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Alamo Race Track |
Alamo Race Track is a Dutch four-piece working in the same area of modern pop as The Strokes or Radiohead. Carried along by the flawless songwriting of the group's leader, Ralph Mulder, Birds At Home, the group's first album which has finally arrived after a long gestation of two years or so, is an impressive distillation of all that's best in contemporary pop. Better still, with tracks as exciting as « Happy Accidents », « Trunk » or « We Like To Go On », Alamo Race Track has a handful of pop nuggets more than ready to shake up the established order of the Anglo-Saxon competition.
At a time when Belgian pop seems to be going through a renaissance (Girls In Hawaii, Ghinzu, Sharko, etc…), the emergence of the Dutch Alamo Race Track confirms that, this time, it's the whole of the Benelux community that's striking back!
For those with short memories, it may well be useful to recall that The Netherlands have always proved fertile ground for the growth of excellent rock bands. Following in the footsteps of Q65 or The Outsiders who, back in the 60's, already provided a solid alternative to all the beat combos coming out of England or the US, Alamo Race Track today seems to be taking up the same challenge faced with the onrush of neo-new wave groups like Franz Ferdinand or The Strokes of Room On Fire. This is, in any case, the impression left by Birds At Home, the amazing first album that the group allowed to mature for two years. Bassist David Corel explains: « We formed the group in 2001. Before that, and going back to 1998, all four of us were in a group called Redivider. We put one album out [All Dressed Up] and won quite a few prizes but, in the end, it just didn't really work out between us. When Diederik Nomden, the fifth member (and leader), left, the rest of us decided to carry on together just for the pleasure, without worrying about sales or the business of writing hits, etc… At the time, Leonard [Lucieer, the guitarist] and I were still musicology students in Amsterdam, and we all had different day jobs. All the first takes of the tracks were recorded in Leonard's attic, in Amsterdam… ». One result of the long development process is that the track list of Birds At Home bears witness to the musical evolution of the group: « Including the writing phase, the gestation of the album took something like two years overall. The oldest song on the record must be « Life Like Fire », which certainly still bears the hallmark of a Radiohead influence. After that, we were looking for something rougher, rawer. We were listening to a lot of PJ Harvey in those days, and that's when we wrote tracks like « Speed Up » or « Short Leave ». (…) The most recent song on the album is « We Like To Go On ». It's certainly our most new wave number (Ralph has been listening to a lot of Joy Division, Patti Smith and Television for a while now), and it's a kind of starting point for what we're writing currently. »
All in all, between the rugged blues of « Wild Bees » (in the style of The White Stripes), the impressive « Life Like Fire » (which leans towards the Radiohead of Kid A) and a number like « Summer Holiday » which may recall the defunct Beulah, Birds At Home represents a tremendous distillation of all that's best in contemporary pop. But what's most striking (and goes towards reinforcing the group's identity) is the unerring quality of the songwriting of Mulder and his acolytes. Tracks like the unstoppable « Trunk » (in full power pop mode) and « We Like To Go On » (very Strokes, of the Room On Fire period) prove that Alamo Race Track has no reason to be envious of the Anglo-Saxon competition. On the contrary, whether it's the latter two numbers or, even better, the very hit-like « Happy Accidents » (somewhat reminiscent of XTC), the Dutch quartet has on its hands three of the most exhilarating pop nuggets to have been heard in recent times. With music of this calibre, there's no doubt that current Dutch pop should soon start to command more attention.
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http://www.alamoracetrack.com | http://www.myspace.com/alamoracetrack
