I'm loving this.
Review by Heather Phares
It's not every day that you come across an electro-glam-classical-hip-hop opera about self-actualization, but Planningtorock's fantastic debut album, Have It All, maps out this previously unimagined territory. Planningtorock (aka Berlin-based musician/videographer Janine Rostron)'s live performances take this concept even further, with Rostron interacting with videotaped versions of herself as different characters, à la Tracy + the Plastics, so in some ways, Have It All ends up being like a soundtrack from her concerts. It's especially fitting that Planningtorock is a one-woman band, since Rostron's sound is so individual. First of all, there's her voice, which veers from a raspy, almost-androgynous alto to a super-girly falsetto, which is layered into harmonies and elaborate vocal parts the likes of which haven't been heard since the heyday of musicals (or Queen). Outlandish blasts of brass and crazily rattling xylophones that would do Carl Stalling or Raymond Scott proud, plucked pizzicato bass, sawing strings, and eccentric beats collide around her multiple-personality vocals, adding to Have It All's surreal, but very personal, atmosphere. Though it seems whimsical on the surface, the album is also surprisingly empowering. Have It All announces itself boldly with its first few tracks: "Bolton Wanderer" plays like a getaway theme for Rostron, in which she escapes from "waiting in the wings of life" by moving from Bolton, Lancashire, to Berlin. The song's loping hip-hop rhythm and boogie-woogie piano fuse English eccentricity with a German flair for the theatrical, nodding to both her roots and her new home. "Changes"' sampled pizzicato strings simmer with impatience as Rostron exults, "I need it/A new day." On "The PTR Show" she notes with deadpan wit, "there is humor and darkness allowed," while the swaggering electronic glam-blues of "Local Foreigner" is a shout out to her adopted city. Crucially, Have It All's take on self-discovery is fresh and bracing rather than sappy or touchy-feely, and even the wildest flights of fancy -- such as "I Wanna Bite Ya," a curious, cheeky shuffle that suggests that cannibalism might be "what happens if sex is not enough," or "Don't Want What You Don't Want," which looks to Queen Elizabeth I for advice -- eventually make sense in Planningtorock's world. Indeed, Have It All is filled with songs that are bored with the ordinary, from the breathless dancefloor workout of the title track to the parting shot of "When Are You Gonna Start," which feels like a challenge to PTR's listeners to go out and be as bold as she is. Have It All's way-out, wildly theatrical energy may be too over-the-top for some, but the album's individualistic spirit shows that Rostron isn't about to make concessions for anybody.
― Patrick South (Patrick South), Sunday, 30 July 2006 20:22 (nineteen years ago)
I don't feel extremely verbose about it for some reason, but I've listened to it twice and it's really serious fun. The Angie Reed disc that COS put out earlier this year is equally interesting, albeit in a totally different way.
Also check the Planningtorock remix of the Knife song "Marble House." 'Tis dope.
― Mallory L . O'Donnell (That Bitch Camille), Sunday, 30 July 2006 20:34 (nineteen years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 30 July 2006 20:43 (nineteen years ago)
― Telephonething (Telephonething), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:20 (nineteen years ago)
― unnamedroffler (xave), Sunday, 30 July 2006 22:29 (nineteen years ago)
the arrangements on some of the songs are maybe a bit skeletal but it doesn't matter once she starts singing, it is all about her voice -- for this reason her live show is particularly intense, she really gets herself into a state.
― milton parker (Jon L), Sunday, 30 July 2006 23:41 (nineteen years ago)
― a name means a lot just by itself (lfam), Monday, 31 July 2006 01:07 (nineteen years ago)
― Patrick South (Patrick South), Monday, 31 July 2006 01:29 (nineteen years ago)
― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 31 July 2006 02:02 (nineteen years ago)
Uh, you might double check the name of that writer and the writer of the review in the first post of this thread.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 31 July 2006 02:03 (nineteen years ago)
― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 31 July 2006 02:24 (nineteen years ago)
― Telephonething (Telephonething), Monday, 31 July 2006 05:30 (nineteen years ago)
-- Patrick South (psout...), July 30th, 2006.
It's hilarious!
― unnamedroffler (xave), Monday, 31 July 2006 12:18 (nineteen years ago)
― Cyndi Sheehan (xave), Monday, 31 July 2006 12:18 (nineteen years ago)
― Eppy (Eppy), Monday, 31 July 2006 13:40 (nineteen years ago)
― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 31 July 2006 13:41 (nineteen years ago)
― Duncan Wood (tiss), Monday, 31 July 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 31 July 2006 15:23 (nineteen years ago)
Is it also one of the most atypical?
