Album Review:

The first studio album from San Francisco psych rock trio The Alps, III is a venture into otherworldly realms.
III is best described as a mixture of krautrock, seventies psychedelia and experimental prog-rock. Released on UK-based Type Records, the album is an expansive collection of haunting soundscapes, quirky melodies and droning rhythms.
The first track “A Manha Na Praia” opens with Latin guitar surrounded by tinkling notes and spacey electric guitar arpeggios. Repetitive and cyclic, the warm rhythmic drones on “Labyrinth” infuse the track with a meditative quality. Starting out simple and sounding hollow, a new element is gently added after every couple of bars, permeating the music with a rich, yet uncomplicated expansiveness. “Echoes” sounds like the perfect score to a sci-fi movie. The eerie vocals and continuous chants evoke images of dark outer space, gooey lava lamp bubbles and incoming radio messages from alien civilizations.
For any Montrealer, the opening moments of “Pink Light” will sound like the warning signals of a snow removal truck. The saxophone loops weave in and out and finally drift off and disappear, crafting a stand-apart composition.
Still, one of the album’s best qualities is the way the eight tracks manage to fit together, and yet retain their individual spirit.
With the exception of haunting feathery vocals on “Trem Fantasma” and “Echoes,” this is a brilliant instrumental record with some of the psychedelic spirit of Pink Floyd or Six Organs of Admittance, yet completely unique and incomparable. It reveals itself peacefully, with a bold confidence, effusing calmness, serenity and wonder. The songs don’t melt into each other, but stand firmly on their own, each distinct from the other in both instrumentation and mood. With a record so spacious in its scope, it’s a surprise it has stayed so far under the radar.
9/10