eMusic Review 0
Five-piece experimental group Alex Delivery are recent signings to idiosyncratic US indie Jagjaguwar, home to such rock re-definers as Black Mountain, Besnard Lakes and Okkervil River. Alex Delivery represent the more outré tendencies of the label, and their debut album, Star Destroyer packs a disconcerting punch.
The album opens with "Komad," a simple piece of post-rock that's kept skilfully see-sawing by insistent electronics and minimal, hard-hitting drums. As the 10-minute "Komad" progresses, Alex Delivery reveals a way with airborne motorik jams, carrying the angular beginning sequence into an instrumental passage that mixes a gentle Harmonia-style rhythm with keyboard stabs that recall New Order or Japan. Its repetitive force is reminiscent of labelmates Oneida, but with an added sweetness supplied by Marika Kandelaki's wordless vocals. Alex Delivery are clearly inspired by the repetition and simplicity of '70s German bands like Neu!, Can, Faust and so on, but, as with many modern US indie bands, they fuzz up the edges of the Krautrock template with more explicit lyricism and looser, more personal playing.
Throughout the album, soft male/female vocals collide with trebly percussion and delayed guitar in a kind of psychedelic ballad mode before spinning off into giddy… read more »
