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ALASKALASKA Releases Debut Album 'The Dots'

By: May. 03, 2019
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ALASKALASKA Releases Debut Album 'The Dots'  Image

South Londoners ALASKALASKA have today released their astonishing debut record The Dots on Marathon Artists. The band first shot to prominence in 2017 upon the release of their first self-titled EP, and today with the arrival of The Dots, the band deliver on their early promised in spades. Produced by the band themselves - with principal songwriter Lucinda Duarte-Holman and bassist Fraser Rieley at the helm - The Dots has already been warmly received by press around the globe.

The album's lead single 'Moon' was described as "easily one of the best art-pop tracks of 2019 so far" by Paste, The FADER also praised 'Moon' as a "dramatic new track", while Noisey championed the band's "brass-featuring, clattering weirdo-pop with a voice you could slather on hot, buttery toast." In the UK reviews for The Dots have bolstered the band's critical acclaim with Dork extolling it "as exciting as anything you'll hear this year", DIY followed suit calling it "A joy to experience" and Loud And Quiet summed up "their ethereal indie-pop feels like the musical equivalent of dipping into a warm pool after months of bitter cold."

All of the previously aired tracks have been tied together with vibrant visuals, mirroring the album's themes of consumer society, vulnerability, womanhood and creativity; with Elliot Arndt's "Moon" accompaniment, the found footage film for "Bees" by Ashley Rommelrath, and new single 'Tough Love's stunning organic animations from Callum Scott-Dyson'. The tracks are perfectly at home on a record packed with fluid, intelligent and utterly remarkable left-of-centre pop songs.

ALASKALASKA are headed by Duarte-Holman and bassist and producer Rieley, and joined by friends Calum Duncan (guitarist), Fraser Smith (saxophonist), and Gethin Jones (drummer). Pitchfork provided their seal of approval for 2018 singles 'Meateater' and 'Monster' and the band also toured in support of fellow genre-dodgers Alvvays, Cigarettes After Sex, Porches and Nilüfer Yanya. The group meld together their disparate influences in off-kilter pop and backgrounds in jazz all across their stunning debut album with the same boundaryless approach as Björk, Kate Bush, Arca or Fever Ray before them.

The Dots was written and recorded between Rieley's living room and a more traditional, professional studio set-up (with co-producer Tom Carmichael), and the band limited their takes of each part to just a handful of attempts in order to retain the spontaneity of a first take's 'eureka' moment. The album is testament to the beauty of those more roughed-up elements. From the dirty, dingy intimacies of the human condition, to the musical happy accidents and living room recordings that made it to the final record, it's a release that presents ALASKALASKA as masters of twisting the day-to-day into something dazzling.



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