Generally speaking, it’s not music for those with short attention spans. Kinski, being strictly instrumentalists these days, aren’t tied to the verse/chorus/verse construction, and therefore can create these slow, massive builds of sonic mayhem. It takes a little longer to get to the payoff sometimes, but it’s worth the trip. Which, when you think about it, is true of so many things.

The stereotypical Kinski piece starts out on the ambient side of things and stays there for awhile. It’s the sort of music that tends to conjure up pictures of enormous whales swimming the icy depths. Or, y’know, maybe something less clichéd. Natural images just seem to go with their work, though. (If I were programming the Nature Channel, you can bet your ass they’d be the house band. Since I’m not, they record for Sub Pop; Alpine Static, the album we’ll be looking at in a moment, is their second full-length for the label.) Things flow along like that for awhile, and then the guitars come in, gently, first one, and then a counterpoint, and then it slowly, subtly shifts until it becomes full band loudness and swarming guitars and probably some distorted flute, too. And then, as often as not, it winds down to just a bass throb, fading into darkness.

OK, so that’s the template. Now let’s break it.

Alpine Static is an energetic, playful re-creation of what Kinski sounds like. It’s almost as if the band have set out to fuck with the expectations of the listener. There’s a surprise around every corner, it seems. The first time I listened to this disc all the way through I physically jumped at one point, alright? It’s that kind of disc, kids. All bets are off.

What’s different this time around? For one thing, this album is much more riff-oriented than their earlier ones, and therefore a bit more approachable. Those riffs still get a little bent and twisted along the way, but they’re there. Things also get off to a relatively speedy start. The first three tracks – “Hot Stenographer”, “the Wives of Artie Shaw”, and “Hiding Drugs in the Temple (Part 2)” – come in at 5:27, 3:16, and 3:30, respectively. That’s positively blazing in comparison with the more typically lengthy “The Snowy Parts of Scandinavia” (9:48) and “Edge Set” (9:29).

“Hot Stenographer” sets up expectations in the mind of the listener, triggering memories of certain rock & roll tropes from other artists, and then shattering them like a cheap pair of sunglasses. Phrases and chords get repeated to the point where you start to wonder if the disc is skipping, a note get held until it turns into an overtone-laden drone… and that’s just the first song. “The Party Which You Know Will Be Heavy” plays similar tricks: grinding to a stop in the middle of its clockwork riff, dissolving into silence and tiny guitar burbles and scraping noises, and then just as suddenly picking up (more or less) where it left off, only to soften into an almost pastoral, chiming section at the end that sounds as if it could have been lifted from one of the early REM albums. It’s almost perverse, really.

“Passed Out On Your Lawn” is a slight remake/remodel of “Fell Asleep On Your Lawn” from the split EP they did a while back with Acid Mothers Temple. It’s about two minutes shorter this time out, mostly due to the quicker tempo this time around. It’s a little more polished now, too.

As track number 5, “Passed Out On Your Lawn” serves as the halfway point of the album, and also is the first instance of Kinski’s ambient side here. The first half of the disc is pretty relentless; the equivalent of side two has its driving moments too, but it’s generally more balanced. The two gentler pieces, the elegiac “All Your Kids Have Turned To Static” and the gorgeously simple “Waka Nusa” appear here, sandwiched around “The Snowy Parts of Scandinavia” and mid-tempo rocker “Edge Set”.

The standout track here, for me, anyway, is probably “The Snowy Parts of Scandinavia”. It’s got everything I dig about Kinski – the ambient stuff, the wacky guitar stuff – and it’s got the extra added bonus of surprising the hell out of me. There’s a point where it goes back and forth between these meek little guitar lines, like tiny mice out foraging, and then out of nowhere comes this huge fucking LOUD grinder-on-sheet-metal other guitar, real chest-beating stuff, and the tiny little mouse guitars completely ignore it! They just go about their mousy business. The grinder comes back several times, roaring and threatening, but the mice ultimately prevail. They take the song in to realms of wonderfulness, and bring the grinder along for the ride. You can read whatever you want into that interpretation. I sure as hell can’t stop you. But if you give this piece a few spins, you’ll dig it. Yes, you will.

Martin’s guitar work runs the gamut from delicacy to full-on skronk. He and Reid-Schwartz get their money’s worth out of their effects pedals, and then some. Reid-Schwartz’s crazed flute distortions are added here and there judiciously, like herbs in a well-seasoned stew. Kinski’s rhythm section doesn’t always get the recognition they deserve, so let’s do something about that. At all time, both bass and drums keep things moving forward. Atkinson’s bass textures throughout are spot on (“Passed Out…” stands out, in that regard), and Wilke… there’s so much going on around him that he’s not often left much maneuvering room. He shines in the somewhat Stooge-esque “Hiding Drugs in the Temple”, throwing in some tasty fills when he can.

Randall Dunn and Chris Martin split the production duties, with Dunn handling recording and mixing, too. Aside from the crickets and frogs added to “Waka Nusa”, I never found myself thinking of the production of the record. Which in my book is a sign of good production, really.

This is not going to be an album that will suit everybody’s taste. I don’t see Kinski going platinum anytime soon, but I don’t think they’re terribly interested in that, either. They do what they do, and if you want to take the trip with them you’re welcome to hop on board. I’ll save you a seat.

(Kinski's Alpine Static will be released July 12, on Sub Pop Records. They will tour the US and Canada, starting July 14.)

(Just added: a stream of the album.)

*Grunge, silly. How soon they forget.