The constant flux of musical trends can be tiring. Leaping from one hot sound to the next hotter sound seems to be the M.O. for a number of today's musicians. On the other side of that spectrum sits One Little Plane aka Kathryn Bint, a songwriter content to leave a four-year gap between her debut LP, Until, and this new one, Into the Trees. There are no tricks or gimmicks to her music either; instead Bint crafts a world of gentle, meditative motion out of simple melodies.
This record, like her first, comes with a production job from Kieran Hebden. While sonically his influence is understated, it's still worth thinking about Hebden as a finger-pointer. Songs like "She Was Out in the Water", featuring Radiohead's Colin Greenwood on bass, are built brick-by-brick in a similarly circular way to Four Tet's earliest work. Around the time of Pause in 2001, Hebden was more likely to sample wind chimes than drop a sub-bass; his music felt pretty folky and zen-like. One Little Plane shares that ethos, and it helps make this record a more curious and psychedelic affair than it easily might have been.
"Hold You Down", the other track with Greenwood on bass, is the highlight, a song that builds from a rudimentary start into something more humid and pretty. There's even a bit of Martina Topley-Bird's husky drawl lurking at the fringes of Bint's vocal as gentle percussion and harmonies give the song a lush swirl. Despite a couple of sticky lyrics, "Bloom" stands out too: a soft synth making for intriguingly minimal company to Bint's vocal as she sings, "We will stay here, until we bloom." It's pretty, visual-sounding music.
Most of the time Into the Trees holds a soft, pretty orbit, so when Bint flays that vibe on "I Know", it comes across as striking and intense. Beneath a droning backdrop she sings a warning of, "There is a road that I will not go down/ If you want me then stand your ground," before later exploding the song with fuzzy guitars. It's a moment of teeth-baring on a record that otherwise feels content to keep you at arm's length.
Bint's mostly relaxed and easy approach teases out enough pleasant moments on Into the Trees but rarely offers a resolution. The weakest moments feel embryonic and too well-worn: Songs like "It's Alright" and "Simmer Down Simmer" mine overly familiar chord progressions and emotions that manipulate rather than coax. For the most part, though, Into the Trees is a curious and enjoyable listen. It also feels like a record happy to exist outside of anything else, and if nothing else that resolve makes One Little Plane an intriguing prospect.
