Janelle Abad
It takes only a few moments for alexalone’s fourth album to conjure a portal to Hell. Doomsday sound effects and a torrential storm of feedback open this month’s surprise release nomoreshoegaze, establishing a new colony within Alex Peterson’s portentous guitar universe like a Bandcamp-only version of the tape from The Ring. A crew of collaborators, including members of Lomelda, Proun, Felt Out, and Virginia Creeper, lend textured touches from vocals to harmonium to this cocooning soundscape, but all Peterson and bandmates Sam Jordan and Dante Zatto really need are a few notes, played over and over, to end this kitchen sink genre once and for all. Proun and Ringo Deathstarr join in an effects pedal convention for the ages. – Carys Anderson
