ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 TRANSITIONAL//EN"> <html> <head> <title></title> </head> <body> </body> </html> <b>Sic Alps Description</b> Of The Harbor LP (Awesome Vistas)</br> <br> Head and shoulders above the (quite nifty) last one - the one with the spraypainted VW parked in the Northern California mist - this new LP is most unshitty. Its like a clowncar at the circus, but instead of bursting at the seams with a bunch of pathetic assholes in makeup and stupid outfits, its bursting at the seams with lovely and mysterious melodies all recorded at the far-end of the reverbiest drainpipe west of the Pecos. The two Sic Alpers manage to knock the ball outta the park in the first two minutes with a gorgeous (I think that s the first time I ve ever used that word my entire life, but its the only way I can describe it) take on the title track/cover of the Strapping Fieldhands tune before it dissolves into shudders and sonic scrapes. But instead of more noise workouts, the flipside [also the name of a horrible magazine  ed] is nine psych tunes that drift miles above what you re used to, all enveloped in lush clouds of echo. Sometimes the Alps sound like Colin Blundstone & co. minus a couple of singing lessons, simplifying their chops and recording in a nice wet cave. Sometimes they sound uncannily like the folkier Velvet Underground documented on bootlegs before Lou Reed s mind split open or they were chugging through unnaturally aggressive instrumental takes of  Guess I m Falling In Love . But the entire time, they sound great, and the songwriting is firing on all cylinders - not a single clunker in the entire barrel. You know who I hate? Robert Hillburn. What a piece of shit.