Aleks & The Ramps – Facts (22/03/2012)
Aleks & The Ramps have just released their third studio album. Fact. It once again is an eccentric offering of energetic art-pop. Fact. It was recorded in a warehouse in Fairfield and this was at times sweaty and at other moments chilly. Fact. And the group reckons they’re bigger than Jesus (okay, I made that last one up).
Facts was written and recorded simultaneously. The ten songs morphed from riffs and beats, to properly fleshed out intergalactic jams. The surreal, psychedelia-tinged pop is getting a release on vinyl and digital formats and is essentially to music what YouTube is to videos. Confused? It means that the group constantly twist and turn, flit and fumble with innumerable genres and obtuse styles, as if jumping around with the kind of joyous and reckless abandon typically reserved for an aforementioned user.
Crocodile opens things with a tale about a broken relationship and seems to musically sit somewhere between Dappled Cities and the Last Dinosaurs’ brand of shiny pop before they embark on the journey into space that is In The Snow. A summer jaunt follows in Icy Facts, a track that also boasts some of the strangest lyrics ever committed to record. Consider: “It’s hard to breathe in the back of a horse costume”.
But if the truly bizarre is what you’re looking for then you need search no further than Friends With The Night. It’s a number that at times features everything from Queen’s stomp to an old organ, a childish fairground invitation, some ghost-like whispering apparitions and the glittery keys heard on the last Yeah Yeah Yeahs LP.
On Pray Tell frontman, Alex Bryant fuses his smooth baritone croon with the gorgeous vocals of Sez Wilks. The effect is something you could imagine Big Scary executing with ease except that musically it is a lot closer to something by Architecture In Helsinki and the Skins theme. It’s groovy pop and this vibe continues into the following, Bummer, before we all regroup to sip drinks and watch the sun set over the horizon in ere Comes The Ghost.
Like a good comedic author, Aleks & The Ramps may be written off as a novelty because the lyrics are funny (and most people think comedy is an absolute breeze) and the music is hooky and fun. But in reality the group have put together one solid record of clever pop tunes that are often warm; occasionally saccharine; very zany; and at other times just plain smile-inducing. Idiosyncratic and energetic- that’s a fact, but this record proves the sky is the limit when the band’s collective imagination is concerned and that has to be a good influence on their teleporting, pop-space jams.
Natalie Salvo
Facts was written and recorded simultaneously. The ten songs morphed from riffs and beats, to properly fleshed out intergalactic jams. The surreal, psychedelia-tinged pop is getting a release on vinyl and digital formats and is essentially to music what YouTube is to videos. Confused? It means that the group constantly twist and turn, flit and fumble with innumerable genres and obtuse styles, as if jumping around with the kind of joyous and reckless abandon typically reserved for an aforementioned user.
Crocodile opens things with a tale about a broken relationship and seems to musically sit somewhere between Dappled Cities and the Last Dinosaurs’ brand of shiny pop before they embark on the journey into space that is In The Snow. A summer jaunt follows in Icy Facts, a track that also boasts some of the strangest lyrics ever committed to record. Consider: “It’s hard to breathe in the back of a horse costume”.
But if the truly bizarre is what you’re looking for then you need search no further than Friends With The Night. It’s a number that at times features everything from Queen’s stomp to an old organ, a childish fairground invitation, some ghost-like whispering apparitions and the glittery keys heard on the last Yeah Yeah Yeahs LP.
On Pray Tell frontman, Alex Bryant fuses his smooth baritone croon with the gorgeous vocals of Sez Wilks. The effect is something you could imagine Big Scary executing with ease except that musically it is a lot closer to something by Architecture In Helsinki and the Skins theme. It’s groovy pop and this vibe continues into the following, Bummer, before we all regroup to sip drinks and watch the sun set over the horizon in ere Comes The Ghost.
Like a good comedic author, Aleks & The Ramps may be written off as a novelty because the lyrics are funny (and most people think comedy is an absolute breeze) and the music is hooky and fun. But in reality the group have put together one solid record of clever pop tunes that are often warm; occasionally saccharine; very zany; and at other times just plain smile-inducing. Idiosyncratic and energetic- that’s a fact, but this record proves the sky is the limit when the band’s collective imagination is concerned and that has to be a good influence on their teleporting, pop-space jams.
Natalie Salvo