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Album Reviews
Album Review: School Of Seven Bells – Alpinisms (Full Time Hobby)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 23 February 2009
Brooklyn-based nu-gazers School Of Seven Bells are ex-Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis and identical twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, formerly of On! Air! Library!. ‘Alpinisms’, the band’s first full-length LP, is a step beyond Curtis’ experimental space rock of old – it is, in fact, a kind of fusion between the twins’ ambient roots and the nu-psychedelia sound and scene NYC is becoming so well-known for these days. Drawing in varying skills picked up from their previous bands, and to a great effect, School Of Seven Bells (aptly named after a supposed South American pick-pocketing training academy) have created an album encrusted with colourful sounds and melodies, the majority of which are provided by Alejandra and Claudia’s charming if at times bizarre vocal harmonies. Crystal clear and intriguing from the word go, the record is a landscape of fresh sound ready to be explored. ‘Wired For Light’ is a mysterious and beautiful five minutes of exhilarating loveliness that sounds like it’s been recorded in a clandestine opium den in Southern Asia, and perhaps rounds off the premise of ‘Alpinisms’ as a whole – an exploration of the exotic and the discovery of something that is at once electrifying and bewitching. TW
