New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ MRG Recordings) Go Big Shadow City, the fifth full-length from post-LA guitar 'n drums 'n buzz duo
Alpine Decline, is an index, a cypher for the Beijing sound. Not "The Beijing Sound" of their self-selected hometown contemporaries, whom they're into but beyond - GBSC is the sound of Beijing itself, as heard from the outside. Cigarette vapors caked onto countless km's of 2" tape, street-level, ear-burning progress filtered through carcinogenic dust. How to survive the smokestack? "Walk With Mask,"
Alpine Decline languorously implores. "Don't Ask Questions," guitar tones glow like neon bubbling through the proud industrial shadow clouds; they layer and loop like the city's own Möbius boulevard of creative destruction.
Drums are smashed out of rhythm with the Beijing clang, following a parallel time of Outer Ring Road modulation.
Go Big Shadow City was recorded in the underground parking garage studio of Beijing's resident post-punk demigod, P.K.14's Yang Haisong. Its textures are likewise subterranean, rhizomatic.
Ghost vox ("Mid-Level Functionary In A Criminal Syndicate", "Hang Around The Creases") and narcotic melodies ("Fearless In The Face Of Fate", "Boss") emerge for seconds at a time before sinking back into the soup. In the end, as always, "The Transmission Comes Apart"; loop back to point 0, rebuild from scratch. This time GO BIG.
Alpine Decline's Go Big Shadow City is slated for release through MRG Recordings on February 4th, 2014.
about ALPINE DECLINE:
Alpine Decline is a duo that originated in East Los Angeles, in 2010, that consists of Jonathan Zeitlin (vocals, guitars) and
Pauline Mu (drums, percussion). Within a year the duo recorded three full-length albums, Visualizations, Disappearance as well as their self-titled debut, with modular-psych guru M. Geddes Gengras before promptly spiriting off to China. One year after landing on the distant outskirts of Beijing, the band recorded Night Of The Long Knives with Yang Haisong of the seminal Chinese underground band P.K. 14.
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"Fearless In The Face Of Fate" Stream
https://soundcloud.com/mrgrecordings/fearless-in-the-face-of-fate
Go Big Shadow City track listing:
1. Mid-Level Functionary In A Criminal Syndicate
2. The Visions Run Dry
3. Walk With Mask
4. Hang Around The Creases
5. My Smokestack Only
Burns At Night
6. Don't Ask Questions
7. Fearless In The Face Of Fate
8. Boss
9. A Brief Assessment Of The Current Situation
10. Pity The Pacified
11. The Transmission Comes Apart
