PLAN
B ALBUMS(CLICK THE ALBUM TO READ
MAGAZINE REVIEWS):
PLAN B - I'M THE CAPTAIN, WHERE WE
GOING?(2006)
GGOO22, FOURTHCITY, HAND TO MOUTH
U.S. AND EUROPE RELEASE
PLAN
B - KEEPSAKE(2004)
GGOO22
FRANCE RELEASE
PLAN
B - LIKE A SHIP SAILING(2001)
GGOO22, FOURTHCITY, HAND TO MOUTH
U.S. RELEASE
_____________________________________
OTHER PRESS...
PLAN B AWARDS AND HONORS:
Editor Review on music.download.com
"Instrumental hip-hop" usually means a Roots-style
blend of smart rhymes and live beatmaking. Here it's a cross
of Birkin-esque crooning, trip-hoppy rhythms, and Pac-Northwest
indie rock. But it's understandable that Plan B had to pick
an approximate descriptor: their sound isn't like anyone
else's. - editor review
BEATSEEKING
MISSIVES
FOURTHCITY COMPILATION
by Dave Segal
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=18929
For
the last 20 months, heads had a low-key, cool space at Deep
Down Lounge to experience high-quality electronic music
in an intimate basement setting, courtesy of the Fourthcity
clique. But Fourthcity leader Zach Huntting & Co. are
shutting down the popular Monday-night event August 2; they've
accomplished everything they set out to do in this format.
You can still catch some Fourthcity DJ action Tuesday nights
at Lo_Fi and at occasional one-off events. Now they intend
to focus on their members' recording projects and the nascent
Fourthcity label. A new compilation titled Fourthcity has
just entered the marketplace, providing a vivid, if not
thorough, snapshot of Seattle laptop talent circa now.
Many of the disc's 18 tracks lean heavily on downtempo funk
and hiphop, often recalling Mo' Wax and Ninja Tune's '90s
heydays, but without slavishly imitating those seminal British
labels' output. "We didn't receive as many techno or
IDM submissions as we thought we would," says Huntting,
who records as Zapan. "I think everybody just assumed
that hiphop's what we'd be looking for."
Actually, Huntting and his mates were seeking "timelessness."
He remarks, "A lot of the new electronic stuff coming
out seems to be about testing the limits of the artists'
gear and not about composition; we wanted this compilation
to be as enjoyable five years from now as it is today. All
the tracks have a distinct emotional direction, too, which
made the ordering of the tracks a lot of fun."
Scape sets the CD's tone with a beautiful, orchestral triphop
composition, while Former Selv (AKA Jerry Abstract) takes
things into grittier territory with pile-driving electro/IDM
featuring girthful bass and metallic percussion. Other highlights
include Zapan's brazen, swinging glitchhop à la Dabrye,
Variform's heavy, solemn funk (think prime Krush and Vadim
material), and Kris Moon's deep, Chain Reaction-esque tech-dub
reminiscent of Monolake and Rhythm & Sound.
Overall, Fourthcity boasts a high hit-to-miss ratio, lending
the impression that Seattle's electronic-music scene appears
to be healthy. Huntting agrees.
"I'd say Seattle's in the midst of a boom for electronic
music; all the genres are cross-pollinating, and a lot of
newer producers are coming out of their bedrooms and beginning
to mingle. People are realizing that electronic music doesn't
necessarily mean dance music, and can either be one person
with a computer, or a band like FCS North or United State
of Electronica."
Fourthcity's next release will be a mix CD by hiphop turntablists
Hideki, Kamui, and Bumblebee. "We're pressing a few
dubplates of previously unheard stuff by the crew for that,"
Huntting says, "and it'll also feature tracks from
extant records by Plan B, FCS North, Deceptikon, and others,
as well as some stuff off the comp. We're also putting the
finishing touches on the Laptop Battle DVD." With Huntting's
mailbox bulging with excellent demos, you can expect more
hometown electronica to be tickling your gray matter in
the coming months. DAVE SEGAL
For more info, see www.fourthcity.net.
The
Seattle Weekly, May 2005
Plan B is nominated for the 3rd Annual Seattle Weekly Music
Awards in the Electronica Category. Showcase on May 1st.
James van Leuven, aka Plan B, is an underrated figure in
the Seattle—not to mention international—music
scene. Through his approach at self-described "electronic
indie pop," Van Leuven creates languorous and buoyant
soundscapes. Live performances find him behind his laptop,
remixing tracks on which he's played any number of traditional
instruments. Fresh off a brief European tour, during which
he produced the music for the break-dance theater production
Kopf und Tuch, Van Leuven will surely have some new ideas
to share. Electronica. 11 p.m.s
THE
STRANGER, Jan 29 - Feb 4, 2004
THE STRANGER'S SECOND ANNUAL SXSW SEND-OFF SHOWCASE
A dozen bands were chosen out of Seattle's local music scene
to represent The Stranger, EMP, One Reel, NARAS, the Mayor's
Office of Film and Music, and the Capital Hill Block Party.
