Powerplant – ‘Grass’ EP review: taking things up a gear
The Grass EP, the latest offering from South London punks Powerplant, is a reminder that the band still has much to give. After releasing the instrumental fantasy album Stump Soup in 2022, they’ve re-emerged with five surreal pieces that encompass post-punk, doom, techno and a host of other palettes, with frontman Theo Zhykharyev sounding as ominous as ever. Let’s be clear, one of Powerplant’s strengths has always been plucking from across their wide range of influences, they’ve certainly taken things up a gear on that front with the new EP.
The record opens with the title track. An immediate number, it kicks off with a repetitive, almost industrial section before it gives way to a 1980s-evoking groove, where Zhykharyev bounces in between genuine crooning and a cartoonish tremble.
A bizarre sonic journey, the synth line in the chorus is incredibly infectious and acts as a magnetic counterbalance to the more dissonant elements that the track toys with. Toeing the line between the waking world and nightmares is something that Zhykharyev and the group are well-versed in at this point, with the hypnotic climax carried by the frontman’s insidious vocals proving to be an excellent exhibit of this.
This ending sets the tone for the second song, ‘Broodmother’. Kicking off with a fuzzy, funk-inflected bassline, Zhykharyev sounds particularly evil here, with the robotic thuds of the drums and the menacing synths augmenting this tangible sense of dread. There’s also the unorthodox ending, where the vocal melody takes the grisly aural blend in an unexpected direction. It’s a welcome move, with the brief metallic clinks of the percussion and stabbing keys introducing a marching rhythm as thunder crashes from above, and we topple off the cliff edge into the murky depths.
‘Walk Around – Hang My Head’ proves to be another catchy number, complete with a more prominent synth line than its predecessors, it’s the most melodic number of the Grass EP. Whilst the band’s frontman is still demented, his delivery is more restrained here, as his strums and the synth dovetail to provide a moment of respite from their more devilish moments on offer here. That final synth melody is another killer.
Exhibit four, ‘3 Medallions’ shouldn’t work, but it does. A heady, 24-second rumble of Skee Mask-esque techno, it’s a fascinating curveball that lays the red carpet for the EP’s final track. That comes in the form of the lead single ‘Beautiful Boy’, which brings the curtain down adroitly.
A more traditional offering, it starts with a harmonious synth chime before the elements all crash together in a thunderous twist. A blast of spiky guitars and wailing electronics, the song features Powerplant’s familiar synths that swirl, bend and shudder in the background as Zhykharyev’s lyrics vocalise his feelings about Russia’s invasion of his native Ukraine.
Of the song, he says: “I had the melody and the lyrics more or less written for quite some time but it didn’t mean a lot to me, until so much was lost and taken by the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year. The carcass of ‘Beautiful Boy’ was what I had to process the loss personally.”
Grass arrives on July 14th via Static Shock Records.
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