Music Banter - View Single Post - From the Vaults: Trollheart's Album Reviews Thread

Trollheart · 10-02-2021, 09:54 AM

Originally posted in The Playlist of Life, December 2 2014

Krill --- Plankton's Odyssey --- 2013

When I was asked to review this album by Plankton a few different emotions charged through my brain. First was of course pride and a sense of honour, that he would select me of all the many journal writers and reviewers here to undertake this task. Hard on its heels though was doubt and worry: what if the album turned out to be - um, how can I say this without offending? - crap? How would I then be able to tell him - and my readership - that I didn't like his work? Then that worry expanded to encompass fear that, assuming the album was good, I would be able to review it both dispassionately and yet afford it the praise it deserved. So you can see it was no small undertaking, and despite my attempts to convince myself that I would just approach the review as I would any other, that was not likely to happen in reality. If you're critiquing a friend's work then you of necessity feel under more pressure, both to review it fairly and not to gush overly in a way that both becomes sycophantic and strips the review of all its meaning, including its sense of impartiality.

For any who don't know, Plankton is one of our own. He's been a member here for a while now and is generally regarded as a nice guy with a lot to say, and is indeed praised for his music in the subforums dealing with members' contributions, which I must admit I have never frequented. This is not his first album, but the one he's looking on I believe as his debut for public consumption, and for a first effort I have to say I'm more than impressed. I actually faced two major problems agreeing to review this: one was that it was the album of a friend, someone I know and respect, so I wanted to make sure I did it justice in the writeup. The other, something I only realised when I began playing it, is that it is an instrumental guitar album, and if you read my review of Neal Schon's The Calling last year you'll see I have little time for those sort of albums. In short, they usually bore me. Conversely though, I thoroughly enjoyed Buckethead's Electric Sea, so perhaps there was hope.

At any rate, I have now listened to it well over twenty times and feel qualified, as far as I can be, to set down my thoughts on it. I've consulted with Plankton for some pertinent information, and will drop that into the review as I go, but for now let's get to the meat of the matter, the lifeblood of any album, its raison d'etre. Yeah: the music.

I should also point out that I am not a guitarist and know little of the instrument beyond the basics, so I can't tell you when he's using a flange bar (if such a thing exists), a tremelo or capo, and I can't identify when he's using effects pedals or what they are. What I can tell you is that everything you hear here is his own work, played and written by him, arranged and produced solely by him. Oh, with one exception, which I'll come to in due course. He tells me he worked on a track a week, every Monday from the time he got home to whatever time he got to bed, and that the album was conceived and recorded this way in about nine months - should I say born?

Plankton has thirty years' experience playing guitar and it certainly shows here. From what he's told me he's almost completely self-taught, which is another plus to add to the many he already has racked up.

We open on the oddly-named (and it's not the only one!) "Flustraxion", which right from the off has an early Iron Maiden feel to me, like something off Killers or Number of the Beast, with a sense of acoustic guitar under a squealing electric, then it kicks up with heavy, machinegun drumming and the tempo rises as the track comes fully to life, the guitar wailing histrionically through the piece, with another one growling and snorting in the background. The similarities to Maiden continue, and I'm sure Dave Murray or Adrian Smith would be proud. It's a short track, just over two and a half minutes long, and ends as it began, with a laidback acoustic-sounding outro, taking us into "Waiting Impatiently", which has a nice Gilmour touch to it, quite relaxed with a much slower, more measured drumbeat driving the rhythm. The guitar is kind of ringing, bit like the sound you get on the Police's "Walking On the Moon", that sort of thing. There are also little flickers of folk running through it, with a superb little fluid solo about halfway through before it suddenly kicks up a whole gear and breaks out into a real heavy rock tune, with some fine shredding alongside the now churning second guitar.

This is the first (though certainly not last) time we hear Plankton break loose and show how his feet are truly on the path to rock god stardom. The song fades out then ends on a downward slope and we're into "Shoveled". Now, here I'm afraid I must sound a note of discontent. The idea in the song is fine, but somehow the execution, for me anyway, doesn't work. There's nothing wrong with Plankton's guitar work; that's as powerful and expert as anything you'll find on this album. But he's chosen to play over a recording of a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, and it just jars for me. It's the only vocal you'll hear on the album, but even at that every time I hear this I keep mentally trying to shut out the great man's voice and concentrate on the music. To be honest, idiot that I am, the first ever time I heard this I wasn't listening too closely, and did not know that it was a one-man show, and I thought "Whoever is singing there hasn't got a great voice", or, alternatively, "If that's Plankton then I hope he's not singing on any more!" Sad I know, but that's what I thought. Having consulted the author of this work, I was set straight and it makes sense. But even then, I reluctantly have to admit that there is one song on the album I don't really like, and this is it.

