Performer Magazine
By: Lulu McAllister
January 2010
 

"Indie rock" is a how one might be tempted to label Minnesota-based the Alpha Centauri, but the title doesn't do the band justice. Relying on a wide assortment of instruments - which includes, but is not limited to cello, saxophone, synthesizers and trombone - the quartet's debut album balances blues-saturated subject matter between equal parts pretty, electronic experimentation and classical, orchestral precision. Without sinking its teeth completely into any one particular genre and yet borrowing tastefully from many, the Alpha Centauri has created a full-bodied sophomore work that breathes richly textured melancholy.

The ominous, vibrating synth opening Lavarocks' first track, "Rainbow," gives the impression that the album is about to break into something aggressive - a driving drum machine or perhaps a piercing electric guitar riff - but very quickly, the music swerves in a far less obvious direction. The listener lands in a dimly lit, smoke-filled room where Luke Anderson's hi-hat-dappled percussion cushions languid guitar, icy keys and Lance Conrad's emotive vocals. In some places, the song's individual instruments appear to rise together in a cloud of delicately indistinguishable ambient sounds. In others, the entire arrangement flickers briefly like a dying neon sign with small, artful production nods from Evan Beaumont on his sequencer. The goose bumps have already set in and Linnea Mohn hasn't even sung yet.

Versatile vocalist Mohn joins Conrad for a passionate, nearly operatic duet tickled with brushes of synth and sweeping drums on "Boys and Girls," and later switches to a bolder rock vocal style on buzzy "Electrostatic." "Keep Our Cards Close" exhales introspection and Mohn brings the album to a stunning close with her perfectly distilled angelic notes. (self-released)

01 Rainbow

02 No One Else

03 Boys and Girls

04 With Respect to Landscapes

05 Electrostatic

06 Shocks

07 Holy Smoke

08 XX

09 Keep Our Cards Close

“WOWW!!” –Indie Passion

"And finally we come to the band that is poised to blowing up in the next couple of years, The Alpha Centauri. This quartet has amazing musical talent. […] This is my current band to watch in 2009. I cannot recommend this band enough."
- www.TwinCityScene.com, Ian Indo

“Whether they’re favoring the Mohn-led electro-funk theatrics of “Electrostatic” or Conrad’s more ethereal space-rock leanings on tracks like the Radiohead-indebted “With Respect To Landscapes,” The Alpha Centauri's sound is vibrant and distinctive.”    Grade: A-
- The Onion, Christopher Bahn

With the intricacy and beauty of Lavarocks; The Alpha Centauri may be Minneapolis’ bright star in 2009. (Plus, anyone with a trombone in an experimental indie band is a friend of ours.)
- www.Above-TheFold.com, Santos Ramos

“Easily one of the most ambitious sounding local albums released so far this year.  […] damn near spine tingling.”
– Metromix, Rob Van Alstyne

“The goose bumps have set in and Linnea Mohn hasn't even sung yet.”
-Performer Magazine, Lulu McAllister

“The songs are dense and swirling and really show the band taking some adventurous chances, many of which result in challenging, but rewarding, pop songs.”
- CultureBully.com, Josh Keller

“This hotly anticipated release from forward-thinking Minneapolis quartet The Alpha Centauri is more akin to the cerebral joy usually only delivered by groups like Omaha’s Shelter Belt collective.
The album — nay, odyssey — opens curiously with “Rainbow,” which owes as much to Midlake’s Fleetwood Mac vibrations as the hordes of never-really-given-a-proper-chance acts on the Astralwerks roster pushing out hypnotic, electronica-tinged daydreams worth their weight in gold.
- Duluth News Tribune, Matthew Perrine

"I can't even begin to describe how hypnotically amazing the combinations of different styles is in this track. The song manages to incorporate all of Radiohead's post-OK Computer catalog and put it into an electronic, free-jazz blender." (“Noise” 2007)
- www.MinneapolisFuckingRocks.blogspot.com, Jonathan Graef


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