2 bands are voted the best of the best and win a Sponsored
showcase in Seattle on Friday, March 5th, $2000.00, and
a Sponsored showcase in Austin's SXSW Music Conference on
Friday, March 19th.
PLAN B makes instrumental hiphop that desconstructs the
genre with ingenuity and humor. B-Boy mastermind James van
Leuven is one of those multitalented cats who ought to be
much better known than he is(he plays drums, guitar, and
bass, and breakdances better than you do). The 2002 gem
Like A Ship Sailing drew comparisons to DJs Shadow and Krush
with its noirish melodies, suspenseful cinematic atmospheres,
and tripnotically funky beats.
_____________________________________
The Seattle Weekly, May 2003
PLAN B GETS NOMINATED FOR THE 1ST ANNUAL SEATTLE WEEKLY
MUSIC AWARDS SHOWCASE IN THE EXPERIMENTAL/AVANT GARDE/ELECTRONIC
CATEGORY.
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0329/music-bands.php
_____________________________________
The Seattle Times Top Ten Local Artists of 2002
The envelope, please ... for the top 10 local music highlights
Seattle Times: Entertainment
& the Arts: Friday, December 20, 2002
By Tom Scanlon
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=nite20&date=20021220
As this palindromic year speeds to
a close like a drum solo,here's a look at the top 10 highlights
in local music, 2002:
...
8. Plan B. One of the pleasant, out-of-nowhere surprises
of the year, this is the side project of Automaton drummer
James van Leuven. "Like a Ship Sailing," his Plan
B debut, was a lively, creative collection of samples, loops
and beats — and he quickly became a club favorite,
mixing his laptop-beats with live musicians.
_____________________________________
SHOW
PREVIEWS AND REVIEWS:
The
Stranger Weekly Newspaper, Feb 15, 2006
Plan B and Parskid Play Laser Tag
And Hope You'll Join Them
BY NICHOLAS SCHOLL
We spaced out at the Laser Dome with Grizzly Bear back in
August, when the band coupled some of its new emotive barrage
pop with light-show technician Ivan's masterly visuals.
Now Plan B is ready to floor you. Seriously—there's
room to lie down in the Laser Dome. James van Leuven (laptop
and live drumming) brings his posse of Seattle-ish musical
innovators to the dome to offer some of their chill beats
and mellifluous instrumentation for those who have the ears
to hear: John Paul Scesniak (Origami Ghosts) on guitar/vocals,
Adam Swan (Foscil) on bass/laptop/keyboards, Julian Garcia
(Scientific American) as laptop scratch DJ, Bill Jones (Boogie
Brown Band) on trumpet, and M. Evans working voice manipulation
and the melodica. Half of the show will feature young MC
L. P. Reklaw, with whom van Leuven is working on a hiphop
record.
For the eyes, van Leuven has enlisted the help of local
artist Parskid, whose humor 'n' horror illustration style
will be converted into lasers and stylized live by Ivan.
There couldn't be a more ideal pairing. Parskid has several
series of paintings with titles like Pleasant Monstrosities,
Bright Death, and Floral Derangement, all of which feature
his signature character—a sort of bundled-up gremlin
who, like so many of our readership, manages to be cute
when angry.
I'd like to second Plan B's MySpace profile comment, "SHIT
WILL BE SURREAL. TAKE DRUGS," but Big Bubba is probably
watching. NICK SCHOLL
_____________________________________
Bumbershoot
Guide
Saturday, September 4, 2004
Seattle native and Luckyhorse recording artist James van
Leuven is conductor, producer, drummer, drum machinist and
break dancer in this eclectic down tempo/indie hip-hop quintet.
He’s accompanied by standup bass, trumpet, (violin,
cello), and a female vocalist.
_____________________________________
DJ VADIM, DJ FIRST RATE, PLAN B, DIVERSE
Underground hiphop's hardest-working DJ, Vadim--along with
his amazing turntablist sidekick First Rate--always presents
history lessons you can dance your ass off to, so don't
sleep. Seattle multi-instrumentalist Plan B returns home
to offer his ingenious take on Shadow-esque sampladelia
and espionage-thriller jazz funk. Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison
St, 324-8000, 9 pm-2 am, 21+, $10 adv.
_____________________________________
S.F. brings in the Noise
By Bill Picture, bpicture@examiner.com
Published on Tuesday, February 24, 2004
http://www.examiner.com/article/index.cfm/i/022404a_noisepop
On his own, Luckyhorse Industries recording artist James
van Leuven, former drummer for Pacific Northwest indie rock
outfit Automaton, frolics in the vast expanse between the
beat-driven juggernaut of hip-hop and the as-yet undefined
boundaries of experimental electronica. Inspired equally
by the dreamy downbeat concertos of NorCal trip-hopper DJ
Shadow and the to-the-left-of-left-field dalliances of Bjork,
the Seattle-based musician/DJ/producer fuses live and laptop,
using software to manipulate found samples and recordings
of himself playing drums, bass and guitar and combining
his precision-tweaked output with live trumpet and stand-up
bass. Oh, and this kid can breakdance like nobody's business.