Of course, if you concentrate on the music you'll realise it is great: a thick, angry guitar is overlaid with another howling at a higher octave, with some fine shredding adding more rage and unrest to the piece. I find it hard to believe though that that is not keyboard in the very first opening notes, though I'm assured there are only keys on one track, and this is not it. When the voiceover drops back you can really hear how powerful and energetic Plankton's guitar playing is, but then it comes back in and your ear is drawn back to it, so that you have to force yourself to again focus on the music. Also, the recording ends in a fade but it does cut off in the middle of one of MLK's sentences, which I think is a mistake. A few more seconds might have made it work better.

Still, much as I dislike "Shoveled" (and I tried hard to like it) it is the only track on the album that I have anything bad to say about, and there are plenty of superlatives left for the rest of it. Again I find it hard to believe that it is not a keyboard opening to the next track too, but what do I know about what this guy can do with a guitar? A spacey, progressive rock feel opens "Lights of an Unknown City" in almost an ELO manner before Plankton unleashes the big guns and in best Steve Earle fashion lets fly as the track powers out at you. Some great soloing and crunching, grinding guitars frame this song, and (sorry Plankton) if you needed something to blow away the cobwebs after the somewhat cloying, claustrophobic "Shoveled", this is just what the doctor ordered! It fades down at the end then to some lovely acoustic noodling, accompanied by that chiming electric. Sweet.

The only song not to have been completely created by Plankton, "Canadian Mist" has keys, drums and bass laid down and composed by a guy called Kevin from Canada, which is all Plankton can tell me about his collaborator on this. It's a lovely, Gary Moore style opening and is in fact the first slow track on the album. Again it gives me a sense of Maiden too, especially "Strange World" from the debut, with some soaring, emotional guitar, and I can hear Lizzy's "Still in Love With You" in there too. Apologies for all the comparisons, but this is the only way I know to translate how this guy's music feels and sounds to me. Someone better versed in guitars would be able to go more into the technical side and tell you how great he is, but this is all I can do. I originally had picked this as my favourite track on the album, but over many listens it's now been superceded by the one which comes next. For a while it was something of a battle between the two, but now I think there's a clear winner.

With a lovely rippling guitar to start things off, "Son of Soothsayer" soon rips into a big, stomping, heavy metal track with punchy guitar and squealing second guitar, rocking along like there's no tomorrow. Personally, though I'm sure he enjoyed recording every track here, this gives me the impression that it's the one Plankton had the most fun playing. It just gets your feet tapping and your head bobbing, and would not be out of place in any heavy metal fan's collection. It's also one of the longer tracks at over five minutes, though to my mind it's not long enough. A real boogie rhythm keeps the song going, and it could be talkbox that he's using to make that sound where the guitar almost seems to be singing, though I could quite easily be wrong there. It's a testament to Plankton's art and expertise that though this track more or less maintains the same basic riff all the way through it never gets boring or repetitive, and as I say when it comes to an end it seems way too soon.

And he keeps things barreling along for "Here We Go Again", a riproaring fretfest which is probably the fastest track on the album. A driving, steamhammer beat pulls it along, with great shredding and again a real heavy metal feel to it. His fingers must have been sore after this, is all I can say! Sort of a cutting, slicing guitar in the background while the main guitar just flies all over the place, solos being fired off left, right and centre. He also seems to have a weird sense of humour in titling some of his songs, as "Xphereblotish" proves - no I have no idea what it means and no I'm not going to ask him: have to maintain some sort of level of ambiguity and mystery, after all! - with a rising guitar riff that then pulls in staccato guitar with a boogie-ing second guitar kind of delivering a blues style melody, a lot of Led Zep in this I feel. Some superb solos and a sense of restrained energy to it, like at any second he could really pull loose and just hit you with a salvo you wouldn't even have a chance to dodge, should you somehow want to.

