Alexander Noice - NOICE (2019)

9/10 Stars“NOICE is an album that contains an almost inhuman amount of energy and dexterity. It's a testament to both Noice's compositional and arranging skills and the band's seemingly endless talent and nuance that it's not by any means a wanky, music school brag session. This is music to be enjoyed, savored, and played loudly.” –PopMatters

NOICE presents a futuristic sonic landscape in a riling, cinematic album that plays out like a hypnotic space opera. In the face of our technologically exploding culture, Alexander Noice explores the elusive nature of identity and self-discovery amidst an increasing array of distraction and affectation.

Alexander Noice’s modern take on art-rock pulls on jazz, electronic music, and minimalist opera to create a sound that is inimitable and deeply personal. This amalgam of stylistic influences provides a variegated sonic bed for lyrics that delve into topics involving false pretenses pervasive in modern social contexts, and the search for meaning in revelations of science and technology. Grappling with counterintuitive manifestations of these trends, Noice dresses these themes in a sonic tapestry that marries mechanistic elements with undeniably human expression.

Relentless linear virtuosity in the guitar and saxophone intermingles with fervent, soaring operatic vocals, which either add to the band’s manic energy with sharp rhythmic articulations and lyrics, or cool it down with beautiful melodies. Thumping drums and electric bass fuel the engine of NOICE, with interjections of tailor-made samples, organically woven into highly intricate arrangements. The samples include Ethiopian vocal recordings, 808 drum samples, and recordings of children with stuttering speech syndrome, among many others. NOICE’s attraction to the extravagant visual and narrative aesthetics of filmmakers like Federico Fellini, Stanley Kubrick and Alejandro Jodorowsky make this band’s performances cinematic in scope.

NOICE sits in the cross-section of the cerebral and visceral, placing its explorations of modern culture front and center. The debut release by this ensemble on Orenda Records features an extraordinary batch of compositions by Alexander Noice, and is poised to be an instant classic from the Los Angeles underground music scene.



Track List:
01. Affectation (06:48)
02. Black Darwin (05:23)
03. Ambit (06:20)
04. Fly Inside the Wall (04:49)
05. Never Thought I Would (04:36)
06. Breath in the Ether (06:37)
07. Dipped in Double Meaning (05:22)
08. On the Fondalack (07:13)

Alexander Noice - Guitar, Compositions
Karina Kallas - Vocals
Argenta Walther - Vocals
Gavin Templeton - Alto Saxophone
Colin Burgess - Electric Bass
Andrew Lessman - Drums, Percussion, Roland SPDSX

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