I’m not sure where Alpha Maid comes from, but it seems like a scary place. Reports say South London, although Godard’s Alphaville seems more likely. I might also have guessed Bristol, where producer/rapper Tricky comes from, but that might be an overgeneralization. Like Tricky, though, or at least Tricky at his best, Alpha Maid make disturbing mixes, putting unadorned vocals over unsupportive, glitched-out tracks, like a dystopian dancefloor, like a post-human world where human pain remains.
CHUCKLE (out digitally from C.A.N.V.A.S. March 19, with a vinyl release to come at some unspecified date) is the trio’s second EP. Like 2019’s Spy, it runs barely a quarter of an hour—all the time they need to set a mood and leave you with it. The tracks grind and jitter, heavy but sparse, unstable. Lopsided glitches and trumpet spurts, plodding bass and distorted guitar seem pasted over beats that come off as almost accidental. Melodies arise only occasionally, as if to make some sardonic point. Leisha Thomas’s voice is filtered and coated in reverb, words eroded into core attitude.
It’s a remarkable little record, streaming in full on Bandcamp. If it doesn’t unnerve you, you just don’t have nerves.
Author
Kurt Gottschalk is a writer, journalist and broadcaster based in New York City.
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