Another of my favourites, "Screaming At an Empty Canvas" is built on a thick bass and a heavy Sabbathish riff, almost Plankton playing doom metal perhaps. It's a lot slower and grindier than anything he's done up to this point, and his main guitar screeches and screams through it like a banshee with dire warnings. There's a real sense of pent-up frustration in this track, the idea being I guess that you have something you want to say but no way to say it, when the inspiration won't come and you're staring at a blank page. Plankton certainly doesn't seem to encounter this problem much anyway, and this is another triumph, with an angry guitar getting more and more animated as the song progresses, till at one point it all drops away to just the one guitar and rhythm section, and a really nice little bass solo in the background before the bigger, harder guitar kicks its way back in for the big finish.

That's actually the longest track on the album, just shy of five and a half minutes, though only technically. If you take the title track, which is split into two parts, as one, then you get almost ten minutes of music. "Krill Part 1" opens on soft jangly acoustic guitar which is then joined by screeching electric as the percussion kicks in and the shredding begins! It's another hard, almost metal rhythm as the main guitar screams and the secondary guitar does a passable Vivian Campbell at his Dio best. Great melody to this, with a real sense of longing and loneliness, maybe a touch of despair in the wailing, screeching guitar crying for attention. It fades down then on the back of single guitar and takes us into part 2, where again jangly echoey guitar stands alone until joined by wailing second guitar sounding a little like a violin, and the percussion this time is much slower and more measured, the guitars too slowing down as the fretburning, though still fierce, has a more restrained, almost melancholic feel to it.

There's kind of a sense of endings in this song, and I must admit it brought a tear to my eye. Dunno what it is, it just sounds very sad and yearning. The percussion backs a single guitar for a while and each swaps with the other, taking the limelight for a few moments before they join back up for the powerful yet downbeat fadeout finale. Which in itself would have been a great way to close the album, but Plankton has one more for us before we go. Written for his daughter Hanna, "Fields of Youth" is mostly played on introspective guitar with a real sense of reflection and memory, rather commercial in its way. Could see it as the soundtrack to some TV programme maybe. An understated and yet brilliant way to end the album, and a fitting gift to his daughter. Little or nothing in the way of percussion in this, with two guitars making the melody between them, can't even hear any bass. For all that though the tune works really well - ah, think I heard a little bass there - and brings the album to a very satisfying close.

TRACK LISTING

1. Flustraxion
2. Waiting Impatiently
3. Shoveled
4. Lights of an Unknown City
5. Canadian Mist
6. Son of Soothsayer
7. Here We Go Again
8. Xphereblotish
9. Screaming At an Empty Canvas
10. Krill Part 1
11. Krill Part 2
12. Fields of Youth

This is the first time I've ever had to review an album for, and by, a friend, and I'm really glad I can say it was a pleasure to listen to, and review; though if I had not enjoyed it I would have said so. It's just nice not to have to deliver bad news, however important it may have been seen to have been required. This album has been my constant companion over the last two weeks or so, accompanying everything from walks to dishwashing to making dinner; everything I normally use music as a background for has had this as the soundtrack, and I feel like Krill is an old friend now, and that through it I've come to know better the man behind the music. Plankton hasn't just got talent, he has that special something that makes you feel certain that it's only a matter of time before a lot more people are listening to, and enjoying his music. He may not be at an age where he can start touring the country and appearing on talk shows (though who says he won't?) but this music he makes is far too good to remain locked away somewhere in the files of an obscure website tucked into a forgotten corner of the web. This is music that needs to be heard, and heard by as many people as possible.

My own advice to him would be to go the YouTube route: playing his songs live and inviting people to hear them. This has after all worked for many artistes in the recent past. Of course, that may not be his goal, but one way or another this music has got to get out to the public at large. I can't recommend highly enough that you head to his website Home - Planktons Odyssey and download his album and hear this for yourselves. I knew nothing of his talent before agreeing to review this, and now I'm gobsmacked and so impressed I can't say. This album had been of necessity spinning on my ipod for days in order for me to get a good idea of how it sounded, so that I could do an informed review, but even after the requisite four or five plays it usually takes me to get a good feel for an album, I found I was continuing to listen to it, and still am, just for pure pleasure.

Some day I'm going to be the envy of my friends (better get some first!) when I tell them that I knew Plankton before he was famous. I honestly feel like I'm watching the birth of a star here, and it really couldn't happen to a nicer or more talented guy. Download this and you're probably going to find your playlists waiting for a while, and your Last.FM or Spotify plays containing an awful lot of this man's music. Join the odyssey: get on board, because Plankton is without question going places.

