Once playing under the moniker ‘Swiss’, Melbourne’s Alpine have a distinctly Scandinavian feel to them. This promising EP delivers some icy, clipped sounds that would perhaps better suit a winter release, but there’s enough pop smarts packed within these five songs to make it a suitable summer soundtrack too. Perhaps it has been perfectly timed for the mixed bag of seasons we currently find ourselves in.
Once playing under the moniker ‘Swiss’, Melbourne’s Alpine have a distinctly Scandinavian feel to them. This promising EP delivers some icy, clipped sounds that would perhaps better suit a winter release, but there’s enough pop smarts packed within these five songs to make it a suitable summer soundtrack too. Perhaps it has been perfectly timed for the mixed bag of seasons we currently find ourselves in.
With bullet-like precision, the slightly frantic yet calculated Heartlove kicks in. While this first track is the ‘single’, the more subtle follow-up Too Safe is the strongest track on here and will hopefully be included on the band’s full-length album. Still, any of the five tacks here would be warrant inclusion: Tough Skin shimmies to stabbed synths while sighed vocals reveal a more macabre subject matter; Villages has grounding guitars leading up to a swooping killer chorus; and the closing Icypoles wigs out to one blissful release of an outro.
Groups headed by two females on dual vocals can easily draw the focus predominantly to the singers, but Alpine are a true ensemble piece. The six musicians provide a punchy outlet for lyrics/vocals, jangly guitars, smooth synth and powerful rhythm section. It goes down soft, sweet and easy, like a Mr Whippy on a muggy summer day.
