Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 2000
The young Chicago combo L'Altra fashion a post-rock music that is melodic and abstract at the same time. The songs are intriguing at first for their sophisticated arrangements, but once you have allowed them entrance into your head they do not want to leave. Their first full-length, Music of a Sinking Occasion is a subtle record worthy of many, many listens. --Mike McGonigal
Amazon.com
It's well-documented that Chicago's underground alt/art-rock scene created some of the '90s' most uncompromisingly inventive sounds: witness Tortoise, Jim O'Rourke, Palace, and Califone. L'Altra's Music of a Sinking Occasion (follow-up to '99's heralded, self-titled debut EP) continues the trend, at its own slow, lilting pace. Writing patient songs with memorable, unpredictable movements and long silences, L'Altra make quietly resonant use of naked male and female voices, mixing the two together for a sparse, personal beauty. They incorporate some of the sadcore aesthetics of bands like Red House Painters, Carissa's Wierd, and Low. But their approach is at once more acoustic and instrumentally eclectic: flutes, accordions, and trumpets float into songs at key moments. The instrumental title track is a bit of a set-up, employing a quick splash of drums & bass and some electronic touches over low, minor piano chords. And from there, the record shifts into low gear and luxuriates in the slowly passing scenery. Warm acoustic drums take over the rhythm with track two, "Little Chair," using quiet inflections to get their points across. Later, "Movement" starts off vaguely atonal and unfocused, then suddenly gives way to a lilting, strings-backed harmony that mirrors the desperate hopefulness of the lyrics. Gradual and quiet, L'Altra are in no hurry to impress you, but it happens very quickly nonetheless. --Matthew Cooke
Music Of A Sinking Occasion,L'Altra,Aesthetics Records,Pop,Popular Music,Post-Rock/Experimental,Rock,Rock/Pop
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