FLDPLN are all angry capitals and no consonants kind of synth pop band whose name should apparently be pronounced like Field Plan rather than Flood Plain that I'd been calling them or Fold Pylon. They come from Phoenix and are the project of Andrew Saks, the one that used to be in Sway and not Mr 5th Avenue. Andrew counts Debbie Gibson and the Pet Shop Boys as influences although that's not always clear in the music.
The album opens with the title track Escalator it seems like this is the up escalator and the initial voice over sounds like China on the Metal Boys classic Tokyo Airport, but this is far more chilled out than that as the synths wash in and the male vocals take over taking us up a few floors with what almost sounds like elevator music.
Give You Everything gives us it all including, a very middle of the road sax solo, matter of fact almost spoken vocals, spare keyboards, a drum machine, a good few other bits and pieces, while you decide if you want all of the stuff or not.
I Want To Talk About Love has a soft pulsing beat as Andrew whispers in your ear just what he wants to say, now I might interject that the love I want, doesn't involve insipid sax interjections, but if you could only take inspiration from Terry Edwards and James Chance, rather than Kenny G, then you may win me over to your idea of love.
Building Whisperer is super laid-back easy listening shoegaze for the politest of dinner parties where this is the aural wallpaper. Until You Don't Have It Anymore makes me wonder if this album will ever have it, as this for me is very background ambient music to be talked over.
Aliso feels brighter and dreamier, while conjuring up a feeling of bland indifference, to the beauty of the Canyon he's driving through.
Lost Her At Sea suddenly has a wall of distorted fuzzy drums and gauzy vocals that liven things up while the dreamy sax floats in and out.
How Much Do You Remember is a dangerous title on an album like this, because truthfully between my first and second listens of this album the answer would be only the fuzzy drums on the last song and nothing much else.
Metrocenter and things are happening down at the centre, its dreamy mall background jazz, with a news reporter barking the odd line or three in between the sax lines.
So Much Time has passed since the start of this album and it's not over yet, as the ambient synths wash through us as we wonder how much time must elapse before something grabs our ears once more.
The album closes with Maybe This Is How it Ends with one last blast of the Kenny G style sax causing the very implosion of the world against the shimmering synths and barely there vocals.
Find out more at https://fldpln.bandcamp.com/album/escalator https://fldpln.bandcamp.com/album/escalator https://www.instagram.com/fldpln/
