Review: A/lpaca – Laughter

A/lpaca is new to me. I’m sometimes skeptical of bands with punctuation in their names. Well, not really. Just thought it was funny to mention.

Evil Pawn opens up their latest album, Laughter. The rhythmic noise coming through grabs my attention and brings in thoughts of the Butthole Surfers. The change into The Confident Laughter is seamless and almost not noticed. It rolls with an almost spoken vocal style. Great noise sound.

An Encounter kicks in with some almost toy piano sounding keys providing some interest. The bass is just droning in the background. At this point, I realize the vocals will be of that semi-spoken style. No complaints. Laughter, Us Us comes up with some slightly jangly guitar. Vocals on this are still the same, but higher pitched. A definite Sonic Youth vibe on this track. Bianca’s Videotape is a short noise loop, soon followed by Balance, which starts with this weird flute/recorder sound. It’s kind of hypnotic in sound. The track, Brano Fantuzzi, starts with a scream before progressing into a slightly techno sounding beat with what sounded like bird noises. Delicious track!

Empty Chairs brings the same energy, but a little less noise. Though it does get a little heavy in bits, and the vocals work well. Kylie brings back the slight techno-ish beat but is super mellow and ambient. Who is in Love Daddy? rolls back the noise knob, but still keeps it noise adjacent. If that makes sense. Not quite acoustic, but kind of in that vein. Don’t Talk closes the album. More ethereal than anything else on the album, and the vocals are more sung than other tracks. Love the keyboard sounds on this one.

Of course, they’re based in Italy. Seems like the stuff I really dig is in Europe. Maybe we should move. Anyway, A/lpaca is recommended for fans of Butthole Surfers, Sonic Youth, and the Flaming Lips.