Alfa 9 - Gone To Ground (2013)

Alfa 9 'Gone To Ground' - their 2nd album, and follows their debut Then We Begin, recently described as “one of the best albums of the last decade” by Shindig! It’s hard to believe that it has been seven years ago since Newcastle-Under-Lyme’s finest were gaining high praise for their lusciously produced debut album Then We Begin. Clash called the record “a definitive debut and stunningly complete piece of music”, Classic Rock said it evoked “The Stones Roses [if they] had lived in Haight-Asbury...” whilst “‘For Your Bones”, said The Sun, “recalls The Who at their best”. Drowned In Sound boldly surmised “leaves you feeling like you've just been caught in the eye of a particularly forceful sonic storm”.

Alfa 9 may have slowed down, but they didn’t go away. The band took things back to basics, focusing on three-four minute songs, great harmonies and losing the dirt from the guitars and the keyboards. Citing the ’60s and early ’70s folk and country-rock of The Byrds, in particular, Gene Clark, Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers, the Paisley Underground bands of early ’80s LA and signature influence The Stone Roses Gone To Ground (which only took six months to record) channels the same love of the past as such contemporaries as The See See, Tame Impala, The Quarter After, Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Beachwood Sparks. “I guess the sort of stuff we were becoming influenced by was far more subtly produced, so it was a pretty natural move,” says Leon of the album’s more spacious production, marked by rich mid-60s harmonies, ringing 12 strings and naturally overdriven and fuzztone guitars. Gone To Ground deserves a place on the record shelf of anyone susceptible to organic jangle and fine melodies.