Wednesday, March 14   12:45 a.m.
Emo's IV Lounge   (601 Red River St)

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Combining avant-garde experimentalism picked up from their interest in composers like Terry Riley and Steve Reich with a fondness for '70s Krautrock pioneers like Ash Ra Tempel, and the gut-level thrust, heft and swing of Black Sabbath, the Groundhogs and legendary ‘60s/‘70s Mexican band Los Dug Dug’s, Kinski have established themselves as Seattle's foremost psych rock explorers. They have toured extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan, including tours with Mission of Burma, Oneida, Comets on Fire, Acid Mothers Temple, and ...Trail of the Dead. Blender magazine on their last album (2003’s Airs Above Your Station): "...they follow measured guitar burn with bone-rattling explosions, and roll mesmerizing tension into colossal release."

With Alpine Static, their second Sub Pop release, Kinski tap directly into their explosive live energy, adding it to the expansive and dramatic drift heard on previous releases. Heavy/heady rock melodies mix with surprising changes in pace, volume and structure. Driving power combines with experimental noise. Of the Kinski approach, The Stranger writes, “They reconcile the tension between sonic experimentation/improvisation and song structure with grace and cunning.” Alpine Static contains some of their most direct and immediate songs yet; songs that wage an unreservedly primal attack with bared teeth and claw.

Alpine Static and Kinski are about the power, range and outright thrill of the guitar as vehicle. As with their previous releases, the new album takes you on a journey. Kinski’s guitarists create a range of feeling through their mixture of improvised sound exploration and solid distorted rhythms; from euphoria to melancholy; from excitement to introspection. They manage to infuse experimental music with emotion, fun and a sense of wide-eyed adventure. Alpine Static opens with an exhilarating ride, calms to an underwater exploration, and then brings the listener back to the surface again.

Over-driven and raw, countered with moments of eerie tension, Alpine Static hits you in the stomach, ties you up in flowing ‘70s scarves and throws you in the trunk with Catherine Deneuve and Steve McQueen. In other words: in here (points to head) or out there (points to rest of world), this thing will move you.


Kinski: Lucy Atkinson, Chris Martin, Matthew Reid-Schwartz, Barrett Wilke

Alpine Static was recorded in Seattle by Randall Dunn in January and February of 2005.