Named after a line in a Sylvia Plath poem, Nine Black Alps – Sam Forrest (vocals/guitar), James Galley (drums), David Jones (guitar) and Martin Cohen (bass) – tread down a path of desperation, death, love and desire, giving each of their songs a ferocious urgency. They play with a sophistication that belies the young band’s years, twisting unapologetically British melodies a la McCartney and Lennon to fit within a late-20th century American guitar framework.

Nine Black Alps’ self-titled five-song EP, is a hearty introduction to your new favorite band. Two songs were recorded by acclaimed producer Rob Schnapf (Elliott Smith, Beck, The Vines), and all five reveal a band that eschews the hype of the current Britrock invasion by sounding absolutely refreshing and utterly different. “Cosmopolitan” and “Shot Down” are nothing short of anthemic, blending blustering lyrics with electrified intensity and squalor in just under three minutes. “Attraction” leaks out of the speakers like the most simple Olivia Tremor Control song you’ve ever heard, with Sam Forrest’s layered vocals, simple acoustic strumming and a swooning, wave-cradled lead guitar line.

Nine Black Alps have already supported Mars Volta, Kaiser Chiefs and Secret Machines on the stage. The band will be playing select shows in America throughout the summer .

Bio

There are a few things you should know immediately about Manchester’s Nine Black Alps. The first, and possibly most important, is that they loathe tasteful music, tasteful musicians and, indeed, the very concept of an easily digestible world based around manageable, tasteful, culture. The second is that they are a world apart from their contemporaries. While much of the rest of the independent music world flaps around cheekily in boating blazers and pork pie hats content to sing cheeky songs about cheeky customers, Nine Black Alps plough their own furrow.

Nine Black Alps are a seriously intense experience, one where the howl of an overblown amp trying to deal with another superheavyweight riff is always more likely to appear than a cheeky (read: horrible) saxophone solo. Put simply, Nine Black Alps are not likely to appear on a lite-FM playlist any time soon. At least, not until that audience recognizes the power of a guitar played so hard you can hear the strings warp. Nine Black Alps make a truly startling noise.

As intense as Pixies at their most vicious and as brutal and melodic as Nirvana, Nine Black Alps are the perfect midpoint between the abattoir-blues of early Black Sabbath and the fried atmospherics of Ride. “I like things that are vaguely crap and ramshackle,” says Sam Forrest who was born in York, spent a year in San Francisco, went to university in Cardiff and then moved to Manchester and got a job in an asbestos plant. He may sing and write songs, but he would not thank you for calling him a singer/songwriter. “I hate things that seem too learned, too perfect, too worked out.”

Nine Black Alps came together through firm friends, dirty pubs and good luck in the summer of 2003. Since then they have perfected a style so heavy that in the studio they play the songs so hard they “feel like we’re dead.”

“I love those bands who are 15 years old and just like to smash fuck out of their instruments,” says David Jones, who plays guitar and bass.

“We hate the idea of repeating ourselves,” says Martin Cohen, bass player and guitarist and former (failing) college friend of David. “Plus none of us can solo, so all the songs are short.”

“It does feel like we’re on our own a bit right now,” says Sam. “I like music to really hit me, not flip flop around on its tiptoes. We like heavy guitars, we’d feel silly doing anything else. We’re not arch and incisive people. Lots of bands have a speech, an angle, but we’re more instant, more instinctive. More spontaneous.”