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We're quite excited to be putting the finishing touches on our newest recordings.
If all goes as planned, the new album will come out in May 2010 on TYPE on CD & LP. At the moment, we're sorting out the artwork, tracklisting, titles, et caetera.
And there will be other recordings to follow as well!
More very soon...
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The first ON LAND festival, curated and put together by our very own Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, – also the owner of Root Strata label – was great fun! Thanks to all who came and made it a great night at Cafe Du Nord. In hopes that this will be the first of many editions of ON LAND! See the poster here:
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SPRING NEWS...
We've just recorded our next album for TYPE this past week.
And we'll begin work on a 12inch for MEXICAN SUMMER soon...
Some European live dates have been proposed for late summer to coincide with the fantastic GREEN MAN FESTIVAL, which we hope to be able to make happen ...
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THE ALPS << III >> THE ALPS << III >> THE ALPS << III >> THE ALPS
THE ALPS << III >> THE ALPS << III >> THE ALPS << III >> THE ALPS
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BEST OF 2008 as selected by SF WEEKLY & various staff members at AQUARIUS RECORDS.
BEST OF 2008
The Alps "III"
We've been in a downward news spiral for months now: the political scandals, the recession, the fact that the anti-Bush Iraqi shoe-thrower had such poor aim. It's trying moments like these that call for local trio the Alps. Their music flows toward you in gentle cascades of cozy analog drones, celestial harps, and peaceful piano melodies. Think Pink Floyd; think Krautrock; think Six Organs of Admittance; then stop thinking and start exploring the Alps' many peaks. "
˚˚˚SF WEEKLY - JENNIFER MAERZ
"With all our rambling about vision quests and beaches, you'd think we published The FADER from a smoke-filled yurt in Bali, but the fact of the matter is, we don't. We sit in offices and stare at the reflection of the sun off the building next to us until we hallucinate. We are high on labor! Occasionally, we get an album that perfectly meshes with our deadline-induced delerium. Lately, that album has been The Alps' << III >> (Type), which we tend to listen to for hours on end without realizing it has been same 45-minutes repeated."
˚˚˚THE FADER
"Surely one of the best blissed-out records I’ve heard in a helluva long time. III flows with grace and beauty that towers above the endless parade of ‘instrumental’ records that I’ve nodded off to over the past few years. 9/10"
˚˚˚DIGITALIS
"III never fails to find a musical pleasure center... an audio analogue of cinematic rapture. We could use a few more records like this one, unafraid of the grand gesture, but not overly wedded to complexity, something that feels like it's building rather than tearing down and more into unity than pushing any individual voice to the forefront."
˚˚˚DUSTED
"Mix spacey krautrock with Ennio Morricone and Serge Gainsbourg, and you approach the sound of this San Francisco trio. Their third outing finds them mingling funk-tinged drum breaks with sunny guitar lines."
˚˚˚ ROLLING STONE
Bizarre, eh?!?
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"ALBUM OF THE WEEK. Extraordinary. An utterly gorgeous, cinematic blend of vintage psychedelia, the more out there krautrock of the 1970s, and euro-psych soundscapes. Brilliant, an utterly essential purchase!"
˚˚˚BOOMKAT
"This San Francisco trio create pastoral-vibed, Kraut-tinged, sun-soaked psychedelia that could easily work as the score to any number of Herzog movies. Pulling equally from sun-kissed folk and driving, Popol Vuh-esque soundtrack instrumentals, these three have crafted a bright album of subtle grooves that doses its experimental textures with warm drones, delicate guitars, and locked rhythms. Tracks like "Hallucinations" work through taut bass and drum figures, allowing ample room for chanted vocals and moody strings to stretch towards the heavens. Elsewhere, pieces like "Cloud One" work more of a folk bent, lacing gentle strums with ascendant keys for sounds that eerily evoke Florian Fricke on a hefty dose of downers. Later still, pieces like "Pink Light" and "Echoes" almost eschew rhythm entirely, favoring hazy bursts of gauzy melodics that capably mask their instrumental origins in the service of some truly transcendent sounds. Definitely a surprising and unexpected album from this trio, The Alps' III is simple, stately, and ultimately a pretty impressive entry from a talented group of musicians. In other words, recommended!!!" (Released Oct 2008)
˚˚˚ OTHER MUSIC
"HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK. Rhythmic, and propulsive, glistening and glimmering. Like Hawkwind gone new age, a dreamfolk Steve Reich, or Agitation Free filtered through a more washed out space rock. Mesmerizing."
˚˚˚AQUARIUS
"Seriously amazing new pysch album, I'm totally blown away. Loads of lovely kraut rhythms, beautifully recorded guitar and all-round loveliness. Someone may have described it as Hawkwind gone new age...."
˚˚˚ DROWNED IN SOUND
"Perhaps the best post-rock record I’ve heard this year, The Alps’ III is a brooding and intense LP that’s never afraid of melody or humor – and that’s not something we get to say very often. Some stellar musos are behind this outfit – Tarentel’s Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Tussle’s Alexis Georgopoulos and Troll’s Scott Hewicker – and the three have crafted a wholly unique sound on III, ingeniously blending soundtrack music (think Morricone and Frizzi), classic psych (these guys love early-70s Floyd), drone (shades of MBV!), Krautrock, free jazz, space-age lounge and groove-oriented electronica. The album never lags or falters – eight songs and 40 minutes of some of the most forward-thinking instrumental music I’ve heard in ages. How wonderful to hear musicians who still care about the album format, giving us a record with ebbs and flows, truly organic in scope and sound. I could go into depth telling you great each song is, but you need to just give a listen."
˚˚˚ SOUND FIX
"ALBUM OF THE MONTH" ˚˚˚GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS
www.gardenofearthlydelights.com/CHARTS.html
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