Browse by Artist: ALPS, THE

Artist:	ALPS, THE
Title:	Easy Action
Label:	MEXICAN SUMMER
Format:	LP
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	MEX 078LP

"Blending folk music with electronics and a vibe like sunshine pouring raisins down on you from the heavens, San Francisco's The Alps are America's premier morning musicians. Put on something like 'Spray,' from their full-length Easy Action, into your wake-up routine, daylight peeking out over the trees and buildings, an abundance of noise and effects co-existing around stern acoustic folk guitar melodies, traditions smashing against one another like metaphysical Japanese monsters to make room for more skies and visible horizons in your life. Featuring Alexis Georgeopolous (Arp), Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (Tarantel) and Scott Hewicker (Troll), the Alps make music that is made to move the mountains in your mind, and help you to take some time for yourself, out of focus from the rest of the world, and think about what you can do today to make the world better." Housed in a fold-out pyramid sleeve; includes download code.

Artist:	ALPS, THE
Title:	III
Label:	TYPE (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	TYPE 040CD

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 ex-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 bass lines 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 psychedelia than meets the eye.

Artist:	ALPS, THE
Title:	Le Voyage
Label:	TYPE (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	TYPE 056CD

Still comprised of the core threesome of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (Tarentel), Alexis Georgopoulos (ARP) and Scott Hewicker (Troll), The Alps return to Type in full force for their fourth sprawling long-player. Buoyed by the praise lavished upon its predecessor III, the band were adamant that Le Voyage would be bigger, brighter and better than anything in their catalog to date, and Type reports that they have been successful in their quest. The sun-bleached European movie soundtrack sentiment that underpinned their previous records is still here in full force, but it comes rolled up in something defiantly more psychedelic, and in turn more unpredictable. Sewn together by vignettes which bring to mind Delia Derbyshire's Radiophonic hiccups or Luc Ferrari's tape collage, the band have put together an album which genuinely takes you on a journey. Surely it can't be a mistake calling the album Le Voyage then, a title which simultaneously brings to mind the work of Serge Gainsbourg and Alejandro Jodorowsky -- something deeply visual but effortlessly beautiful. With propulsive, break-heavy rhythms sure to appeal to any diggers out there and a blissful, sunny outlook to wipe the frown from the faces of all you dour experimental types, Le Voyage is a crack of light in a dark room. A mysterious record, it is punctuated by the same energy that gave us space rock and psychedelia, and while the band are quick to demonstrate their wide-ranging musical knowledge, there is something incredibly unique about their sound. This is not a lazy soundtrack to a film which might never be made, rather, Le Voyage is a journey for the listener and one you will want to take over and over again.

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