DSU, Alex G

Alex G, a 21 years old man from Philadelphia, who, from his bedroom, out of the commercial circuit and uploading his songs to Bandcamp, has managed to get his new album DSU in several lists of the best of the year. And let's not take him for the other Alex G, a female soul singer filling the iTunes of so many teenage girls around the world. We are talking about the good Alex G. The one worth listening to.

Everybody agrees on his immediacy, his directness and, mostly, his humble and honest approach to music. Listening to his soft and mellow voice in songs like Serpent is Lord, we can't agree more.
This is an album that would happily fit into the 90s tag lo-fi that came always attached to bands like Yo la Tengo, Sebadoh, Pavement or Neutral Milk Hotel. Its sparse music accompaniments, its subtle yet present guitar and its below-the-surface digital gimmicks bring back an era of possibilities, of sincere music and emotions.

Rejoyce and Black Hair are clearly in debt with the best moments of Sebadoh and Elliott Smith, both in their compositions and their singing adding a light touch of the Beta Band psychedelia, just enough to transform the short songs (the first one just short of two minutes and the second one only a bit above it) in wider pieces.

Hollow evolves nicely into becoming one of the best songs of the album. Perfect combination of high pitched voices a la Dinosaur Jr and fulfilling distorted guitars surrounding the melody.



Sometimes it's good to find out that there is still hope out there...