RFI: James Plotkin

he played guitar briefly for scorn, if i recall correctly, and released a couple of snoozy ambient collaborations on kranky. more details on his musical career here.

atomsmasher/phantomsmasher is plotkin, dave witte (discordance axis) on drums, and dj speedranch (gurning jackass) on 'audiomulch vocals'. i have both of their CDs and it's pretty amazing stuff, sort of at the border of broken beats and grindcore... i prefer the atomsmasher cd on hydrahead.

lastly, southern lord released a CD by khanate, which reunited plotkin and alan dubin from OLD and threw members of blind idiot god and (i think?) sunn 0))) into the mix. an amazing and torturous re-conception of heavy doom maedl with some subtle and impressive use of computer sound manipulation (especially on the vocals). gets compared to eyehategod, but i don't really know why. look for the track "no joy".

atomsmasher = grate.

The best part was that the poster of the album tried to stick a genre tag on it, which was: darkwave/prog. At first I laughed at the description, but after thinking about it I kind of like it.

ha... so i got this pretty cheap-looking hardcore techno comp CD with rob gee, lenny dee, etc. on it and "jimmy plotkin" is credited on the cover. and the song he did is credited to "ghengis jimmy" and is called "sonofachippa." anyone know anything else about his secret techno past?

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Strictly-For-The-Hardcore-NYC-Underground/release/363375

He talked about in his recent Wire jukebox. Lemme see if I can find the issue.

According to Plotkin it came about cuz the owner of Cafe Sounds put together a techno comp and asked Plotkin if he wanted to contribute a track. Apparently he wishes it was forgotten.

why dudes gotta be like that. it's a decent track!

I'm probably way behind here, but I just heard KHLYST - Plotkin's collab with the shrieking goddess from Thorr's Hammer - and it's fuckin' amazing! Total noise guitar terrorism + tortured Golem vox

Is there *anything* better than OLD's Formula, DAMN it's so good, one of Earache's worst selling albums folks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbVI2o1a1rc

James Plotkin unfriended me on Facebook.

(That sounds like an Anal Cunt song title)

I've heard he is pretty cranky

he is pretty tediously opinions4u on facebook yeah

omfg atomsmasher

i mean obv o.l.d. - formula is just astounding but this is equally so

whoa i'd never heard formula before... awesome

yeah. think formula is probably the marginally better album - more substantial, more evocative, more unlike anything else. but atomsmasher is giving me quite a first listen

Atomsmasher was great. When he had to change the name to Phantomsmasher, the quality dipped substantially, IMO.

While going through music to post a best ten songs of the 90s list, I started listening to OLD's "Lo Flux Tube", and I was surprised by how much I still love it. I got into Old Lady Drivers via Colostomy Grab-Bag on Earache's classic Grind Crusher compilation, wrote it off as a novelty song until a year or so later when I saw Lo Flux Tube at a record shop, bought it because it was on Earache and played it constantly throughout the early 90s. I never managed to turn a single friend onto Plotkin's music - it's always been a private pleasure for me.

I'd be really curious to know how someone who had never heard Lo Flux Tube would rate it in 2021. The Alan Dubin vocals were always kind of the music equivalent of the bathtub scene in the "Breaking Bad" pilot episode.

My personal Plotkin S/D

Seek
Old
Lo Flux Tube
Formula

James Plotkin
The Joy of Disease
The Joy if Disease (demos and remixes) (note: this isn't even listed on discogs.com - I only see it on Spotify)
A Peripheral Blur (with Mark Spybey)
Collapse (with Mick Harris)

Atomsmasher
Phantomsmasher
Khanate

Destroy:
Everything not on this list except Lotus Eaters and Khlyst, which I didn't love, but were OK. He's just done a lot of what to me sounds like really half-assed "experimental" work that sounds like a bored guy fucking around in a nice studio. Also, based on his gross sense of humor, and what people on this thread have said about his social media presence; the less I know about him personally, the better.

I forgot his Flux project with Ruth Harris which was also pretty good.

Oh yeah, and Jodis and Nanamax were also cool projects he was involved in.

I should also add Old's "Musical Dimensions of Sleastak" to the search list. I don't know why I skipped it.

The Joy of Disease demos & remixes are on his Bandcamp:
https://jamesplotkin.bandcamp.com
along with some other unreleased stuff. Also some quite funny recentish modular acid/IDM shit.

I love Atom/Phantomsmasher both. OLD's Formula for sure, and Lo Flux Tube as well as Khanate. Dubin is a perverted genius.
Love Lotus Eaters too.

He was also on Scorn's greatest album (or one of), Evanescence.

Weird, I do not see the Joy of Disease demos. Are you in the US? I wonder if it is geo-locked or something.

Where are you beard papa?

I'm in the UK and can definitely see it - it's the sixth musical item along, "Inevitable Archives Vol 4".

I'm in Aus.

Bandcamp doesn't geo-lock.
Direct link:
https://jamesplotkin.bandcamp.com/album/inevitable-archives-vol-4-the-joy-of-disease-demos-and-remixes

OK, just me being dumb. Hadn't dug into all of those "Inevitable Archives". Thanks!