Life Coach – Alphawaves
Originally conceived as a solo outlet for Trans Am founder Phil Manley’s homage to late krautrock visionary Conny Plank, this second album as Life Coach is another bold evolution for the prolific producer. Whereas his 2011 debut was a reflective series of uplifting ambient synth passages, Alphawaves is all live instrumentation with Manley’s mantra-like vocals casually drifting in and out of every other track, recalling NEU!’s cosmic meandering as much as QOTSA’s earliest brushes with hard-hitting psychedelia.
With Manley's Roland 606 left smouldering in the skip, Earthless guitarist Isaiah Mitchell occasionally plugs in and the drum stool comes out for sometime Golden bandmate and college chum Jon Theodore, complementing the album’s improvised feel with a loose and intuitive set of parts he recorded mostly unrehearsed on the first take. As a result, Alphawaves is more naturally experienced as a fluid, singular jam on repeat, each hypnotic track reaching for its own summit in perpetuity.