In case you missed it when it dropped during Easter, here’s a beautiful and melancholy video for the new Plenty (feat. Tim Bowness) single Strange Gods! Watch the video HERE
Plenty are back! Formed in 1986 and disbanded in 1990, Plenty’s core trio of Tim Bowness, Brian Hulse and David K Jones reformed in 2016. Over a period of 14 months, Plenty re-recorded 16 songs originally written in the 1980s, alongside one new piece.
An album resulting from the sessions – called It Could Be Home – has been mixed and co-produced by Jacob Holm-Lupo, and also features contributions from Michael Bearpark, Steve Bingham and Peter Chilvers. The cover artwork is by Carl Glover and the album will be released on April 27th via Norwegian label Karisma Records (Major Parkinson, Tusmorke, Airbag…) on all formats including beautiful colored limited edition vinyl.
It Could Be Home is a debut release over thirty years in the making. Emerging from the ashes of Liverpool-based Post- Punk eccentrics A Better Mousetrap and Warringtonian Art Rock band After The Stranger, Plenty formed in 1986 and was Tim Bowness’ immediate pre-no-man band.
Distinctively echoing then contemporary artists such as The Blue Nile and Prefab Sprout – alongside the iconic likes of David Bowie and Peter Gabriel – Plenty’s music alternated between electro-pop anthems, poignant ballads and ambient experiments and was unheard at the time beyond two North West performances and a handful of plays on local radio stations such as Piccadilly Radio, BBC GMR, BBC Radio Merseyside and Radio City.
Between Spring 2016 and Summer 2017, founder members Tim Bowness, Brian Hulse and David K Jones re-recorded Plenty’s catalogue of 1980s songs and set about completing the album the band had hoped to release three decades previously. Whilst re-writing some lyrics and streamlining elements of the songs arrangements, the band remained faithful to both the spirit of the original recordings and the era in which the songs were written.
Showcasing the origins of styles that subsequently became Bowness and no-man trademarks, It Could Be Home also reveals different sides to Bowness’ vocals, as Jones’ powerful bass playing and Hulse’s inventive guitar parts and pulsating electronics push Bowness into territories he’s rarely explored since the 1980s. The Rolling Stones As Tears Go By is given a radical synth-heavy overhaul, Hide and Climb possess a driving Post-Punk energy, while pieces like Foolish Waking and Strange Gods anticipate the timeless atmospheric melancholy of Bowness music to come. The Good Man – the band’s first new song in 27 years – provides a seamless link between Plenty’s past and the present.
It Could Be Home was mixed and instrumentally augmented by Norwegian producer Jacob Holm-Lupo (White Willow, The Opium Cartel).
Mastered by The Pineapple Thief’s Steve Kitch, the album also features contributions from former Plenty guitarist Michael Bearpark, pianist Peter Chilvers (Brian Eno, Karl Hyde) and no-man violinist Steve Bingham. A lost Art Pop treasure well and truly found.
Tracklist
01. As Tears Go By
02. Hide
03. Never Needing
04. Broken Nights
05. Foolish Waking
06. Strange Gods
07. Every Strangers Voice
08. Climb
09. The Good Man
10. It could be Home
Pre-orders are available HERE
For more information:
https://www.weareplenty.com
https://www.karismarecords.no
