic Dream sessions that comes through quite strongly in the Jeeps and The Owls recording. I don't find them nearly as good as the Our Plastic Dream songs, the Owl recordings are interesting rather than exciting and the Jeeps put out some quite nice little numbers.
The Silence sessions are the surprise for me, and there were a few real keepers here. Its hard to explain, the recordings are rough as guts but there is a real buzz about some of them. I have a special love for Julie September. For a start it has a sparse Reggae beat – unusual for the time, but it has a great tune that makes up for it. Its one of the very few songs that I happily sing out loud – lyrics like “Than along came Julie September, stayed til the end of November, left me alone in December” just don't grow old in my books. But the funniest thing about this song is that the lead and backing singers all manage to sing progressively more out of tune in each of the 3 choruses – its like listening to Swell Maps. Glorious.
While since I heard it but other than the OPD 45, Paint Yourself was the standout for me. That Owl 45 sounds like a terrible Crooner trying to go a bit paisley and doesn't work for me. I seem to remember liking the Silence trax.
I dusted that cd down tonight myself.
My fave of the OPD tracks is what the liners call 'the stomping distorto pop'
of 'Someone Turned the Light out', though all the songs are good.
I like the Owl single myself, I'm partial to a little bit of crooners go paisley if it's done well.
I really like a couple of the Jeeps tracks but the rest are kinda forgettable...
I like the first track by The Silence the best, 'You and Me'(?) has a great moody sound and harmonies.
A mixed collection but def some goodies on there