Rating: 9.8/10

10-02-2021, 09:54 AM	#12 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	*Originally posted in The Playlist of Life, December 2 2014* Krill --- Plankton's Odyssey --- 2013 When I was asked to review this album by Plankton a few different emotions charged through my brain. First was of course pride and a sense of honour, that he would select me of all the many journal writers and reviewers here to undertake this task. Hard on its heels though was doubt and worry: what if the album turned out to be - um, how can I say this without offending? - crap? How would I then be able to tell him - and my readership - that I didn't like his work? Then that worry expanded to encompass fear that, assuming the album was good, I would be able to review it both dispassionately and yet afford it the praise it deserved. So you can see it was no small undertaking, and despite my attempts to convince myself that I would just approach the review as I would any other, that was not likely to happen in reality. If you're critiquing a friend's work then you of necessity feel under more pressure, both to review it fairly and not to gush overly in a way that both becomes sycophantic and strips the review of all its meaning, including its sense of impartiality. For any who don't know, Plankton is one of our own. He's been a member here for a while now and is generally regarded as a nice guy with a lot to say, and is indeed praised for his music in the subforums dealing with members' contributions, which I must admit I have never frequented. This is not his first album, but the one he's looking on I believe as his debut for public consumption, and for a first effort I have to say I'm more than impressed. I actually faced two major problems agreeing to review this: one was that it was the album of a friend, someone I know and respect, so I wanted to make sure I did it justice in the writeup. The other, something I only realised when I began playing it, is that it is an instrumental guitar album, and if you read my review of Neal Schon's The Calling last year you'll see I have little time for those sort of albums. In short, they usually bore me. Conversely though, I thoroughly enjoyed Buckethead's Electric Sea, so perhaps there was hope. At any rate, I have now listened to it well over twenty times and feel qualified, as far as I can be, to set down my thoughts on it. I've consulted with Plankton for some pertinent information, and will drop that into the review as I go, but for now let's get to the meat of the matter, the lifeblood of any album, its raison d'etre. Yeah: the music. I should also point out that I am not a guitarist and know little of the instrument beyond the basics, so I can't tell you when he's using a flange bar (if such a thing exists), a tremelo or capo, and I can't identify when he's using effects pedals or what they are. What I can tell you is that everything you hear here is his own work, played and written by him, arranged and produced solely by him. Oh, with one exception, which I'll come to in due course. He tells me he worked on a track a week, every Monday from the time he got home to whatever time he got to bed, and that the album was conceived and recorded this way in about nine months - should I say born? Plankton has thirty years' experience playing guitar and it certainly shows here. From what he's told me he's almost completely self-taught, which is another plus to add to the many he already has racked up. We open on the oddly-named (and it's not the only one!) "Flustraxion", which right from the off has an early Iron Maiden feel to me, like something off Killers or Number of the Beast, with a sense of acoustic guitar under a squealing electric, then it kicks up with heavy, machinegun drumming and the tempo rises as the track comes fully to life, the guitar wailing histrionically through the piece, with another one growling and snorting in the background. The similarities to Maiden continue, and I'm sure Dave Murray or Adrian Smith would be proud. It's a short track, just over two and a half minutes long, and ends as it began, with a laidback acoustic-sounding outro, taking us into "Waiting Impatiently", which has a nice Gilmour touch to it, quite relaxed with a much slower, more measured drumbeat driving the rhythm. The guitar is kind of ringing, bit like the sound you get on the Police's "Walking On the Moon", that sort of thing. There are also little flickers of folk running through it, with a superb little fluid solo about halfway through before it suddenly kicks up a whole gear and breaks out into a real heavy rock tune, with some fine shredding alongside the now churning second guitar. This is the first (though certainly not last) time we hear Plankton break loose and show how his feet are truly on the path to rock god stardom. The song fades out then ends on a downward slope and we're into "Shoveled". Now, here I'm afraid I must sound a note of discontent. The idea in the song is fine, but somehow the execution, for me anyway, doesn't work. There's nothing wrong with Plankton's guitar work; that's as powerful and expert as anything you'll find on this album. But he's chosen to play over a recording of a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, and it just jars for me. It's the only vocal you'll hear on the album, but even at that every time I hear this I keep mentally trying to shut out the great man's voice and concentrate on the music. To be honest, idiot that I am, the first ever time I heard this I