For Beginner Piano by Plone

For Beginner Piano, Plone's debut album, came out on Warp in September 1999, and it sounds like a Birmingham back room stuffed with junk-shop analogue keyboards, which is more or less how the band began: Mark Cancellara and Mike Johnston buying up old synths and guitar effects in late 1994, then roping in Johnston's housemate Billy Bainbridge. "Plock" had arrived a year earlier and NME and Melody Maker both picked it among the best singles that year.

The record is all toy-box melodies and wobbly, sunlit tones, closer to a children's TV theme than a dancefloor. AllMusic pointed back to the synthesizer and tape-music pioneers Perrey & Kingsley; Pitchfork found it pleasant to the point of disappearing into the wallpaper. It turned out to be their only official album: after Rob Mitchell, the Warp man who signed them, died of cancer in 2001, the follow-up never got a proper release.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.