Let’s get it out of the way early… Revenge of the Platypus is a pretty interesting band name. Part of me thinks it’s pretty cool, while another part makes me wonder what happened to this poor platypus. Regardless, the silhouettes on the album cover remind me of Jar Jar Binks, and that’s really not something I ever need to be reminded of.
Revenge of the Platypus is a West Coast trip hop act comprised of Malachi and Rose Bazan. 2010 saw the release of Dreams, the second album from Revenge of the Platypus. Now on Dreams Instrumentals, you get the same album minus the vocals of course.
Having not heard Dreams originally I made sure to go back and listen to what I could of it. It reminded me of Massive Attack’s earlier work based on the vocals. While Revenge of the Platypus’s music can be compared to other trip hop or DJ acts (RJD2, Tricky, Portishead), when it is listened to instrumentally it reminds me more of Zero 7, Morcheeba, or even more ambient and new age at times. It doesn’t really have the hip hop feel that you get from someone like DJ Shadow.
After listening to some of Dreams, I didn’t really care for the vocals all that much. This is partly why it reminds me of earlier Massive Attack, which also had vocals I didn’t much care for. So from what I’ve heard between the two, I prefer Dreams Instrumental over the original. The songs are relaxing and full of different instruments (piano, guitar, strings, on top of the usual culprits). The variation from song to song is quite nice and the album still flows well from track to track. I could do without some of the songs, but maybe they are better when the vocals are included. Without the vocals though, some of the songs are very good, some of them are just okay, and some of them sound like video game music. Some people may like their music to sound like a video game, and that may even be Revenge of the Platypus’s intention, but it’s not something I care for. If I wanted video game music, I would go play Castlevania. Still, when firing on all cylinders, Dreams Instrumentals has some really strong tracks on it. I could see a really good, fully intended, instrumental album coming from Revenge of the Platypus in the future.
Key Tracks: Bitch of a Paper Cut, Amb Boom, Arcane Monkey, Spring
Kevin Kozel - Sr. MuzikReviews.com Staff
August 4, 2011
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