I usually sigh internally when I come across music tagged as "synth," especially when it follows the term "minimalist." Surprisingly, L.A. Dark Waver Frank Alpine's 2011 self-titled album is one of the most engaging albums I've heard in a long time.Post-punk drum(-machine)-fills hem in dense, brooding, swirling synth lines just enough to create a very focused, immediate listening experience. It is precisely this focus - this hemming in - that prevents the album's eight songs, which average five minutes in length, from spilling into amorphousness and instead feel shorter than they actually are; the forty-three-minute album is over before I know it, and I'm always left craving more.
Like Dark Wave's close cousins Post-Punk and New Wave, Frank Alpine is also a danceable enough album: the final track "My Feelings" could easily pass as a streamlined LCD Soundsystem B-Side (an artist who's never hidden his Post-Punk and New Wave proclivities), complete with marginally distanced vocals and James Murphy-like vocal delivery.
In addition to the hyperlinked "My Feelings," I've included my three favourite tracks from Frank Alpine:
Hm, some of this is pretty cool. Fast tempo definitely throws me off, I was expecting something like Noveller... until I read the bit about LCD. A bit Numan-ish, and something says Suicide, though I haven't listened to enough of them. Also, partially I got really excited for Noveller, because I've been listening to them a lot lately. Holy F! love that shit, beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAwww, Noveller! What LPs/EPs specifically? Super-apropos with Winter here (well, on your side of the country). I still have to check Suicide thoroughly, apart from a few random songs.
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