by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Plum Professional is more than just a great band name, it's a great band too. The duo combines the songwriting talents of Luke Csehak (The Lentils, ex-Happy Jawbone Family Band) and Michael Chadwick (ex-Laser Background) for a soulful blend of MIDI based psych, folk, and pop. Getting ready to release their full length debut, Employee Handbook, on December 9th via Nicey Music (Grape Room, Mark Cone, Banny Grove), the record is sun faded, warped, and casually funky. It's hard to say it better than the band's own bio:
"Fat and slippy layers of analog synths counterpoint Luke's Tom-Verlaine-friendly guitar, in a surreal aural landscape so expertly engineered you'd almost think it wasn't recorded in a bedroom. But listeners will agree, it's faded neon, airbrush funkiness could only have come from a California bungalow ill-advisedly ratcheted to the side of a mountain."
We're thrilled to share the band's latest single, "Deep Double Blind," a retro-futuristic pop nugget that features guest vocals from Weyes Blood aka Natalie Mering. Csehak's spindly guitar line sets the tone from the start, an angular yet inviting riff that works together with Chadwick's twinkling MIDI grooves. Csehak and Mering bounce vocals back and forth, pairing together like a long lost prog-tweaked psych hit from the Summer of Love. The song balances between busy synths, a jangly mix of blues and spaghetti western riffs, the vocal's gorgeous harmonies, and the undeniable chemistry of the band's call-and-response structuring. It's a stunning song with layers of interesting hooks, surreal lyricism, and tangled melodies. "Deep Double Blind" is the paisley-prog standard we never knew we were waiting for but needed all along.
Plum Professional's Employee Handbook is out December 9th on Nicey Music.