Angeles: Plastic

Listening to Angeles is like admiring a painting through frosted glass. There’s an image, but the image is blurred. There’s colour and movement and joy and pain, but these things are obscured by waves of noise. That’s not to say these feelings don’t land; they do. Instead of hitting you in the obvious ways, however, they swirl into a far more enthralling and full-bodied kind of emotion.

Or perhaps a better analogy is that of flicking through old family photographs. Mum never really figured out how to use the camera properly, so the images are mostly out of focus, overexposed, etc, but the feeling of the memory is there.

That’s what listening to Angeles is like.

If you’re not yet familiar with Angeles, it’s the latest project from Sydney’s Pluto Sotiropoulos, whose voice you may also recognise from Betty & Oswald. Since dropping his debut single ‘Crush’ in 2020, Sotiropoulos has developed a sound defined by lush, fuzzy tones and dense walls of sound.

Here, on his fourth single, he ups the ante. While his previous singles have floated about in pools of dream-pop and shoegaze, ‘Plastic’ is driven by a punchier rock n’ roll edge. Of course Sotiropoulos’ voice is still dreamy as fuck, and the guitars are like a hypnotic whirlpool of colour, but the forceful, air-tight percussion gives the track’s woozier elements something to grab onto.

‘Plastic’ fits perfectly into Angeles’ growing discography, while expanding the scope of his sound. It’s a classic, thoughtful Angeles track, but one you’re far more likely to get up and dance to.

We really like this song, and I’m willing to bet you will too. Give it a listen below.