Anyone who likes to daydream, hit the blues, or worries regarding aging and the risks will enjoy this thoughtful EP from Alpha Romeo & the Summer Tires. Two years following their debut album, singer, songwriter and main creative head Michael Gutenbrunner (Alpha Romeo) and his five-piece band “die Sommerreifen” are now presenting an EP entitled “Risiko” on Problembär Records, which Wolfgang Lehmann/Möstl mixed and mastered.
The title track Risk is the first of the four songs on the EP and sounds like an extension of the beach house sound to a full band mixed with Italo-Pop in the style of Adriano Celentano. As on Alpha Romeo’s debut album Atlantis, there are buttery smooth backing vocals from the large band. Risk is melodic emotionally it seems close to one of the Beach House songs, which is a bit irritating at first. But then you get used to it and revel. There is hardly any dreamier, more beautiful music. The consistent continuation of the Alpha Romeo debut album sound in the mature and perfect. A spoken word part and guitar solo is included. A lot is regarding tipico and betting shops and doesn’t run parallel to Voodoo Jürgens with gambling – but you take the small risk – it’s a different perspective on the topic. And also a very personal one – as well as all the songs of the Risk EP – which have their roots in the personal, but sprout their branches into the universally comprehensible, so that many listeners can understand and empathize with the lyrics when listening.
armadillo is a Chicago blues-influenced track with dialect lyrics: the straight, whipping drum fills can be heard. Guitars and bass are also rooted in the blues. The blues piano part is also supported in a new way by the short, concise staccato violin. Together with the dialect singing, an exciting and, above all, new-sounding mixture.
As is the opener Butter awake together dreamy. Starring dreamy bottleneck game. A funk guitar with a phaser effect also flashes briefly in between. For the last chorus in Butter awake together if the key is modulated up, at least it seems so, to give the song a final climax. It’s a very persistent catchy tune.
The EP-Closer The Youth Manifesto is an Austro-Pop-Nostalgie track with sparkling strings, a bit in the style of André Heller or Wolfgang Ambros. The fragile and questioning ring out on the strings. It’s also one of those songs that only aging can write, that you probably can’t or wouldn’t write at 20, and if you try it would inevitably seem precocious.
The Youth Manifesto and Risk probably have the greatest “classic” potential on the EP. But the other two songs also have quality. because das Alpha Romeo and his five-piece band continue to be musically ambitious through innovative instrumentation and the combination with the dialect; and by introspection and looking back find new personal and at the same time universal text themes – increases the expectation of the full album length of the upcoming second album.
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Guitar music and concert sketches