We live in a world where mp3s, guitar tabs, and concert videos are more accessible to a greater number of people than ever. Therefore, when Indie Band X drops a debut album stylistically stitching together, say, Italian disco and early Modest Mouse, the accomplishment's somewhat demystified by the insane amount of exposure we all enjoy in the Information Age. Despite this phenomenon, Brooklyn's Alex Delivery sounds intent on blowing your mind on their expansive and ambitious debut, even if you're familiar with all their go-to tools and tricks.
In many ways, Star Destroyer sounds like prog tailored for a hipster audience that hates nearly everything prog's about (dramatic climaxes, technical proficiency, rich instrumentation), though likes having several chic genres crammed down their throat on nine minute-plus tracks. Furthermore, many of these songs contain a strange blend of aestheticism and ascetism, whether by preemptively deflating a potentially epic melody or shaving down noisy krautrock into harmless laptop pop. Catchy opener "Komad", for example, initially extends Sebadoh's lo-fi pop to the same cacophonous degree as Iran's Moon Boys, though midway through transmogrifies into a space-age motorik freakout, its mechanical synths and beeps starkly contrasting frontman Robert Lombardo's all-too-human vocals.
Star Destroyer may be a pretty opaque record, particularly on first listen, but its brief flashes of hooks often shine through the murky krautrock and shoegaze. The mild pretentiousness of "Komad" comes down to earth on "Rainbows", the following track. Canned strings and soothing keyboards compliment Lombardo's serene vocals, unlike other passages on the album where feedback squalls and jarring percussion poke holes in the leading melody. At just over two minutes, "Scotty" feels like an insignificant blip sandwiched between two behemoth tracks, though the track's goofy carnival feel provides a much-needed break from the plodding stoicism of Star Destroyer's longer songs.
The drastic shift from tight and catchy to protracted and cerebral is easily Star Destroyer's most frustrating characteristic. While the binary works on a song like "Komad", other lengthy tracks like "Sheath-Wet" and "Milan" fail to create stylistically disparate sections that are equally interesting, degenerating instead into repetitive jams that never quite jell. This is not a plea for catchier songs, either, but rather for more ear-grabbing ideas that can unfold over a nine-minute track coherently. Thankfully, these guys show a glimpse of that promise with closer "Vesna", an intergalactic ballad reminiscent of David Bowie's Berlin albums. As their gorgeous impressionistic album art indicates, Alex Delivery loves revealing pretty ideas at obtuse angles, always wary of cheapening their songs with direct, straightforward hooks. Even more promising, they clearly have the encyclopedic musical knowledge and sonic mastery to craft an album that both borrows from their influences and puts a unique, innovative spin on them. For now, however, Alex Delivery's got a bit of a mad scientist streak, still searching for some method to their madness.
