The Article below was published in Vol. 136, Issue 7 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on April 2, 2021.
Emma Baumgartel ’21
Staff Writer
Grammy-nominated artist Eric Alexandrakis’s recently-dropped album GMT, in line with his other Terra-series drops, defies genre boundaries, featuring an ethereal, techno-meets-’70s sound, with elements of melodramatic spoken word and various types of guitar. This unpredictable yet still cohesive album truly pushes past any expectations one might have of Alexandrakis’s sound. Though GMT is arguably more alternative, and, well, “different” than his previous release, Love’s a Bi**h, most songs are still accessible and refreshingly different to listeners, providing an alternative to more algorithmic rhythms of today’s era.
Loosely focused around the theme of travel, we hear in his first song, “Baggage Claim,” the sounds of an airport: a woman’s voice over a loudspeaker and the rumbling of a baggage carousel. However, Alexandrakis distorts this identifiable sound by adding ethereal, techno notes, creating a rhythmic effect.
Alexandrakis shifts his sound, as he often does, in the next few songs in quick succession. The entire album is 13 minutes and 58 seconds long; many of the songs are no more than two minutes and listeners are quickly exposed to multiple shifting genres. “Get Ready for Springtime” is upbeat, catchy, and has somewhat of a “movie montage” feel. “Grass in Your Toes” is dramatically different, a quirky and alternative spoken-word piece that definitely raises a few eyebrows in terms of its weirdness. “Boom Chicka Boom Boom Boom,” the shortest song on the album at only 39 seconds, is fast-paced and a surprising mix of hip-hop and techno. “Dropping Bombs with Needles and Fast Talkers,” a longer piece and another spoken word song that is theatrical and almost sinister in a spooky, Vincent Price (a legendary horror actor) kind of way.
Two stand-out songs on the album are “Dance Baby Dance,” a piece that flows almost hypnotically and manages to make complete sense of the unpredictable mesh of techno, rhythmic, and ethereal sounds that make up the album. The other stand-out song on the album is an acoustic piece, titled “Daylight,” a live, harmonica and guitar-led piece, recorded from an airport, which gently brings the listener back to the theme of the album as well as the sounds of the airport.
It goes without saying that listening to Alexandrakis’s GMT is quite the experience. With this new release, Alexandrakis again manages to reshape the mainstream form of music through his integration of so many influences, sounds, and instruments, taking us on a journey not only through an airport terminal but also through multiple decades and genres.
