THE ALPS "III" (2009)

Artist: The Alps
Title Of Album: III
Year Of Release: 11/2008
Label: Type Records
Genre: Ambient / Downtempo / Experimental / Folk
Bitrate: VBRkbps
Total Time: 40:52 min
Total Size: 59.3 MB


Tracklist:
----------
01.a manha na praia 03:37
02.hallucinations 09:27
03.cloud one 04:43
04.trem fanstasma 07:42
05.labyrinths 05:09
06.pink light 01:49
07.echoes 04:20
08.into the breeze 04:05


Listing the personnel behind The Alps should
provide you with a rough idea of where this record
is headed: Tarentel's Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is joined
by Arp and ex-Tussle member Alexis Georgopoulos
plus Troll's Scott Hewicker, who come together to
create an utterly gorgeous, cinematic blend of vintage
psychedelia, Goblin-style bass grooves and melodies
that sound like they've been extracted from an obscure
Bruno Nicolai or Fabio Frizzi score, never more so than
on the giallo fuzz tones of 'Labyrinths'.

Elsewhere 'Hallucinations' channels the spirit of the more
out there krautrock of the 1970s, featuring some especially
wonky detuning effects and tape saturated choral passages.

In a similar vein 'Cloud One' recruits a line in open-tuned
guitar repetition, laying down a slack-stringed mantra over
which modal keystrokes flounce around. To put a more
contemporary spin on all this, you might align 'Into The
Breeze' with the sort of material to be found on Air's early
12"s, but if you had to restrict your palette of comparisons
to just one band throughout all this, you'd have to opt for
Popol Vuh, who have clearly made a big impression on
the Alps' wonderfully old-fashioned blend of euro-psych
soundscapes and deftly defined song arcs.

;-)