London trio PLASTIK caught my attention with their previous single "Honey," which ably demonstrated that swaggering, guitar-based pop still had legs and ideas aplenty.
"CCTV", though, is better still. Bursting into life via some insistent riffing, it soon swells into a fine slice of nervy Orwellian art-pop. It may be low-budget, but high drama is the order of the day, with Gareth Moss's nagging guitar work coaxing violently melodic responses from his cohorts Andy Natt and Paul Cox. Gareth still reminds this writer of a young Brett Anderson, but that's no bad thing at all.
Second track "Bravado" continues the PLASTIK trend for throwing cracking B-sides in for good measure and this is every bit the equal of "CCTV" itself, full of overheating vocals, glam-my Bowie-ish riffs and a graphic fashionista obsession. "Come puff it up and pucker up, peacock" taunts Gareth before peeling off a totally cool'n'convincing guitar solo.
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Final track (sic) "Art Fcuker" (very witty!) winds things up in style, meanwhile. Based around a vintage, angular motif that briefly recalls Buzzcocks' "A Different Kind Of Tension," it's full of desire, obsession and fanaticism. "I'll re-write the ending for you, cut and paste it for you, just to get near to you," splutters Gareth, before spitting out the title venomously.
PLASTIK are acquiring a reputation as a great singles band on the sly. They may be self-releasing their material at present, but if they can keep this up, that's a situation that will surely be firmly consigned to the past.
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