― Eppy (Eppy), Monday, 31 July 2006 16:27 (nineteen years ago)
― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 31 July 2006 16:29 (nineteen years ago)
12 page color book with lyric sheet and many odd pictures of her multiplied into her own posse, breakdancing, howling, etc. very creepy cover.
― milton parker (Jon L), Monday, 31 July 2006 21:47 (nineteen years ago)
I like Changes the best
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaP4yPWLnuA
― dmr (Renard), Monday, 31 July 2006 23:20 (nineteen years ago)
-- a name means a lot just by itself (lfamula...), July 30th, 2006.
Not getting around to rocking is the new rocking.
― Mallory L . O'Donnell (That Bitch Camille), Monday, 31 July 2006 23:27 (nineteen years ago)
The Youtube videos are great (same videos she had projected behind her), but I'd much rather see them accompanied by her live performances.
― minimalist (minimalist), Tuesday, 1 August 2006 00:34 (nineteen years ago)
Again, this isn't to say that I don't like HIA. I do. It's a very good record. It's just a closer kin to Edward Ka-Spel than Queen or Carl Stalling. I'm not one to fault the music to spite the reviewer, but this is an absolutely prime example of why rock criticism is absolutely unreadable (and a minor counterexample to ILM's usually greater trustworthiness in these matters).
― Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Thursday, 24 August 2006 04:09 (nineteen years ago)
Fuck, now I REALLY need to hear this!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 24 August 2006 04:10 (nineteen years ago)
― Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Thursday, 24 August 2006 04:50 (nineteen years ago)
― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Thursday, 24 August 2006 06:22 (nineteen years ago)
Some great news! She's still doing her thing, and:1. Is co-writing that Darwin opera with the Dreijers!2. Is working on a sophomore album with production from the DFA!3. Is appearing on a track on Shit Robot's LP, which is also coming out!
― Telephone thing, Wednesday, 22 April 2009 22:52 (seventeen years ago)
Oh, and there's a short video as well.
http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2389&Itemid=101
― Telephone thing, Wednesday, 22 April 2009 22:53 (seventeen years ago)
Just received in e-mail:
Planningtorock Announces New Record W(Out May 17, 2011 on DFA Records)...Janine composed the 12 songs that make up W over the last three and a half years, mainly recording in solitude in her Berlin studio. A gifted producer, she sings and plays everything – keyboards, strings, guitar – and mixed the record in Sweden at the end of 2010 during an intense session with Christoffer Berg. Additional contributions came from her Icelandic friend Hjörleifur Jónsson, who she recorded playing percussion which was later used as samples sprinkled across the album, and drummer Pat Mahoney, taped in New York. On the whole, though, Janine prefers to work alone. “I’ve realised that doing it on my own in my own time in my own way is the crucial ingredient.”
...Janine composed the 12 songs that make up W over the last three and a half years, mainly recording in solitude in her Berlin studio. A gifted producer, she sings and plays everything – keyboards, strings, guitar – and mixed the record in Sweden at the end of 2010 during an intense session with Christoffer Berg. Additional contributions came from her Icelandic friend Hjörleifur Jónsson, who she recorded playing percussion which was later used as samples sprinkled across the album, and drummer Pat Mahoney, taped in New York. On the whole, though, Janine prefers to work alone. “I’ve realised that doing it on my own in my own time in my own way is the crucial ingredient.”
Plus a new video:
http://www.vimeo.com/19714047
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 9 February 2011 18:30 (fifteen years ago)
Awesome, I was wondering what happened to that album!
― muus lääv? :D muus dut :( (Telephone thing), Wednesday, 9 February 2011 22:56 (fifteen years ago)
Bumping this again so that way three months from now when all y'all are posting on this thread wondering about what the heck this is and how great it is it can be recognized that Telephone Thing and I were just waiting for you.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 10 February 2011 03:58 (fifteen years ago)
Great song. Thanks, Ned!
― naus, Thursday, 10 February 2011 06:13 (fifteen years ago)
Yer welcome!
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 10 February 2011 06:23 (fifteen years ago)
New video:
http://vimeo.com/23062399
My comments a few posts back stand. And this new song is stellar.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 3 May 2011 16:59 (fifteen years ago)