School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms

Well, the habitual best-of lists are rolling out once again. And yeah, I think the calendar year is about as good as any other arbitrary time frame to pause a minute, reflect, and categorize all the great music that's been recently (re)released. Only, for whatever reason, some really great albums inevitably get snubbed. With this point in mind, I want to write about a record I'm recently carrying a torch for: School of Seven Bells' Alpinisms. Released (I think) during the first few weeks of November, Alpinisms is one of a handful of these you-gotta-be-kidding-me-good records that have all been absent amongst the few best-of-08 lists I've browsed so far (see The Ruby Suns and Jim Noir for more examples).

Comprised of two identical-voiced sisters and the former guitarist for Secret Machines, School of Seven Bells make soaring psychedelic electro-rock music that's as hypnotically beautiful as it is meticulously executed. The record's eleven lush tracks have familiar touchstones: they bear an art-rock gravitas equivalent to a female TV on the Radio, and occupy a similar primeval realm of tribal, open-air spirituality as Brightblack Morning Light. The group's main attraction, however, is undoubtedly the spindling, exacto-precise harmonies of sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheeza, which carry Alpinisms across an emotional landscape that's both haunting and rapturous.

You really can't go wrong with any of the album's songs, but for starters check out "Face to Face on High Places" and "Half Asleep" posted below.