ALPINE STATIC

The band are fans of BLACK SABBATH and ASH RA TEMPEL so the stoner rock they play with the distorted guitars and heavy riffs recall SABBATH, while the spacey,atmospheric music they play was inspired by ASH RA TEMPEL and the Krautrock music they love. Another reference point to the sound on this album would be SONIC YOUTH. I am a big fan of their earlier record "Airs Above Your Station" which featured a lot of spacey, psychedelic music with outbursts of guitars and heaviness.This release is almost the opposite and because of that it fails to impress me at all. Don't get me wrong, I love heavy music with lots of guitar but not the walls of distortion that they throw at you here. There is not much in the way of melody here at all just a lot of noise.

The first three songs are heavy and direct and they all sound fairly similar. Again I was reminded of SONIC YOUTH on these guitar driven tracks. The last 60 seconds of the first song "Hot Stenographer" has this riff of fuzzed out guitar and drums that is so annoying. The first time I had this on at work we were about 30 seconds into this monotonous riff when my 22 year old daughter yelled at me from the front of the store "Make it stop !" Understand that my daughter likes a lot more extreme music than I do.Things get a little better with "The Party Which You Know Will Be Heavy" although it begins with a wall of sound and distortion followed by some strange noises.The song stops and starts "with a melody". The loud guitar is so much better than the distortion from earlier in the song. One of the best passages of the record is the melody 6 minutes in.

"Passed Out On Your Lawn" opens with a cool guitar melody and bass. Heavier guitar and synths after 2 minutes. It sounds amazing. Distortion and noise follows before it ends with some spacey sounds. "All Your Kids Have Turned To Static" has a refreshing and reserved soundscape. The guitar has a Post Rock feel to it and we get some good flute melodies as well. "The Snowy Parts Of Scandanavia" opens with a lot of atmosphere before we get this explosion of guitar that unfortunately comes and goes. Fortunately a catchy melody with some scorching guitar follows. "Edge Set" is like the first three songs in that it is uptempo and guitar driven. There are waves of synths to end the song but they go on way too long. "Waka Nusa" features slowly played guitar in a Post Rock style.

For my tastes this was really disappointing. I felt there was something missing on a lot of these songs and really I liked only the three songs in a row "The Party Which You Know Will Be Heavy" , "Passed Out On Your Lawn" and my favourite "All Your Kids Have Turned To Static". Fans only.

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