Album review: Plug, Back on Time

Plug, Back on Time. Photo / Supplied

Shapeshifting electronic music producer Luke Vibert returns in his drum 'n' bass guise with an album that harks back to the mid to late 90s - for many, the age when d'n'b started splintering and getting interesting. This album is made up of Plug recordings from between 1995 and 1998 and though it is from another time and place it (mostly) still sounds fresh and futuristic.

But then that's the sort of music Luke Vibert has always come up with, be it under his real name, as exotic dance music maestro Wagonchrist, or as Plug.

On Back on Time, songs such as Feeling So Special are steeped in soulful jazzy drum 'n' bass tradition, and Come on My Skeleton is from the rolling jungle realm, but they skew off in all sorts of other inspired directions.

At one point the former pulls back into grooves more suited to a deck chair, and the latter's big pinging bass beats penetrate your chest and into your heart. Other highlights include the breathless canter of No Reality and chaotic old school brain-rattler Flight 78.

Though it is not quite up there with Plug's classic 1996 album Drum 'n' Bass For Papa it is a beacon of light in an age when d'n'b is either long forgotten or the soundtrack to a shampoo commercial.

Opener Scar City sounds the most dated, but there's a charming tongue-in-cheek mood to its bright and boppy beats, and, really, there is no faulting the adventurous yet seamless compositions of this eccentric drum 'n' bass master.

Stars: 4/5
Verdict: Long-lost drum 'n' bass (near) classic

Buy Plug's Back on Time, here.

- TimeOut