speed of dark

I owe one of this year's best musical discoveries to Jonathan at Mocking Music for his August post on Alaska In Winter. If you have not read the story of Brandon Bethancourt and Alaska In Winter, click here and read how Brandon spent the winter of 2004 snowbound in a cabin in Alaska with his computer and returned to his hometown of Albuquerque with the raw materials for some amazing songs. It didn't hurt that he has some extremely talented friends to help him craft those materials into multi-layered works as intricate and lovely as Fabergé eggs.

If I were making a Favorite Album list for 2006, Alaska In Winter would be on it. If I were making a Best New Artist of 2006 list, Alaska In Winter would be on it, in competition with his fellow Albuquerquian (?), Zach Condon of Beirut. I would also have to give Alaska In Winter the award for Best Use of a Vocoder since Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek."

You can hear Zach on trumpet on "Humming and Homeless Remix" and "Your Red Dress." You can also hear the same faded old-world glory in "Balkan Lowrider Anthem" that Condon infused into his Gulag Orkestar.

This music speaks in vivid images. "Sega" particularly sends me a distinct picture of steadily blowing snow blanketing stately firs standing in ranks on a remote mountainside. "Balkan Lowrider" swerves around green-clad hills. Droplets of piano begin "Rainy Weekend," then a throbbing rain-on-the-roof beat underscores the sad, grey-sky melody. The muffled, intertwining, sometimes quavery, and electronically distorted vocals add to rather than detract from the general ambiance of it all--beauty cloaked in mystery.

Sega Anthem Remix

Humming and Homeless Remix

Your Red Dress

Balkan Lowrider Anthem

Rainy Weekends

Visit Alaska In Winter's MySpace page for news, pictures, and more downloads.