Alpha Cop

Don't ask anyone in Alpha Cop what kind of music they play. They won't have an answer. Brian J. Donohoe’s counterintuitive drumming is rich with jazz fusion flavors - electric Miles, he always says, is his jam. Violinist Kari Azure is a violin-maker and restorer by trade, though her four strings pass through an array of tone-mangling effects pedals and a cranked Fender amp that would make a noise-rock guitarist drool. Bassist Channing Azure’s multifaceted bass-work blurs the line between rhythm and melody, indicative of the crushingly heavy post-hardcore and spacious, though equally crushing post-rock he loves. Guitarist Corbie Hill skews pensive and dense, his lyrics tending mournful and autobiographical and his effects-heavy guitar style just rural enough to tinge the band's churn with high-lonesome lamentations.

But don't ask them what they do with that toolkit. They're not a metal band, though they're pretty heavy and loud for the indie scene; they're not a prog band, though they're too restless to follow the same song structure twice; they're not a post-rock band or a noise band, either, though there are instrumental passages and extended drones aplenty. While there are elements of all those things, they're mainly a group of musical explorers, creating art they find fascinating - and ruthlessly discarding or rewriting their own material if it starts to bore them. If you wanna listen, they're happy to share. No pressure.