The album 'Rusty Times' was originally made in 2013 in a very turbulent period of Plazmatick's private life and had never been published before. The material itself is in keeping with the name itself, it's darker. At this stage, Plazmatick began to move away from the "real" instruments he once used excessively (saxophones, trumpets, African percussion, organic sound, samples of real instruments). Although he was already on the way out, old-school dubstep bass was still interesting to him at the time, the slow "chopped & screwed" codeine escapades of producers from Houston and Atlanta revealed to him the effects of slow trance instrumentation.
Due to the great desire for the album to come to life in physical, i.e. vinyl form, a collaboration with the American mastering sound engineer Thaddeus Moore (liquidmastering.com) was imminent. He breathed a new dose of freshness into the material. Although communication took place only by email, this kind of engagement was a great challenge for Thaddeus because he rarely works with musicians from the electronic sphere of music.
''Plazmatick's musical journey over 20 years raced through a jungle of influences, melodies, rhythms, noises, and emotions, culminating in 'Rusty Times', the right side of the equation, the output and a compilation of his entire career, with fewer saxophones but many more electro-noir. Something like audio catharsis, boldly pushed to the asphalt of the urban jungle, with the primary drive of ear and life experiences accumulated over the last decade of poor discographic but rich listening activity. 'Rusty Times is a test of maturity for a music career that has become a teenager, playful, disobedient, but also old enough, ready for love and capable of war a piece of youth. And there is always time for youth."
Velimir Grgić
Seiji Kurata is a Japanese artist and a world-renowned and respected master of photography. He was born in Tokyo in 1945. In his opus, he worked with oils, various prints, and experimental films. His work was mostly based on detailed portraits of the world of bōsōzoku, gangsters, strippers, transvestites and other 'maladapted' actors from the sphere of society. Prints of Kurata's photographs are in the permanent collection of the International Center of Photography (New York, USA), the Brooklyn Museum, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Cover Photo used with author's permission:
A Tattooed Man, rooftop of the Bungeiza Street Building, Ikebukuro, Tokyo, 1975 ©︎ Keiko Kurata
Plazmatick came into contact with Seiji with his perseverance and great desire to collaborate. Primarily because he liked (by chance) his picture of a yakuza member taken on the roof of a building. After a month of excessive e-mail bombardment of galleries and Japanese photo portals, contact was established through Kurata’s colleague Yoichi Nagata. Permission to use the photo was obtained, but only for 100 physical copies of the album. This will also make 'Rusty Times' a very limited and valuable collector's edition. Since Seiji asked for Plazmatick's permission for the material itself to serve as the soundtrack of his traveling photo exhibition, the search for a publisher did not last long. According to his own wish, Plazmatick wanted this to be the first official album released under the record label. The official release is expected this fall.
Unfortunately, Seiji Kurata recently passed away leaving such a big gap in the artistic milieu which also gives this album a very emotional trait in the end.
Immerse yourself with Plazmatick's video for the song aptly titled Ostani doma (Stay Home) which also appears on 'Rusty Times' album
Plazmatick - Ostani doma (video)
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