Thursday, November 29, 2012

Sic Alps- Sic Alps

In this post-modern, post everything (in theory) era, it is hard to remove the pleasantness of association from enjoyment of vibrant exciting music, Sic Alps with their wonderful sound filled my head with lots of pleasant associations. Alexander “Skip” Spence and Lennon’s songs of the White Album constantly come to mind; the dry dusty spider web weaved heart of the psychedelic era. Then filtered through the fuzzed out wonderlands of Siltbreeze records(Dead C, Strapping Fieldhands) and the early days of their own label Drag City (those early noisy, scary albums by Royal Trux, Smog, Palace, Silver Jews, and Pavement), and for their blurred takes on sixties pop even early Elliot Smith comes to mind. They have cleared up the clatter for their newest self-titled and approach a sound similar to the Velvet Underground on their last two albums but with strings lurching in and out of the mix. Main Sic Alps man Mike Donovan(the only constant in the group) sights Colin Blunstone beautiful album Year One as a touchstone and for the melancholy mood and disjointed string arrangements I can see an influence. He also mentioned the U.S. Girls Gem in the same interview and similarly to that album we see a band shedding its scuzz and emerging with a cleaner but thankfully equally evocative sound.

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