by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
As far as first impressions go, Alexalone's new single "Planet Dust" and his brand of good ol' space-fuzz power-pop, leave a great one. The solo project of Austin's Alex Peterson, he has been recording home made EPs for the past several years, honing his production and songwriting skills in different directions from shoegaze and lo-fi to drone and electronic blips. What started as a recording experiment while playing in several other bands (Ama, Food Group, Superbike, The Hermits, etc), Peterson has become increasingly focused on Alexalone and it's evident in the sonic clarity of "Planet Dust," the first single from Sadness3, due out August 4th via Sports Day Records (Hovvdy, Alex Napping).
With a driving rhythm and thick distortion that recalls 90's "space rock" legends like Hum and Failure, "Planet Dust" is sleeker than anything we've heard from Alexalone in the past, blurring by in warped-space with layers of guitar bliss that draw equal parts from pop and shoegaze. Gentle riffs swirl in an airy tornado around the long slow dripped vocals and syrupy melodies. As Peterson sings, "I don't know how to deal / with how I feel" with elongated clarity, the sentiment sticks around just long enough for him to dive into another eruption of colorful guitar squalor, burying any worries in a blanket of overdrive
Alexalone's Sadness3 is out August 4th via Sports Day Records.