ALASKALASKA - The Dots

You’d be forgiven for thinking that a six-piece band that flip between minimal beats, intense sax solos, and warped guitar riffs might be doing “a bit too much”. In any other hands, this brand of pop oddness could feel try-hard and a little obnoxious.

But, luckily, ALASKALASKA know just how far to push things; letting their idiosyncrasies shine without throwing things into chaos. On their debut, ‘The Dots’, this delicate balance brings some seriously funky experimental pop out to play.

With tracks like “Meateater” and “Monster”, both featured here, the New Cross-based six-piece led by Lucina Duarte-Holmes revealed themselves as a band that refused to be labelled. More used to performing at the Royal Albert Hall, their jazz backgrounds seemed a far cry from the angular grooves of “Meateater”. Though hints of it can be felt in the experimental style and, most clearly, in Fraser Smith’s smooth saxophone, ‘The Dots’ continues to show a band that isn’t ready to be labelled.

In fact, this mindset plays a large part of the album’s DNA. Tackling the frustrations of being asked to behave and present yourself in certain way to conform with popular opinion, it’s a record borne out of a realisation that the only person that can define you is you. About taking control of your own humanity.

One of the album’s highlights, ‘Moon’, is, as Duarte-Holman quite bluntly puts it, about PMS. There’s nothing more human than that. Here she tries to regain control at a time when it feels like everything is fighting against her. Jittering guitars punctuated by blasts of saxophone lead us through this idiosyncratic tale of neurosis, the clash of sounds bringing to life this chaotic state of mind.