Plaster is a Canadian electro-jazz/ electro-rock band formed in 2001 in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

. Their sound has been compared to such artists as

Amon Tobin Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin (born February 7, 1972), known as Amon Tobin (), is a Brazilian electronic musician, composer and producer. He is noted for his unusual methodology in sound design and music production. He has released eight ...

, Kruder & Dorfmeister and

Medeski Martin & Wood Medeski Martin & Wood (or MMW) is an American jazz fusion band formed in 1991, consisting of John Medeski on keyboards, Billy Martin on drums, and Chris Wood on bass. The band is influenced by musical traditions including funk and hip hop and ...

.Lamarche, Bernard, "Un Plaster à la bonne place", ''Le Devoir'', Nov 4, 2005
(French text) Last accessed Nov 8, 2008
Last accessed May 11, 2012 The trio's debut album, ''First Aid Kit'', was released on Nov 10, 2005 and won the

ADISQ ADISQ (french: Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video; eng, Québec Association for the Recording, Concert and Video Industries, link=yes) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the indep ...

award for Best Electronic or Techno Album in 2006.List of 2006 ADISQ Award nominees and winners
(French text) Last accessed Nov 9, 2008

History

Keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical inst ...

Alex McMahon and

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

Jean-Philippe Goncalves (also of

Afrodizz Afrodizz is an eight-member afrobeat/afrofunk band from Montreal. Their music is a modern mix of afrobeat, jazz and funk, that has been described as having nuances of The Herbaliser and Tony Allen.McLeod, Erin, "Reach to teach >> Montrealer And ...

and Beast) met while attending the Cégep de Drummondville.Martel, Stéphane, "Becs et Bobos", ''Voir'', Nov 10, 2005
(French text) Last accessed Nov 17, 2008 The pair formed Plaster in 2001 and were joined by bassist François Plante (also of Afrodizz) a year later.Plaster's biography from its press kit at www.plasterband.com
Last accessed Nov 9, 2008 The trio's name is derived from a slang term in Québécois for an

adhesive bandage An adhesive bandage, also called a sticking plaster, medical plaster, or simply plaster in British English, is a small medical dressing used for injuries not serious enough to require a full-size bandage. They are also known by the genericized t ...

and its sound has been described as a mixture of electro-jazz, funk, and drum and bassMello, Marie-Hélène, "Plaster - Experience Live", ''Longueur d'Ondes'', Winter edition 2005/2006 (French text) (however Goncalves has stated in an interview that he finds the term "electro-jazz" to be somewhat pejorative and described their sound as "electro-chunky-jam".) Their sound is at times atmospheric, much like movie soundtracks; in a 2005 interview with the Montreal Gazette, McMahon stated that Plaster was interested in composing a movie score, but the band was still waiting on proposal. Their live performances are improvisational and have been described as having the energy of a

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

show. As per Plaster's biography from its official press kit, the band's sound is inspired by the music of

The Herbaliser The Herbaliser is an English jazz hip hop group formed by Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba in London, England during the early 1990s. Although currently releasing on their own label and having previously been signed to !K7 Records, they were one o ...

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The Cinematic Orchestra The Cinematic Orchestra is a British nu jazz and downtempo music group created in 1999 by Jason Swinscoe. The group is signed to independent record label Ninja Tune. The Cinematic Orchestra have produced four studio albums, ''Motion'' (1999) ...

, and

. Plaster's debut album ''First Aid Kit'' was released on November 10, 2005. The album was originally to be released on the

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

label Ninja Tune, but due to frustration with the label's push-back of the release date they decided instead to sign with local label

La Tribu La Tribu is a Canadian independent record label founded in 1999 in Quebec. Noted artists * Dorothée Berryman *Robert Charlebois * Les Cowboys Fringants * Dee * Dumas * Louise Forestier * Fred Fortin/Gros Mené * Jorane * Juste Robert (fr) *Ka ...

.Renaud, Philippe, "Plaster: Premiers Soins", ''La Presse'', Sep 28, 2005 (French text) The ''First Aid Kit'' release party, held at Montreal nightclub La Tulipe, was a great success; much to their own surprise the band opened to a capacity crowd and sold all the CDs they had on hand that night. In 2006 ''First Aid Kit'' went on to win the

award for Best Electronic or Techo Album. In 2005 the band also collaborated with

Lauryn Hill Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. She is often regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, as well as being one of the most influential musicians of her generation. ...

; Hill was in Montreal looking for collaborators for a new project she was developing. Goncalves was invited to audition for her and to demonstrate his programming expertise. He returned the next day for another session when a producer in attendance mentioned that Goncalves also played drums. Goncalves advised Hill that he was a member of a band and an hour later he was joined by his Plaster bandmates. During an interview with the

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

Goncalves said of the experience: "We recorded until 6 in the morning, and then she left for

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

." "It was 12 intense hours with ''la reine de R&B soul'' (the queen of R&B soul)," said McMahon. The pair were however would not elaborate much more on the collaboration. "We had a lot of fun with her, but it's a delicate topic. I don't know what to say. It was nice," said Goncalves. In 2011 the band returned to the studio to work on their second album.Côté, Émilie, "Jean-Phi Goncalves, musicien sur commande", ''La Presse'', Nov 29, 2011
(French text) Last accessed Mar 24, 2012 In an interview with '' La Presse'' Goncalves stated that whereas Plaster's first album could be described as electro-jazz, their second album could be described as electro-rock. Titled ''Let It All Out'', the album was released on May 15, 2012 and debuted at number 43 in Canada.Robillard Laveaux, Olivier, "Plaster: Évolution numérique ", ''Voir'', May 10, 2012
(French text) Last accessed May 27, 2012Côté, Émilie, "Plaster: bye-bye le jazz, bonjour le rock", ''La Presse'', May 12, 2012
(French text) Last accessed May 27, 2012
/ref>

References

External links

Official website

Plaster on Myspace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plaster) Musical groups established in 2001 Musical groups from Montreal Canadian electronic music groups 2001 establishments in Quebec