School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms

Like many things, I suppose, School of Seven Bells are at their best when at their most ecstatic - most notably, on the strategically-tracklisted (at tracks 2 and 3) "Face to Face on High Places" and "Half Asleep", a pair of gauzey, zoomy, ascendant dream-pop cuts somewhat surprisingly woven through with, respectively, an Eastern-sounding rhythm line (underpinned by thumping, tribal drums) and an IDM-at-its-most-friendly cum Delerium-esque dancefloor haze. There are a lot of ideas on this record, sometimes overwhelming the musical content of the songs, which can seem a bit thin despite (or perhaps because of) how much is going on sonically throughout (the abovementioned threads are various enough, but only scratch the surface); perhaps that's why the most straight-ahead songs on Alpinisms are its best.