“A wall of sound that sandblasts away your thoughts and places you in a unique state of bliss”: this is what shoegaze is all about for Toronto-based artist Michelle K, who performs as Alonekitty with her band. This simple rule guides Michelle K’s music, which is all about making dense guitar noises.
Alonekitty keep things simple with their music on Sad Not Sad, their second album, which relies on economical production values. Michelle K’s vocals have a disarming authenticity to them, with raw awkwardness that is sometimes out-of-tune, but never smoothed out with the magic of technology.
Alonekitty love to go psychedelic with their music, which explains the many small trips on this record of wandering music parts with guitar noises. However, in cases such as “I Close My Eyes And Believe” and “I Wonder Why,” the guitars—big as they are–simply sound drab, like a grey concrete wall of sound without any color.
The album is undoubtedly more satisfying when Alonekitty decorate their grey concrete wall of sound. On “Sad Not Sad” and “She Let You Down Again,” the noise is turned into beautiful melancholia with wistful, melodic guitars. On “Boundary Issues” and “No Matter What I Say,” the wall of sound has a groovy headbanging rhythm that’s kinda catchy. On “Fade In And Out,” the guitars have a sludgy metal kick, made even more striking by the killer drum accompaniment. And on “2Tired2,” the drawing force is not the noise, but Michelle K’s sincere singing that captivates with its warmth and quirky sheepishness.
Alonekitty’s tendency to free-form, their love of noise and stubbornness to hold on to its roughness, joined with Michelle K’s hesitant vocals, share, among other things, a spirit of genuineness with indie greats like Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth. And this spirit is more massive than any wall of sound that Alonekitty could build on this record.