The Alps — Jewelt Galaxies / Spirit Shambles

Jewelt Galaxies/Spirit Shambles is a compilation of two earlier small pressing CD-R's released on Root Strata and Foxglove respectively. Spekk has tastefullly packaged this re-release in an oversized gatefold case, with serene artwork which reflects the nature scene that the enclosed music evokes.

From what I've heard, this band records their music with one room microphone. If that is indeed the case, it must be one quality mic, because these pieces are pretty expansive at times. Honestly, it took a couple of spins for this album to get under my skin, but once it did, I began to realise why someone went to the trouble of re-releasing it.

There are three players listed on the sleeve information, one of whom is Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, a founding member of the San Francisco post-rock (for lack of a better term) band Tarentel. The sleeve doesn't list which band member plays which instruments, but there's an intriguing variety including woodwinds, tabla, orchestra bells, omnichord, violin bow, acoustic and electric guitars, organ, tape, etc. The music certainly bears little resemblance to post-rock.

It's kind of along the lines of the Starving Weirdos (not surprising, since many of their releases are on Ledesma's Root Strata label) in that it's improvised and highly textured, however, it's doesn't share the Weirdos penchant for intensity. Not to say that there aren't intense moments, but for the most part it's pretty mellow.

There's some melodic structure to these pieces provided via guitar and organ, which add direction and a bit of suspense to these recordings. I would guess that all of this music was improvised, as some of the pieces abruptly start and end, as if they were edited from sessions of recording.

There are both short and long pieces here, and although it's a compilation, it flows together nicely. The music isn't homogeneous either, in other words there's a variety of sounds and textures to keep you occupied. Best of all, it doesn't come off as a bullshit jam session. All this plus a song named after a Dario Argento movie. Nice.