Artist description "Northern Alliance are a sleepy-sounding band, winding their way along a nu-folk trail humming a drunken melody." - Is this Music?

Similar Artists Sparklehorse, Low, Mazzy Star, Palace Brothers

Group Members Doug Johnstone - vocals, guitars, drums, keyboards Craig Smith - bass, guitars, keyboards Viv Strachan - vocals

Instruments guitars, drums, bass, casio.

Albums Hope in little things

Press Reviews It's not where you are, it's where you're at. So, fittingly, Northern Alliance belie their east coast (Edinburgh, East Lothian) roots for some distinctly mid-west (Louisville, Kentucky) action. Many of the right buttons are pushed here as they invoke the wayward spirit of Sparklehorse, the patient gentility of Mazzy Star, and thoughts of a raft of down-at-heel, Marlboro' puffin', JD chuggin' country troubadours. While there is some patchy vocal production in places, 'Campaign for Dark Skies' could pass as the Palace Brothers aided by Isobel Campbell had she eaten her spinach, and when 'Earthquake Zone' shudders to a rumbling climax you may be convinced the walls are actually crumbling in around you. Mark Robertson - The List [10.4.03] - 4/5 With a line-up boasting a nuclear physicist – aren't biog sheets great? –you might expect a vaguely technologically-driven album – aren't most of Warp Records' roster graduates in sciences? And this band's seeming propensity for medical troubles – including collapsed lungs and hernias – perhaps rules out their over-taxing themselves in creating music. However, there are now doubtless a host of grindcore acts cursing that they didn't think of the name first. But this lot make music far removed from either postulation – instead Northern Alliance are a sleepy-sounding band, winding their way along a nu-folk trail humming a drunken melody. 'Buildings of the Future', the opener, sets the pace if not the tone, a traipse somewhere between Smog and Appendix Out, but 'Earthquake Zone' raises itself from its slumber and pitches some quietly searing guitar work into the pot. It's an engaging ride, twin vocals conjuring up images of Low but with some jarring percussion putting them in the quietcore pigeonhole alongside Tugboat Annie and Codeine. "Of course we were drunk – what the hell did you think?" they drawl on 'When The Clocks Go Forward'. Never imagined anything else. Stuart McHugh - Is This Music, issue 5 [May/June 2003]

Location Edinburgh, Scotland - United Kingdom

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