antiMusic.com: Plastic Handgun - Involuntary Memories

Plastic Handgun - Involuntary Memories

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The irony is not lost that Plastic Handgun opens its album, Involuntary Memories, with a track called "Introverts." Not coincidentally, this act sounds like the introverted creative type. One can just picture Toronto, Ontario's Mark Di Giovanni (who handled all instrumentation, as well as production) hunched over, with - perhaps -- unkempt hair draping over his eyes or a hoodie obscuring his face, as he plays these 10 tracks.

This music sounds a lot like 80s The Cure did, back when it wasn't uncommon for that Goth-related act to create extended tracks with very little vocalization. Di Giovanni does sing on this album, notably on the track "Lisbon," but his vocal is pushed way down in the mix. More prominent is this project's inventive production and layered melodic lines that build upon each other and intertwine together.

Song titles like "Grave Spinning II" suggest Di Giovanni is inspired by some classic Gothic music. The latter has a relatively 'happy' sounding (and 'happy' is a relative term, of course) melody, despite its Morrissey-esque title.

Plastic Handgun comes off, upon first glance, as an impotent name. However, the music it creates is quite powerful.