Alpha (band)
alpha | |
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General information | |
origin | Bristol , UK |
Genre (s) | Trip hop |
founding | 1996 |
Website | www.alphaheaven.com |
Founding members | |
Producer, songwriter |
Corin Dingley |
Producer, songwriter |
Andy Jenks (until 2007) |
Current occupation | |
Producer, songwriter |
Corin Dingley |
singing |
Wendy Stubbs |
singing |
Hannah Collins |
singing |
Duncan Attwood |
former members | |
singing |
Martin Barnard |
singing |
Helen White |
Keyboard |
Peter Wild |
Alpha is a trip-hop project from Bristol . It was founded in 1995 by the two producers and songwriters Corin Dingley and Andy Jenks .
Band history
Corin Dingley and Andy Jenks founded Alpha in 1995 under the project name Ariel. Both had previously been active in the bands The Experimental Pop Band and Statik Sound System and had released albums with both of them. With Ariel, the two brought out the single For the Armchair Traveler , which caught the attention of Massive Attack , also from Bristol.
Massive Attack signed Alpha, as the duo called themselves from then on, on their Virgin Records sub- label Melankolic . With singers Wendy Stubbs, Martin Barnard and Helen White, the group recorded their debut album Come from Heaven in 1997 . The single Sometime Later reached number 91 on the British singles charts , and is still the duo's only chart success in the British charts.
In 2001 the second album The Impossible Thrill and the Extended Play South followed . This EP features the Jimmy Webb cover This Is Where I Came In , on which Jarvis Cocker can be heard as a guest singer.
Since the albums Made in Space and Stargazing (2013) they have been releasing their albums on their own independent label Don't Touch , to which the post-rock band Blueneck was also under contract. Her greatest critical success was Stargazing , which was praised in Q and the Sunday Times , among others .
A number of other albums and various remixes followed, including for Coldplay , Lambchop and Sunna .
Andy Jenks left the project shortly before the release of the album The Sky Is Mine (2007). Corin Dingley then recorded the album alone with the help of keyboardist Peter Wild. In 2009 a collaboration with the reggae singer Horace Andy followed . The album was released under the title Two Phazed People .
In 2012 the album Eleventh Trip was released and in 2015 the last album to date Loving Nobody , a double album.
Discography
Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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Singles | ||||||||||||
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Albums
- 1997: Come from Heaven (Melankolic / Virgin Records )
- 2001: The Impossible Thrill (Melankolic)
- 2003: Made in Space (Don't Touch)
- 2003: Stargazing (Don't Touch)
- 2004: Lost in a Garden of Clouds Part 1 (Don't Touch)
- 2006: Lost in a Garden of Clouds Part 2 (Don't Touch)
- 2007: The Sky Is Mine (Don't Touch)
- 2009: Two Phazed People (with Horace Andy , Don't Touch)
- 2012: Eleventh Trip (Don't Touch)
- 2013: Alpha.Blueneck (Remix album by Blueneck, Don't Touch)
- 2015: Loving Nobody (double album, Don't Touch)
Compilations
- 1998: Pepper (Remixes) (Melankolic)
- 2006: Without Some Help (Don't Touch)
Singles and EPs
- 1995: For the Armchair Traveler (Swarffinger Records) as Ariel
- 1997: Sometime Later (Melankolic)
- 1997: Come from Heaven (Melankolic)
- 1998: Pepper (Melankolic)
- 1998: Slim (Melankolic)
- 1998: With (Melankolic)
- 2001: South EP (Melankolic)
- 2002: Revoultion EP (Catalog)
- 2003: Elvis (Don't Touch)
- 2012: L'hiver (Download EP, Don't Touch)
- 2015: Salt (Download EP, Don't Touch)
Remixes (selection)
- 1998: Massive Attack : Invertia Creeps
- 1998: Helena Noguerra feat. Perry Blake: All Shook UP
- 2000: Sunna : OD
- 2001: Coldplay : Yellow
- 2002: Lambchop : Is a Woman
Guest Posts
- 2008: Breakadawn on Man in the Mirror by Mark Ronson Presents Rhymefest
- 2013: True Schanzer and Schanzer pride in Schanzerherz from Bonfire
Web links
- Official website
- Alpha at Allmusic (English)
- Alpha at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d So Who Is Alpha? In: Alphaheaven - The best kept secret. Retrieved March 1, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Chart tracking: UK . Retrieved March 1, 2019
- ↑ Don't Touch. In: Discogs . Retrieved March 1, 2019 .
- ↑ Guy Garcia: MUSIC; Trip-Hop Reinvents Itself to Take on the World . In: The New York Times . October 25, 1998, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed March 1, 2019]).
- ↑ Alpha at Allmusic (English). Retrieved March 1, 2019
- ^ Horace Andy and Alpha: Two Phazed People. In: Pop Matters. November 12, 2009, accessed March 1, 2019 .