Kinski
Alpine Static (Sub Pop)
By John Everhart
Published: July 25th, 2005 | 11:39am
The roller coaster guitar acrobatics that usher in Alpine Static’s jarringly propulsive opener, “Hot Stenographer,” signify a darker, more sinister Kinski, one more closely approximating the strident volatility of their arresting live shows. Named after the notoriously mercurial late German actor Klaus Kinski, their sensibilities certainly would have meshed on this exceedingly harsh and desperately beautiful record.
While guitarist Chris Martin’s wiry, convulsive leads continue to define Kinski’s sound, Lucy Atkinson’s bass-playing has emerged as the band’s secret weapon, and it’s the most eminently melodic aspect of Static, carefully shadowing the sinewy guitar lines on “Passed Out on Your Lawn,” rumbling piercingly on the cacophonous “The Snowy Parts of Scandinavia.” Her parts are reduced to a faint pulse on the eerie “All Your Kids Have Turned to Static,” which is guided by fallow flute and droning keyboard effects, and the ethereal closer “Waka Nusa,” with its delicately plucked guitar arpeggios that are starkly evocative, even gorgeous, in their restraint.
Vestiges of rock’s avant-garde past inhabit Alpine Static, most notably the hypnotic rhythmic repetition of Neu! and the feral feedback excursions of early Sonic Youth, but the band’s knack for melody is what sets them apart from the legions of doe-eyed acolytes of the aforementioned. These aren’t meandering, naval-gazing jams, they’re cohesive, well-crafted songs steeped as equally in ghostly psychedelica as molten hot riffage, flaunted confidently by a great band just beginning to hit its stride.
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