Inspiration comes from Derek Jarman and sex doll pregnancy on the band's sprawling debut single.
Photo: Spela Cedilnik | Words: Lloyd Bolton
'Plastic Princess' is the debut single from London group My Pussy Tastes Like Microplastics (MPTL Microplastics or just Microplastics for short). Sprawling to seven minutes, it captures the depth of lyricism and the attendant darkness of a band whose sound is impossible to definitively pin down, comparable at turns to acts as diverse as Throbbing Gristle, The Fall, Gong and Flip Top Head.
The band cite Derek Jarman as the central muse of the piece and he is depicted on the cover watering his garden, in which an inflatable sex doll lies supine. Allusive lyrics evoke the hollowness underlying the satiation of consumer desires as weary tripled-up vocals from Joey Hollis, Amelia Blackwell and Bella Shannon mournfully sing, "The plastic princess is pregnant again."
'Plastic Princess' artwork by Holly Hollis
The band's live reputation is largely built on the indelibly harsh edges of their sound, relentlessly powered by twin percussionists, stacks of guitar noise and furious vocals. On this track, however, there is an eerie degree of restraint and understatement, disquieting as the slow swell of the brackish waters that form the backdrop to the murmurous worries of "all the wives of Kent". The band's secret weapon, a 'synth pipe' played by Bella Shannon, creates a breathy silt that ties the sound together, counterbalancing the harsh elements against which it clashes. The reference to inflatable dolls invites comparison to Roxy Music's 'In Every Dream Home A Heartache', the lyrics of this song pushing further into the strangeness gestured towards by the Roxy tune. Carving through the music, an evocative cello solo from Alex Duncalf echoes an Andy Mackay saxophone line, serving to deepen the similarity.
Quickly building their reputation on stage with original and unbounded songcraft and as close to genuinely anarchic performance as you will find on stage London, 'Plastic Princess' marks the debut of a band with a particularly mercurial magic. Due credit to producer/engineer Armando Gonzalez Sosto for translating this all to tape.
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