Album Review: Peter Dixon ‘Shady Planet’

By: Kendall | in: Music |

Peter Dixon 'Shady Planet'

We get a lot of CD’s in the mail here at the Plugg. One rainy day pulled a few out of the stack and prepared myself to go pick up my parents who were coming to town to visit, from the airport. I read the Bio that came along with an album called Shady Planet, by Peter Dixon. He was born in London, and raised in Manhattan. He played keyboards for Combustible Edison. It should be noted that his band wrote and performed most of the soundtrack for the movie Four Rooms staring Tim Roth. This all sounded interesting enough to gain my attention, so I decided to give it a listen. Later that evening, after dark I packed up my son, jumped in the SUV and tossed in the CD on the way to the airport.

What followed I was not quite prepared for, and the rainy night just added to the strange feeling this album left me with. The title track “Shady Planet” was the opener. As the windshield wipers flapped back and forth, all I could think about was Aphex twin on Acid walking through a circus filled with clowns from the movie IT, who could only move in slow motion. Imagine all of this, but seen through the eyes of Dthompson eating that green stuff from his windows. Which, by the way is non-hallucinogenic… yeah. See the tribute to Madonna article if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Peter Dixon - Shady Planet

The rest of the album was not quite as trippy. It seemed to be a mix of cool , ambient techno, and creepy keyboard lines, with a hint of Film Noir. The track “Slinky” doesn’t remind one so much of a slinky, but more of a detective movie, where the detective is watching his clients husband having sex with the mayor of a crooked town. All the while unbeknownst to the detective, he is being stalked by a hit man with one arm. “Mastic Shirley” Finds our detective drunk and rolling, on an giddy walk home with a girl he met at a local dive bar. She seduces him and ties him to a bed. In “Jackelope” our detective is into some kinky sex of his own, that begins to go awry and find him naked, injured, and left for dead, on his bed. A manic struggle then ensues as he tries to free himself from what could be his final resting place. Will our hero defy the odds and be freed? Tune in next week to find out. This album hooks you in with sexy saxophone lines, over dry drum loops, over-reverbed guitars, and off kilter organ-ish and keyboard lines that are dissonant beyond compare. It’s an intimate ride that neither takes itself too seriously, nor lets you feel too at home in it’s dark world.

Peter Dixon - Slinky

This album follows in no way, shape or form, what is typically be reviewed by The Plugg staff, but was such a unique standout, and interesting ride that it deserved it’s own little pedestal of Plugg Love. Any record that can make a man on second listen, at 8 AM with no coffee in his veins start to build a story like this in his head is worth a listen.

On the web:
Official Website
Myspace
CDBaby - Buy the CD

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Posted on November 13, 2007

Comments

3 Responses to “Album Review: Peter Dixon ‘Shady Planet’”

mozzer on November 13th, 2007 8:28 pm

Now that is some trippy stuff.

What’s just as interesting is what races through your mind at 8am with no coffee, Kendall.

DThompson on November 17th, 2007 12:22 pm

Yeah, that’s pretty much what the world sounds like to me, especially around the holidays.

Charbarred on November 17th, 2007 4:58 pm

Had a trip to Norwich (a city in the north). Woke up early and was surprised to see the amount of old people rushing to get their Christmas shopping done. It sure was trippy fighting an elderly couple for a sweatshirt…