Alpinisms

Insound Staff Pick - 2008! Alpinisms is an electronically enhanced pop record of dizzying highs and claustrophobic lows whose painstaking conception shows in its detail-laden crevices. On the album's best tracks - the polyrhythmic dream-pop of "Face to Face in High Places," the nervous shimmer of "My Cabal," the menacing lilt of "Iamundernodisguise" - Curtis constructs layers of shoegazing, moire-patterned guitars, while Alejandra and Claudia Deheza intertwine their near-identical voices like the fingers of praying hands. Throughout, the whole heavenly affair is tethered to the ground with a glitchy, tribal thwomp. Technology collides with cryptic religious imagery and good, old-fashioned rock music.