wasn't listening too closely, and did not know that it was a one-man show, and I thought "Whoever is singing there hasn't got a great voice", or, alternatively, "If that's Plankton then I hope he's not singing on any more!" Sad I know, but that's what I thought. Having consulted the author of this work, I was set straight and it makes sense. But even then, I reluctantly have to admit that there is one song on the album I don't really like, and this is it. Of course, if you concentrate on the music you'll realise it is great: a thick, angry guitar is overlaid with another howling at a higher octave, with some fine shredding adding more rage and unrest to the piece. I find it hard to believe though that that is not keyboard in the very first opening notes, though I'm assured there are only keys on one track, and this is not it. When the voiceover drops back you can really hear how powerful and energetic Plankton's guitar playing is, but then it comes back in and your ear is drawn back to it, so that you have to force yourself to again focus on the music. Also, the recording ends in a fade but it does cut off in the middle of one of MLK's sentences, which I think is a mistake. A few more seconds might have made it work better. Still, much as I dislike "Shoveled" (and I tried hard to like it) it is the only track on the album that I have anything bad to say about, and there are plenty of superlatives left for the rest of it. Again I find it hard to believe that it is not a keyboard opening to the next track too, but what do I know about what this guy can do with a guitar? A spacey, progressive rock feel opens "Lights of an Unknown City" in almost an ELO manner before Plankton unleashes the big guns and in best Steve Earle fashion lets fly as the track powers out at you. Some great soloing and crunching, grinding guitars frame this song, and (sorry Plankton) if you needed something to blow away the cobwebs after the somewhat cloying, claustrophobic "Shoveled", this is just what the doctor ordered! It fades down at the end then to some lovely acoustic noodling, accompanied by that chiming electric. Sweet. The only song not to have been completely created by Plankton, "Canadian Mist" has keys, drums and bass laid down and composed by a guy called Kevin from Canada, which is all Plankton can tell me about his collaborator on this. It's a lovely, Gary Moore style opening and is in fact the first slow track on the album. Again it gives me a sense of Maiden too, especially "Strange World" from the debut, with some soaring, emotional guitar, and I can hear Lizzy's "Still in Love With You" in there too. Apologies for all the comparisons, but this is the only way I know to translate how this guy's music feels and sounds to me. Someone better versed in guitars would be able to go more into the technical side and tell you how great he is, but this is all I can do. I originally had picked this as my favourite track on the album, but over many listens it's now been superceded by the one which comes next. For a while it was something of a battle between the two, but now I think there's a clear winner. With a lovely rippling guitar to start things off, "Son of Soothsayer" soon rips into a big, stomping, heavy metal track with punchy guitar and squealing second guitar, rocking along like there's no tomorrow. Personally, though I'm sure he enjoyed recording every track here, this gives me the impression that it's the one Plankton had the most fun playing. It just gets your feet tapping and your head bobbing, and would not be out of place in any heavy metal fan's collection. It's also one of the longer tracks at over five minutes, though to my mind it's not long enough. A real boogie rhythm keeps the song going, and it could be talkbox that he's using to make that sound where the guitar almost seems to be singing, though I could quite easily be wrong there. It's a testament to Plankton's art and expertise that though this track more or less maintains the same basic riff all the way through it never gets boring or repetitive, and as I say when it comes to an end it seems way too soon. And he keeps things barreling along for "Here We Go Again", a riproaring fretfest which is probably the fastest track on the album. A driving, steamhammer beat pulls it along, with great shredding and again a real heavy metal feel to it. His fingers must have been sore after this, is all I can say! Sort of a cutting, slicing guitar in the background while the main guitar just flies all over the place, solos being fired off left, right and centre. He also seems to have a weird sense of humour in titling some of his songs, as "Xphereblotish" proves - no I have no idea what it means and no I'm not going to ask him: have to maintain some sort of level of ambiguity and mystery, after all! - with a rising guitar riff that then pulls in staccato guitar with a boogie-ing second guitar kind of delivering a blues style melody, a lot of Led Zep in this I feel. Some superb solos and a sense of restrained energy to it, like at any second he could really pull loose and just hit you with a salvo you wouldn't even have a chance to dodge, should you somehow want to. Another of my favourites, "Screaming At an Empty Canvas" is built on a thick bass and a heavy Sabbathish riff, almost Plankton playing doom metal perhaps. It's a lot slower and grindier than anything he's done up to this point, and his main guitar screeches and screams through it like a banshee with dire warnings. There's a real sense of pent-up