“Bees” AlaskaAlaska

South London group AlaskaAlaska is comprised of Lucinda Duarte-Holman and bassist and producer Fraser Rieley, ALASKALASKA formed in 2016 after Duarte-Holman introduced Rieley to her friends Calum Duncan (guitarist), Fraser Smith (saxophonist), and Gethin Jones (drummer). Alvvays, Cigarettes After Sex, Porches and Nilüfer Yanya soon followed. The band release their new album Dots on August 3rd via Marathon Artists (Jagwar Ma, Honeyblood). Ahead of the arrival of Loops, the band has shared a video for “Bees.”

Their debut album Dots was written and recorded between Rieley’s living room and a more traditional, professional studio set-up (with co-producer Tom Carmichael), and the band limited their takes of each part to just a handful of attempts in order to retain the spontaneity of a first take’s ‘eureka’ moment. “For most of the songs, we build on guides that we had – rough, scratchy demos,” Rieley explains, “a fair bit of the audio is taken straight from them, because we got things that we liked, and didn’t think we could reproduce.” It’s a process the helps The Dots retain its humanity, rather than losing it to over-polishing. “If it works, why get rid of it? It felt important to keep that element of it,” says Rieley. “Sometimes there’s a beauty in the roughness,” adds Duarte-Holman. “We all really enjoy the rough edges – the bits that make it growl.”

Lucinda Duarte-Holman on “Bees”

“‘Bees’ is a song about making sure we continue to ask questions, demand answers, and consistently make more progressive choices today than we did yesterday.” Previous single “Moon” is about Duarte-Holman’s monthly cycle and “an insight into [her] neurosis”. Both tracks are perfectly at home on a record packed with fluid, intelligent and utterly remarkable left-of-centre pop songs.

AlaskaAlaska
The Dots
Tracklisting

1.) The Dots
2.) Bees
3.) Moon
4.) Arrows
5.) Tough Love
6.) Sweat
7.) Meateater
8.) Monster
9.) Happyface
10.) Heaven
11.) – – –
12.) Skin

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