What is Plus instruments? The title implies the secondary nature of the tools used to produce the sounds, maybe even of the sounds themselves. The means of making sound are not important, but the sounds themselve, but even beyond them there is a force, a grumbling. Maybe best represented by the first sound heard on Plus Instruments “Februauri- April 81”, a sound that is more felt than heard. The grumbling persists throughout the album, not in the same sonic way but things gyrate and repeat until they are mineral and not purely auditory. Using toys, drum machines, and other homemade electronics designed by front person Truus de Groot, the band manages to obscure every song into a hard to maintain mix of No Wave drive, New Wave sheen, and dance music groove. Originally established in The Netherlands in 1979 by Truus de Groot in various line-ups, she hooked up with Lee Ranaldo and David Linton in 1981 when she first ventured to NYC. A trio that smashes the sound of early 80s New York with the equally as progressive European experimentation of the time. Completely without total contemporaries, Plus instruments make music free of bounds from time, labels, and place. Originally released by Kremlin records in 1981 run by Sonic Youth’s future manager Carlos van Hijfte, Domani Sounds proudly presents Februari-April 81′ featuring brand new liner notes by van Hijfte himself.

listen