Customer Reviews

Pepper

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was going to get Massive Attack's recent CD for a friend's birthday until I heard Alpha Pepper. I love them both, but thought Alpha was more "downtown" -- very chill but slightly less mellow. It's got a real three-dimensional quality; I could feel myself moving through space as I listened. Each track creates a whole world of sound where I could live for hours, or days. Surprising hallucinatory voices and sounds from nowhere abound. The album is filled with sonic revelations; these cats are the real thing. Funky, creative, sensual. LOVE IT!

I first heard of Alpha back in 2002 when I was listening to Triphop channel at work. Came back to my desk to hear this ridiculously seductive instrumental with lots of electronica blips and beeps and a haunting chant-like vocal. The song was Tim Simeon's remix of Sometimelater, originally found on the Come From Heaven cd and included on this Pepper Remix cd. From that moment on Alpha became my new favorite trip-hop artist. The Art of Noise & Enigma previously held that position in my book since before electronica and trip-hop. I like the other mixes on this cd as well, they beg you to buy the cds the original versions are found on and I'm glad I did. The originals are even better than the remixes, well, except for Sometimelater, in which case they are about equal because they are so different. This is a REAL remix cd, where you don't even recognize the original versions of the originals found on Come From Heaven. I recommend buying ALL of Alpha's cds (4 I think), its great music for meditation, driving, bike riding, jogging, motorcycling, bathing, thinking, working, smokin herb and yes, "gittin bizzy!" Buy Come From Heaven, Impossible Thrill and Stargazer too!! Stargazer will blow your mind.

PEPPER collects various b-sides and remixes off of Alpha's underrated debut album COME FROM HEAVEN. While Trevor Jackson's Underdog moniker takes a dub approach (with compeltely unnecessary added lyrics), the album is more appropriately represented by the More Rockers mix of "Hazeldub," which speed things up to an light drum 'n' bass rhythm. The new track, "Honey," keeps the speed going, but without the personality of the original album. Maybe that's why it's a b-side. The Tim Simenon mix of "Sometime Later," on the brighter side, transforms the song into an almost ambient outer-space drift. The Underdog comes back with a dark and aggressive mix of "Slim" that makes up for their earlier effort, while Receiver counteracts this by taking "Firefly" into lugubrious territory. As for the final two new tracks, "Pepper" starts off sounding like the album track "Delaney," but veers into more of a soundscape, while "Over" could have easily have appeared on the original album. Overall, a nice companion to the original, though obviously not as solid.

Let me begin by saying that alpha itself is an amazing band, very creative and unfraid to deliver.
As for by 4 stars is simply because of maybe a song or two that weren't as pleasing as others.
Other than that, I would recommend this CD to anyone who enjoys mellow music.