The connotations of the biosphere is one of the organic, the spreading and unfurling of organisms, growing and spreading almost imperceptibly into luscious bloom. Perhaps rather surprisingly, then 'N-Plants' is not soft, warm and fluid, but possessed of a most scientific, clinical atmosphere. The waves and pulses are all meticulously measured, regulated, controlled. This is because the N-Plants in question are not of the variety that bud and burst fronds and trailers, green shoots and tendrils, but the Nuclear power plants of Japan (the album was written, inspired by the country’s advanced nuclear program, before the Fukushima disaster).
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This clinicality makes it difficult to really engage with: this is not an album that stirs emotions or inspires the listener to let the music fill their mind and drift away. Instead, the listener is shut out of the laboratory, able only so press their face to the glass portal and observe the rigour of the creators as they systematically construct. Technically, it may be impressive, but it’s just too cold to be stimulating.
It's life, but not as we know it.
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