_____________________________________
February
16, 2003
PLAN B
with
Sole(Anticon) and Grand Buffet(Pitts, PA, USA)
at The Rythm Factory, London, UK
Plan B open proceedings. They are a duo of a nob-twiddling
laptop guy and a guy that plucks an upright bass. Tonight
is all about electric string instruments! They produce an
electronic hiphop sound that's minimalist, reminiscent of
Beneath Autumn Sky and Boards Of Canada. When behind their
instruments, they are mellow, jazzy and fairly diverting.
But then, unexpectedly, the laptop guy jumps out from behind
his gear, and onto the Rhythm Factory's still sparse dancefloor.
He walks around in an intentful circle, before leaping into
some complicated (and often painful-looking) spins. This
guy is b-boying to his own, jazzy, downbeat tunes, and the
crowd is suddenly unexpectedly animated. Everybody's cheering
like we're back in Brixton! Now that's a showman. He says
some funny stuff too, like 'I'm in my thirties! I shouldn't
be doing this!'. He also says that the floor is open, so
if 'any other b-boys in the house' want to have a go...
Sadly, nobody volunteers. But we are, undoubtedly, thrilled.
Plan B then, a cool show, but I can imagine that it looses
something of a limb, when on record...
http://www.geocities.com/dot_alt1/main_framesetII.html
_____________________________________
THE
STRANGER: MUSIC:LIVE WIRE
Sep 25 - Oct 2 2003
http://www.thestranger.com/2003-09-25/livewire.html
After touring through Europe forever,
opening for Radio 4 in the UK, and starring in the new DJ
Spooky video, Plan B returned to Seattle, if only
to cool their heels for a couple shows. I saw the duo perform
last week at SAM, where the marbled lobby was a perfect
backdrop for their eclectic electronic hybrids. They mixed
live instrumentation (standup bass, a small synthesizer
that has a mouthpiece and sounds like a bagpipe) with samples
and beats from a PowerBook. The music ranged from cinematic,
ambient downtempo with breathy female vocals to jazzy, chopped-up
hiphop, and James van Leuven showed off some of his signature
breakdancing skills for the crowd. Their next gig is at
Chop Suey on October 9 with DJ Vadim, and I recommend catching
them again before they return to the road.
_____________________________________
GOSSIP:
The
Stranger: Some Candy Talking: Kathleen Wilson(Gossip Column)
http://www.thestranger.com/2004-04-05/some_candy.html
April 5th, 2004
Coming up is a benefit show for some great people--the members
of Plan B and DJ Griesse--that will feature performances
by great bands such as IQU, the Dalmations, Scape, NKO,
Sientific American, and Parskid. But it's all because of
some really shitty people: lame-ass jerks in San Francisco
who stole every lick of Plan B's and DJ Mat Griesse's equipment
out of their van on the last night of their tour. And along
with all the equipment that's now gone comes extra heartache:
the loss of James van Leuven's backup hard drive with all
the Plan B songs he'd ever made to date on it, as well as
the new, unreleased ones. Plan B's Leigh Gable lost a borrowed
digital camera and five cassettes containing the band's
film/video that had taken a month to shoot at various locations
around Seattle. Among software, client info, and expensive
drawing pens, B's Michael Evans lost irreplaceable drawings.
And Griesse's super-rare collection of funk and soul 45s
is gone, too. Nothing has
turned up, and Plan B and Griesse estimate that their total
loss, not including the masses of intellectual property,
is at least $10,000. And this might just be the most heartbreaking
passage I've ever read, written to me in an e-mail from
Gable: "In a sea of fools' errands, this last Plan
B tour was more doomed than most.
Our
tour van came shuddering out of a wrecking yard the day
before we left, we were all broke, and if it hadn't been
for the SXSW showcase we wouldn't have had the gas money
anyway." Ugh. And another came from Griesse: "I
lost a few hundy in tools but I could really give a fuck
about them. My records were my babies and I really want
them back. I have been a compulsive 45 junkie for over 10
years and that box represented thecream of the crop--thousands
of hours flipping through dusty sleeves and thousands of
dollars spent... gone.
" Ugh. So come out to CoCA (410 Dexter Ave N) on Friday,
April 16, and see the aforementioned as well as the desolated
Plan B Mini Orchestra (live drums, cello, violin, trumpet,
and keys) while NKO and Parskid create live murals. Doors
open at 7:30 p.m., show starts at 8:00 p.m., and admission
is $10. Aptly stated by Gable in that woeful e-mail, "We
must have passed that patch of broken glass on the sidewalk
10 times. To borrow a phrase from our friend Pedro Beas
in Tijuana, 'It's the most anti-poetic thing you'll ever
see.'" Let's all pause and cry a little for that.