frustration in this track, the idea being I guess that you have something you want to say but no way to say it, when the inspiration won't come and you're staring at a blank page. Plankton certainly doesn't seem to encounter this problem much anyway, and this is another triumph, with an angry guitar getting more and more animated as the song progresses, till at one point it all drops away to just the one guitar and rhythm section, and a really nice little bass solo in the background before the bigger, harder guitar kicks its way back in for the big finish. That's actually the longest track on the album, just shy of five and a half minutes, though only technically. If you take the title track, which is split into two parts, as one, then you get almost ten minutes of music. "Krill Part 1" opens on soft jangly acoustic guitar which is then joined by screeching electric as the percussion kicks in and the shredding begins! It's another hard, almost metal rhythm as the main guitar screams and the secondary guitar does a passable Vivian Campbell at his Dio best. Great melody to this, with a real sense of longing and loneliness, maybe a touch of despair in the wailing, screeching guitar crying for attention. It fades down then on the back of single guitar and takes us into part 2, where again jangly echoey guitar stands alone until joined by wailing second guitar sounding a little like a violin, and the percussion this time is much slower and more measured, the guitars too slowing down as the fretburning, though still fierce, has a more restrained, almost melancholic feel to it. There's kind of a sense of endings in this song, and I must admit it brought a tear to my eye. Dunno what it is, it just sounds very sad and yearning. The percussion backs a single guitar for a while and each swaps with the other, taking the limelight for a few moments before they join back up for the powerful yet downbeat fadeout finale. Which in itself would have been a great way to close the album, but Plankton has one more for us before we go. Written for his daughter Hanna, "Fields of Youth" is mostly played on introspective guitar with a real sense of reflection and memory, rather commercial in its way. Could see it as the soundtrack to some TV programme maybe. An understated and yet brilliant way to end the album, and a fitting gift to his daughter. Little or nothing in the way of percussion in this, with two guitars making the melody between them, can't even hear any bass. For all that though the tune works really well - ah, think I heard a little bass there - and brings the album to a very satisfying close. TRACK LISTING 1. Flustraxion 2. Waiting Impatiently 3. Shoveled 4. Lights of an Unknown City 5. Canadian Mist 6. Son of Soothsayer 7. Here We Go Again 8. Xphereblotish 9. Screaming At an Empty Canvas 10. Krill Part 1 11. Krill Part 2 12. Fields of Youth This is the first time I've ever had to review an album for, and by, a friend, and I'm really glad I can say it was a pleasure to listen to, and review; though if I had not enjoyed it I would have said so. It's just nice not to have to deliver bad news, however important it may have been seen to have been required. This album has been my constant companion over the last two weeks or so, accompanying everything from walks to dishwashing to making dinner; everything I normally use music as a background for has had this as the soundtrack, and I feel like Krill is an old friend now, and that through it I've come to know better the man behind the music. Plankton hasn't just got talent, he has that special something that makes you feel certain that it's only a matter of time before a lot more people are listening to, and enjoying his music. He may not be at an age where he can start touring the country and appearing on talk shows (though who says he won't?) but this music he makes is far too good to remain locked away somewhere in the files of an obscure website tucked into a forgotten corner of the web. This is music that needs to be heard, and heard by as many people as possible. My own advice to him would be to go the YouTube route: playing his songs live and inviting people to hear them. This has after all worked for many artistes in the recent past. Of course, that may not be his goal, but one way or another this music has got to get out to the public at large. I can't recommend highly enough that you head to his website Home - Planktons Odyssey and download his album and hear this for yourselves. I knew nothing of his talent before agreeing to review this, and now I'm gobsmacked and so impressed I can't say. This album had been of necessity spinning on my ipod for days in order for me to get a good idea of how it sounded, so that I could do an informed review, but even after the requisite four or five plays it usually takes me to get a good feel for an album, I found I was continuing to listen to it, and still am, just for pure pleasure. Some day I'm going to be the envy of my friends (better get some first!) when I tell them that I knew Plankton before he was famous. I honestly feel like I'm watching the birth of a star here, and it really couldn't happen to a nicer or more talented guy. Download this and you're probably going to find your playlists waiting for a while, and your Last.FM or Spotify plays containing an awful lot of this man's music. Join the odyssey: get on board, because Plankton is without question going places. Rating: 9.8/10 __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 10-05-2021 at 07:22 PM.