One only need hear the opening bars of the song “Opportunity” by Plastic Tofu to understand why Andrew Pelletier was selected as a producer; Janusz Domaszuk aka Plastic Tofu is a solo punk project that understands song structure. It becomes almost immediately clear his sound shifts between early eighties to early nineties punk with a lean towards to 2000’s indie rock music. And that’s a good thing, because while retaining all of punk’s intrinsic core elements, the chord progressions and more melodic guitar leads, make this song, and others by Plastic Tofu, musically memorable, even for people outside of the punk community.
Though still raw and gritty in sound, the development of guitar and vocal melodies, more melodic bridges, and choruses more in line with traditional rock music, allow the Chicago IL, based Plastic Tofu to step both deeper into the classic punk aesthetic, as well as outside of the scene with “Opportunity”.
Having said that, Janusz Domaszuk is in total control of his sound design and can take it back to hasher punk basics, as he does on “Chain Reaction” and “Jack of Anything”. In fact nobody else right now, dishes out punk rock quite this authentic-sounding, and its ability to reignite the genre, is irrefutable.
“Opportunity” is crafted to be massive, hard-hitting, and not just sonic fluff, while its clever melodic twists will draw a wide audience. The song literally explodes from the speakers, and it becomes virtually impossible not to move some part of your body when you hear it.
“My dreams are filled with holes, and somebody else’s goals. My eyes are tired, and endless sleeps awaits me, if I don’t get my opportunity,” sings Domaszuk, as he tackles the ills of a modern capitalistic society. Let’s face it in today’s world, things haven’t really gotten any better since punk was fist unleashed to the world. On the contrary it’s gotten worse – economically, socially and politically, the divide between people has grown bigger.
Plastic Tofu, simply gives us more insight, and his perspective, about the workings of the world, and the b.s. that happens around us, while we struggle to survive on a daily basis. The first thing I noticed when pressing play on “Opportunity”, is how well it sounded.
It stomps on you right from the start and keeps you pinned to the ground throughout. Armed with pure charisma, layers of musical adrenaline and caustic lyricism, Plastic Tofu reawaken a pretty dormant genre.
Right from the outset “Opportunity” feels genuine and, more than anything, a statement of intent. Plastic Tofu gets his point across in a just under five minutes, and does so with an excellent musical and lyrical display – that’s what makes the project special. As Plastic Tofu works toward completing and releasing, the upcoming album “One Percenters”, if you didn’t know anything about him at all, “Opportunity” will tell you everything you need to know.
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