I had a nice lunch today. That fact is probably of no interest to you but I mention said fact as it greatly improved my outlook on life. Anyway, with a pineapple tart or two taken as dessert, I needed something to quell the imminent sugar rush and that something was found in the genre jumping – to the point of larceny – Los Angeles band Scaled Alps and their album “Let The Alpine Play”.
Scaled Alps are, as you may have surmised, not really purveyors of mainstream music yet they are insufficiently loose to be classed as freeform or avant-garde but are not so far into the forever of the meandering excesses of prog rock to avoid being seasoned with elements of hotel bar jazz. Perhaps oddly, and on more than one occasion, I was given to wonder if the laconic vocals would ever be released from their double tracked prison to take off on one of those tangents that make you wonder if there are actual words of protest, or perhaps even poetically disenfranchised words of deeper emotional significance, to be found inside these sixteen examples of distinctly individual shuffle play theatricality. Yes, there may indeed be something existential in there.
Jumping genres whilst steering a seemingly random course through the world of musical influences could well be seen as a distinctly uncommercial choice but my ears are well accustomed to unusual artistic choices and it is to Scaled Alp’s credit that they, despite the use of soundbites and heavyweight guitar riffs, stay just west of anything that might be mistaken for manufactured music.
Available from Bandcamp and the usual digital places.