Back To Artist
Alpha : The Sky Is Mine
Log in to add to your wishlist
Fantastic songs that need to be heard.
Genre: Electronic: Chill out
Release Date: 2007
The Sky Is Mine Record Label: Dont Touch Recordings
  • Download Album (MP3) - $9.99
  • Buy CD - $12.97
Preview Song Name Time Format Price Select
Stargazing 4:14 $0.99
Surely 5:29 $0.99
Brood 5:58 $0.99
Push 3:50 $0.99
Burn Me Again 5:21 $0.99
May 4:08 $0.99
Given Time 3:51 $0.99
For the Wages 6:05 $0.99
Home 4:13 $0.99
Stumbled 5:23 $0.99
Silver Bullet 4:32 $0.99
A Little Poison 10:54 $0.99
preview all songs

Album Notes

THE SKY IS MINE' (DON'T TOUCH RECORDINGS) cat number: DOTOCD11 This is Alpha's eighth album (including last year's compilation of collaborations and remixes, 'Without Some Help') but is their first 'vocal' album since 2003's 'Stargazing' and is released on their own inprint Don't Touch Recordings. Whereas previous albums featured a number of vocal collaborations, this time it is only long-term member Wendy Stubbs singing on The Sky Is Mine. And just as their debut 'Come From Heaven' (released on Massive Attack's Melankolic label) was widely acknowledged as a classic collection of trembling torch songs, so this album develops that strand dramatically further. Whilst still deploying their skills for gentle experimentation, Alpha have tunnelled their sound out to a bolder, brassier landscape with Wendy often belting out her melancholic choruses like one of her heroes, Shirley Bassey. When Wendy first started working with Alpha they already had a lot of musical influences in common such as Scott Walker, Michel Legrand and Burt Bacharach. They also shared a love of simple love songs, mixing and merging different genres with bittersweet melodies thrown around by giddy synths and melodramatic strings. Over the years Alpha have worked with many varied artists (Jarvis, Acid Casuals, Blueneck, Coldplay to name a few) and are known for their inventive and emotional production. Last year Corin Dingley mixed the James Roberts album (a NME 9/10 on release) and more recently finished work on the superb debut lp by The Heavy who were promptly signed to Ninja Tune and whose album is released in the Autumn. The Sky Is Mine is released in Europe on September 17th. "Alpha are a Bristol outfit responsible for two of the most remarkable songs of the 90s in 'Wise' and 'Sometime Later', better than anything Portishead, Tricky or Massive Attack ever released - track them down right now, they're pure molten beauty" -Paul Lester, The Guardian Unlimited June 2007

Read more...

REVIEWS

How to Claim The Sky
author: Brian Ball, Talent Director WomensRadio.com
Joining together separate musical components to form a style unique and familiar can be a daunting task, unless your name is Wendy Stubbs and you are the vocalist on the 4th vocal (8th overall) album for the band that is said to have out-done anything released by Portishead, Tricky or Massive Attack. 2008 sees the U.S. release of The Sky Is Mine, a fantastic gaze into the twinkling after-hours alter-reality that juxtaposes organic roots with electronic fruits and lusciously airy vocals. Influences come from all angles and a short list (in alphabetical order) would read something like ambient, blues, cabaret, dance, electronica, folk, garage, house, instrumental, jazz….. the list goes on! The moments spent in the greatest of revelation transpired during the crescendos of “Burn Me Again,” with a clever layering of classical styled piano and modern synth with what sounds to be a xylophone on top of other electronic subtleties mixed into Wendy’s soft and giving vocal offerings. Upon listening, the listener’s mind can not help but to be flooded with information confirming the fact that beauty resides in everything and that we must be understanding of our neighbors, while at the same time letting go of our psychic apparatus and giving into the forbidden desires awakened by the spiritual power of music! “For The Wages” starts with a hint of a dub reggae influence mixing quickly with rock into a bluesy, lo-fi combination of Leonard Cohen/Beatles/Aretha Franklin/XTC/Tina Turner/Morcheeba complete with vinyl pops and a hint of country western. This is proof enough that Alpha and Wendy Stubbs shall be commissioned to score film music for years to come! “For The Wages could quite possibly be the last song I would ever want to hear before leaving this world”—Brian Ball, Talent Director Silver waves crashing on bronze shorelines would be a respectful metaphor in relation to the softly modulated synth tones that swim alongside the angels’ humming and timeless piano of “Silver Bullet.” Again bombarded with generations of information flooding the brain, our spirits are lifted in song as we ride out the storm that is created from this beautiful onslaught of creativity and resources that has so elegantly been placed in our hands. “Spaced-out downtempo with grand scale cinematic presence; not only will I recommend this release to my peers, but also to my parents!”—Brian Ball, Talent Director
Read more...
The Sky Is Mine
author: jost hofmann
wonderfool!
Read more...