The Alps - III

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Brett on Thu 25 Sep, 2008.

The Alps have followed in the fine tradition of Led Zepellin, The Verve and The Sugababes, insulting our intelligence and ability to count by calling their third album III. Grails make for an easy comparison, in general this is Eastern-tinged floaty space rock perfectly captured by the cover photo, some dogs and their Arabic master moving across a craggy desert landscape. According to the press release they're going for some kind of Morricone/Popol Vuh/Terry Riley thing but those are ideas well above ther station, this is basically just your common or garden relaxed stoner music. That said, I quite like it but it's not going down well with anyone else in here.. I'd have to agree that it's pretty aimless, it's just sort of there. III is out on both CD and LP.

Although ‚III’ might be the third album from San Francisco trio The Alps it marks their first studio-based record and a fresh direction for the psychedelic supergroup. Made up of Tarentel mainman Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, ex-Tussle member Alexis Georgopoulos (better known as ARP) and Troll member Scott Hewicker there is a deft amount of skill on display as the three rip through eight tracks of sizzling spiritual bliss. Comparisons here are easy to bring up – Popol Vuh, Ennio Morricone and Serge Gainsbourg spring to mind for starters as the band toss and tangle through thick drum breaks and reverberating sun-drenched guitar lines.

‚III’ feels like a lost soundtrack to some crumbling Italian surrealist classic with its pounding basslines and swirling synthesizers. This is visual music, inspired by the likes of Werner Herzog, Alejandro Jordorowsky and Michaelangelo Antonioni, but what results is far more than a pastiche. Rather the trio have concocted a record which while being aware of its sprawling influences is far more than the sum of its parts. The finest excesses of progressive rock and the leanest intricacies of the psychedelic folk scene have been splashed together with a distinct dusty funk overlook to produce something which is totally out of time. Free from some half baked scene or other this is the result of three musicians doing exactly what they want.

‚III’ has taken a plethora of sounds and crumbled them into something altogether beguiling. From the distant supernaturalism of ‚Trem Fantasma’ to the Terry Riley influenced bliss of ‚Pink Light’ The Alps show us that there’s more to pyschedelia than meets the eye.

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