Alexander McGregor
Part One: Aguirre Returns
Eskimo Laboratories
Someone must not have told Alexander McGregor that lo-fi, as a musical aesthetic, is all over. Who still strives to create understated pop music under the most rudimentary of recording styles? Lucky for us, no one told him. Clocking in at just over 26 minutes, Aguirre Returns is a charming blend of psych, folk rock experiments that reach their apotheosis on the minor epic, “Rise of All the Cities.” McGregor’s fey voice reaches the sublime heights of latter day indie rock luminaries like Stephen Malkmus and Dean Wareham. Throughout most of these tracks it is all McGregor and a lone drum machine crafting the kind of bed-sitter epics that most of us would die for. The six proper tracks on this release are interspersed with the sort of minimal sonic experiments one is compelled to find on any lo-fi release. My favorite is the 40-second Sad Sack experiment “Henreid,” with its rather ill sounding trumpets. All told, this is a nice teaser for future Alexander McGregor releases.
Alexander McGregor: http://users.rcn.com/billporter/alex/
