A bold step forward, “Alpine Static” finds Kinski embracing heavy riff-mongering to create some devastatingly loud and effective songs. On their previous recorded output, Kinski had recorded mostly post-rock influenced lengthy ambient instrumental guitar rock somewhere between Mogwai and Sonic Youth to occasionally triumphant but hardly consistent results. “Alpine Static” is still instrumental, but the change is that the songs are (for the most part) more concise and direct. Plus, they’ve seem to naturally grown into a confident approach to their own brand of heavy rock, which now aligns them closer to Comets on Fire than Godspeed.
“Alpine Static” opens with Kinski high-stepping in their new digs, as the first couple tracks show off how blistering they are when they hit the gas. “Hot Stenographer” and “The Wives of Artie Shaw” take charge without wasting time. At a relatively modest eight and half minutes combined, the tracks establish a new precedent: enough with loud-soft dynamics, Kinski is here to be loud. Not that there aren’t still some soft moments on “Alpine Static.” “All The Kids Have Turned to Static” is a lovely drum-less meditation, with vaguely psychedelic flute and gently undulating guitar. “Waka Nusa” is also sans drums, but has a totally different feel, building tension through the guitar figures, the song opts for a subtle but satisfying resolution, ending the album on a restful but appropriate coda to all the noise. So it’s not that Kinski have hitched their ride to one tone. Perhaps they just realized that instrumental, dynamic-shifiting rock has played itself out and is not a viable operating system anymore.
Kinski also demonstrates an unbridled excitement for the sound of the guitar and all its permutations. They exhibit an interest in noise, feedback and repetition that bear the signature of avant-garde music. As annoying as recording (and, at times, live) guitar feedback can be, there’s no doubt it can also be an expressive tool in the hands of someone who knows how to conjure different tones and use them judiciously (like, say, Ira Kaplan). While Kinski doesn’t break new ground here, they do usually limit their noise freakouts to pinnacles in the songs, where they seem justified, and, at times, marvelous. However, this tendency does little to counter the criticism that Kinski is mining the territory of Sonic Youth. Not only do many of their noise guitar frenzies create the image of Thurston in your mind, even their melodies can be reminiscent of Sonic Youth. “Edge Set” has a main progression that feels very “Dirty.” Likewise, the last three minutes of “The Party Which You Know Will Be Heavy” features vintage SY rock, complete with Steve Shelley snare accents.
I don’t entirely even mind the Sonic Youth moments. My main problem with “Alpine Static” is length. Kinski’s new direction in concise heaviness is leveled somewhat by tracks later in the album that revert back to lengthy ambient passages that don’t really seem to go anywhere (most of the second half of “Edge Set”), or simply take too long to get there. Even the songs that are good on the second half of “Alpine Static” tend go on past where they need. I suppose a band can justify a nine minute song occasionally, but Kinski stuff three songs that approach or exceed nine minutes amongst the last five tracks. Also, if you’re going to write nine minute songs, maybe there should be less than nine tracks. I’m all for value, and it’s not that all these long songs are bad, but the sheer length makes the latter half of “Alpine Static” drag and makes a listener long for the swift crunch of the album’s start.
If anything, the second half of “Alpine Static” seems to show Kinski trying to hold on to the niche they carved out on their previous releases and with ambient side project Herzog (What, no Aguirre?). There’s no reason Kinski have to abandon these sounds altogether. If only they could apply the immediacy and brevity of the first half songs, “Alpine Static” may have been a remarkable album. In any case, it marks a significant and interesting transition for the band, and the first blip of a pulse for instrumental guitar rock in a couple of years. |