This two-track instrumental EP is released on October 2, 2026. However, it is already available on Bandcamp, here.
I am picking up this review late in the evening after cooking for everyone and watching an episode of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe—it was rather good, actually, and as the series has gone on, I have got more into it. But I thought I would squeeze in a review, and, in a suitably sci-fi frame of mind, I drifted towards this dark instrumental double from Plantagenet 3.
Press Release
“Inspired by the clanging reverb of instrumental surf bands like Man or Astro-man?, but also by post-rock and classical chamber music, the record is an unusually English take on the guitar instrumental. Where many surf-adjacent bands are influenced by the aesthetic of American B-movies, Plantagenet 3 has instead the quaintly off-kilter air of horror-tinged sci-fi from the UK, such as Quatermass or 70s Doctor Who.”
The Review
The grey wash on the old mansion house occupying the cover for this EP immediately reminded me of Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan novel — there is something suitably Gothic and slightly unsettling about the image, and it sets the tone nicely for what follows.
“Escape to the Country” – 4:33
This track opens with drums and cymbal before the guitar really picks up the pace. Stylistically, the guitar sound reminded me a little of Hank Marvin, while the general aesthetic took me towards cinema — perhaps an old mansion house or a late-night walk through a forest.
I played it through a couple of times to get a handle on things, as instrumentals build layers that you don’t always pick up on the first listen. Those echoing guitars and rolling drums gradually create a sense of movement, and there is something cinematic about the way the track develops. I could almost imagine it accompanying a slightly sinister journey through an English landscape after dark.
“The Folly”
This is very much late-night listening and rather apt for the coming of autumn. It is a track of fallen leaves and the slight hint of winter in the air. It is a song of birds in the dark and old houses, of shadows stretching across empty rooms.
I found on the second play-through that I was swept along by it more. You are rewarded by allowing this one to wash over you rather than trying to dissect it. The guitar creates the atmosphere, while the rhythm keeps the track moving underneath it, giving it a slightly dreamlike quality.
There is something distinctly English about both tracks. This isn’t the sun-drenched California of the classic surf instrumental; it feels colder, darker and rather more mysterious. Think less American Graffiti and more a deserted country house, a misty lane and the feeling that perhaps you shouldn’t have come here after dark.
“Restoration” doesn’t demand that you sit down and analyse every guitar note. It works better when you simply let it drift into the room. By the second listen I was no longer thinking about reviewing it; I was somewhere between an old country house, a darkening autumn wood and a particularly strange episode of Colin Baker era Doctor Who.
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Guitar and bass played by Richard Lanyon and recorded by Ben Turner at Axe & Trap Recording Studio, Wells.
Drums played and recorded by Stephen Gilchrist at Brixton Hill Studios, London, with assistant engineer Charlotte Calfe.
Mixed by Ben Turner.
Mastered by Peter Fletcher at Black Bay Studio, Isle of Lewis
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