Alpine Decline—For the Betterment of Well People (Maybe Mars)
Alpine Decline makes spiraling 1960s psychedelic pop in a sunny good-trip vein. The main surprising thing about this band — the core is a married couple named Jonathan and Pauline Zeitlin — is that they've lived for several years in Beijing, though they current live and record in southern California. But whatever you imagine psychedelic pop from China might sound like, it is probably not this, an expansive, languid, lysergic West Coast iteration of the genre, sung in English and conceived very much in line with a British and American phenomenon; this band may remind you of the Byrds or early Pink Floyd or the Brian Jonestown Massacre, but nothing more exotic.
For the Betterment of Well People is Alpine Decline’s 10th album, and by all accounts, not all of the others work in this same sunshine-infused psychedelic vein. Yet from the very beginning, this album captures the loosely slung, ecstatic vibe of late 1960s bands like Vanilla Fudge, the Byrds or the Chocolate Watch Band. “I Got Up (Just like John Sinclair)” tips a hat to the MC5 manager, but pick up on that band’s hard blues style. Instead, it’s a ramble, a jangle, a psychedelic shamble, built on chiming guitars and burbling organs, never very emphatic but rather enveloping. It might remind you a little of the Beta Band.
“Flight Instruction” twists guitar notes in a mystic, sitar-like way, advocating for enlightenment in the haziest of ways (“You must climb to the top of the stairs”) but bringing the weight in giant, echoing guitar chords and entropic noise. “Gems” is a raggedy, indie-pop jingler, nudged on through the haze of guitar picking by insistent bass, and Jonathan Zeitlin’s reedy, earnest voice. “Through Waterfalls” bolsters its lavish, Love-ish baroque pop arrangements with the sound of falling water. “Since that day, something I’m afraid to mention, I’ve been staring at the world from a parallel dimension,” sings Zeitlin, and yes, the song and the album inhabit a very trippy corner of the music world.
Does it matter that there's a link to China? Probably not. Though American and British bands have mostly jettisoned these styles, some fertile explorations are happening in Latin America (Boogarins, Bonifrate) and perhaps other corners of the world. If you’re going to transcend the material plane, what difference does it make where you’re standing when you start rolling tape?
Following on from the previous post, let’s check out the bands with clips from the Far Out Distant Sounds YT channel. First up: Chui Wan, from their self-titled 2015 album. (the follow-up to White Night from 2012) Bandcamp
And here is the newest MV from Alpine Decline’s 7th (SEVENTH?!) album, Life's a Gasp:
