Pia Fraus - Plastilina

by Anthony Strutt

published: 30 / 1 / 2004

Label: Clairecords
Format: CDS

"Magical" new EP from 6 piece Estonian group, Pai Fraus, which comes across as " a restrained version of dreamy shoegazier pop... without the ear ringing that comes afterwards"

Review

Pia Fraus are a 6 piece group from Estonia. I think this EP is absolutely magical. There may be nothing new here, but that’s cool. This is still so much better than most of the stuff in the Indie charts in Britain now. Pia Fraus don’t remind me of any one particular band, but instead sound like bits of lots of different bands. They, however, do this without stealing anyone’s ideas and create their own big sound. That sound is like a restrained version of dreamy shoegazer pop, but without the ear ringing that comes afterwards. ‘Moon Like a Pearl’ sounds a bit like something Slowdive or Lush would have done, if they were a bit more thrashy, and is lyrically twee. ‘Obnoxious’ is very much reminiscent of the early 90’s in vocal style and is similar to Ride.‘Summer Before Spring’ comes across as an amalgamataion of a dozen shoegazer acts, while ‘Deep Purple Girl’ is like My Bloody Valentine, but is quieter and more harmony-based. ‘Swim in Eyes’ has a French Stereolab quirky feel, and cool keyboards, groovy bass and a tambourine and wonderful pitta-patta drums . What more could you want ? Sadly, after this, however, there are two uncredited tracks. The first is one minute of nothing and complete silence, while the second is jazzy, experimental and weird, but not in a good way. It just spoils all the previous good work gathered here.