Plastiq Phantom :: Plastiq Phantom Enjoy the Art of Lying Down (Sweet Mother)
2001-01-30
Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=13130
" The comparisons between Darrin Wiener, the man behind Plastiq Phantom, and his hero Aphex Twin are striking -- and not just because of the off-kilter beats that litter much of the young prodigy's debut. To listen to the music this twenty-one-year-old creates is to hear a unique mind at work. Using an intimidatingly lost list of equipment, Wiener has composed modern-day symphonies in which the string section is replaced by sequencers and the tympanis are played by a drum machine. Yet the results are surprisingly effective. A genuine attachment to melody marks Wiener's work, from the swelling simulated strings of "A Simple Chaos" to the piano aria that starts off "Falling Through Windows." It's this love affair with the melodic that saves Wiener's music from being off-putting or inaccessible -- a curse that has plagued many an artist with as unique a vision as his." (NINA PEARLMAN)