Alpinisms (Bonus Track Version)

iTunes Review

Drawing from the sound and drama of My Bloody Valentine and their shoegazer progeny, School of Seven Bells have crafted an excellent full-length debut. The Brooklyn-based outfit — Ben Curtis, formerly of Secret Machines, and twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, who sang with On! Air! Library! — captures the spirit of their inspirations without being imitative. “Iamundernodisguise” immediately impresses with its blend of folk-like melody, groovy chug, and tasteful blasts of noise. The Deheza sisters’ pure voices bob and weave in a vocal matrix that is both complex and catchy. (If the track sounds familiar, that’s because a version — titled “The Class of 73 Bells”— appeared on Prefuse 73’s Preparations and Interregnums.) School of Seven Bells’ music is often dense, but on “For Kalaja Mari” they show that they can be equally riveting in a spare setting. “Sempiternal/Amaranth” matches up an insistent electronic pulse with the drumming of Simone Pace of Blonde Redhead, and the resulting rhythmic tension serves as a nice backdrop for the track’s ethereal vocals. Alpinisms closes with “My Cabal,” whose singing and sound effects look eastward to create blissed-out pop.