Alvin Risk - Alone

We seem to be having a bit of a theme going on at the minute, of artists that seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth making unexpected returns. Well, we can now add Alvin Risk to the list. Aside from an interpretation/remix of some of Hans Zimmer's music from the last Spiderman film, we've had nothing from the producer in over a year. Now he's back, with a new track called Alone... and we have no idea where it's come from, what it's for... anything, really.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 'ALONE'

But what we do know, is that he's clearly not lost any of his production prowess whilst he's been away. To find out more about Alvin's new track, and how you can grab it for free, go below.

Alone was actually premiered on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show yesterday, but we weren't given any info about whether it would lead to a full release. You can download it from an obscure Twitter account that has a grand total of 1 tweet. And when you download it, you'll find that it comes with the artwork you see above. Is Venture a new album? A new EP? Something else? The fact is, I just don't know. I did a fair bit of digging, and can fin nothing about it. Hell, Alvin himself, who was tweeting/Facebooking as recently as yesterday, hasn't even acknowledged the existence of this track.

But all that aside, what of the track itself? It features the same slightly insane, slightly manic production that we've come to expect from Alvin, but it's far more dark and brooding than a lot of his more full on, in-your-face releases. It begins with a whisper, a breeze, before what sounds like a catchy pop-hook comes in. It soon becomes apparent that this is to be no shitty pop record though. Alvin's whispery, ethereal vocals soon enter, and are accompanied by all manner of terrifying growls and haunting sounds. I have to be honest - the jury's still out on whether Alvin actually has a good singing voice, but here it works well enough, really capturing the vibe that he's aimed for with Alone.

After this, things go nuts. There's the trademark vocal editing that sets his productions apart from the rest - they're chopped up, the pitch is changed, they're changed into other terrifying loops and effects. There's a blizzard of manic synths and percussion, too. Though the track is actually quite sparse, you never really get a sense of that when listening, as one of Alvin's greatest talents is to make a small amount of sounds go a very long way. Everything is so frantic and busy that you'd be forgiven for not noticing that at all.

And then everything just sort of disintegrates into nothingness, leaving a barely audible pulse. Alvin has done a fantastic job at conveying the isolation that he presumably wanted to underscore the whole track. It may not be his best work, but this is an incredibly convincing comeback, and I'm eager to discover what the producer has in store for us next.

The Octopus' Rating: 6/8

Release Details:

Name: Alone
Artist: Alvin Risk
Label: OWSLA
Release Date: 9 October [OUT NOW]
Purchase: Free Download (right click, Save As... / Download Linked File)

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Alex Simpson

Writer, musician, and all-round top guy. I set up Excited Octopus. Currently, I'm on a one man team. It gets lonely sometimes. But I don't mind, because I love you all.

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