by Valerie Siebert Contributor

Album review: AA Wallace - In Alpha Zones

'A bit of chaos keeps things raw'

 

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AA Wallace In Alpha Zones album review listen Photo:

Where his first album was flecked with disco and smacked of DIY home recording, AA Wallace’s second solo effort is rounded, full and packed with the warm and fuzzies.

While In Alpha Zones was also created in the Canadian scene stalwart’s bedroom studio, it benefits from a full band, including Arthur Doyle and Josh Pothier on percussion, Jim Arsenault on bass and Greg Ryan on guitar – all bringing in backing to a synth-heavy overlay. AA’s laid back vocals, as usual, are juxtaposed against the energetic 80s-style electronica – not to mention how his lyrics can often jar with the warmth of the backing, such as in ‘SUCCESS’, where he spells out the title only to explain: “That’s the way we spell death”.

The following track, ‘Nothing’ is similarly grim, based around the message that: ”We’re not in this together” and mixes a Dark Side of the Moon style phrasing with a landscape of mournful, soaring synth.

‘Shake It Out’ is a seductive, simmering summer jam if ever there was one, featuring at its heart an uncharacteristic impassioned holler from its creator and an atonal saxophone solo – a mix of raw, unpolished noise sat right next to bright and shiny pop licks that typifies the whole record. ‘Secret Name’ marks this with a bridge of call and response between lush strings and electronic bleep blooping, while album closer 'We Just Stopped' features a driving, punk pop bassline with a softened, plucked out synth riff. The highlight of the record has to be 'Harlequin', an infectious dance track that could have come right out of Daft Punk’s canon, with a funky slap bass, jangling guitar and a lyric all based around getting loose.

While the large amount of collaborations sometimes presents a disconnect in the mood of In Alpha Zones, a bit of chaos keeps the sound raw in a way that harkens back to the way that new wave groups, emboldened by an increasing proficiency with their craft, moved out of punk and into the Brave New Synth-Slicked World.


Valerie Siebert

Contributor

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