Themes of love, heartbreak, political animosity, and loneliness are rife in terms of thematic threads for records. The most recent La Dispute album, Rooms Of The House, is an example of a record which used its thematic core effectively to give the album a sense of coherence and create a relationship between its subject matter and audience. However, not many bands turn to a world outside of the human environment during this process. Manchester three-piece Plank decided to forego such traditions, embarking upon a mammal-based concept for their debut released 2012, Animalism, and have ventured in the direction of the insect community for their follow-up, Hivemind. Dedicated to the man who came up with the title, Charlie Bayley, who sadly has since passed away, the pulsing, lively heart of Hivemind is full of bustling, arthropod-based instrumentals and sounds which come alive in stunning fashion over the course of the record.
The relation of the album to that of the insect world is not to be seen as a joke or indeed metaphorical. Hivemind exists as a single entity, breathing and progressing as hives and other such insect communities do cumulatively. Each track evolves into the next, and, with there being no sung lyrics on the record, the music is reflective of the names of each track. It is an album which must be listened to from start to finish, as its meandering perfectly embodies the random structures within which the insect world lives and calling on one to immerse oneself in the inventive nature of Hivemind.
The layered, wholesome instrumentation lends itself in perfect partnership to the environment Plank are forging. Tracks such as “Dark Web” meticulously construct the world in which the album exists, paying an impressively close attention to details and specifics. The varying elements of urgency and force are contrasted with notions of serenity, imitating that of a spider’s web but careful to include nods towards the beauty of the arachnid’s creation. The transition from the hopeful rise in “Metamorphosis” into the more ethereal “Moth Lover” is again indicative of the reflection of the subject within the music itself, as the life of the album indeed grows over the course of the two songs, with each track literally living and breathing within the world which Plank are creating.
This relationship between subject and track name leaks back to the band’s debut, Animalism, which, with songs such as “Dying For Pigs” and the equally pleasant “Pig Sick,” offered a similarly layered and off-beat approach. What Animalism lacked is one of the things that Plank! does so well on Hivemind is develop a greater sense of texture and appreciation for their subjects. For all of the atmospherics of Animalism’s “Iguana Farm,” there is nothing to match the translucent instrumentals of Hivemind’s “Drone” and “Waterboatman,” into which the band have put precision and care to ensure the result is right. Both of these tracks further engage with a degree of menace, which makes the world of Hivemind that much more vivid. The muffled vocal snippets included on a couple of tracks, such as “Moth Lover,” are also a nice touch, as they involve the audience further in the insect world, both reminding us of the human contact, while the inability to understand what is said similarly emphasising the degree of separation between ourselves and our arthropod neighbours.
Much like the environment with which it engages, Hivemind is diverse in the genres it adopts. The acoustic melancholy of “Cricket” stands tall as a short piece which plays its role within the ecosystem of the record, leading into the celebratory closer “Khepri”’ Named after the Egyptian god of creation, who had the head of a scarab beetle, its chirruping keys and gradual evolution into a bold, brave and forceful prog-track stands tall as the ultimate applause from the band towards the insect world. “Swarm Behaviour” boasts math-inflected guitar work which again lies in perfect harmony with the activity of a swarm, before moving into territory abound with heavy, driving riffs. The ability of the band to move with the environment they are engaged with is a skill unto itself, as again, they aren’t merely in motion for the sake of motion, but in order to reflect the nature of the album.
While the opening tracks “Grasshoppers From Mars,” “Aphidelity,” may become a bit tangled. The evolving nature of the natural world is still reflected by the meandering instrumentation, and largely this successfully conveys the intended impression. The strength of the rest of the album lies in the sense of common life which the tracks share, with songs such as “Moth Lover” unable to exist as they do without the prior inclusion of “Metamorphosis.” The demand for immersion which comes with the life force that grows as Hivemind proceeds is that which its success feeds off of, and is something which again feels somewhat misplaced early on.
Forever ebbing and evolving with a sense of life smuggled in with layers of texture and atmosphere, what Hivemind is is exactly what it promises to be. Individually it isn’t necessarily the greatest record to be released this year, but that’s because it doesn’t exist as such. Like an ant’s nest or a bee hive, it is the sum of its parts which makes it such a satisfying experience. Ambitious in its conception yet totally organic in its totality, Hivemind is a record which, despite room for some extra refinement, is full of beauty and intrigue, and has much to give to a willing audience.
Rating; 4/5