EXCLUSIVE: Alla Feeds Us #FeedTheDragon Volume One Next Week

By Jon Graef in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 4, 2013 4:00PM

On March 12, Chicagoist will premiere the first volume of Chicago group Alla’s #FeedTheDragon series. #FeedTheDragon Volume One showcases the band radically retooling their sound while still retaining the lavish romantic appeal of past efforts like Es Tiempo and Digs. The album is the first of a planned series of three, and will consist of ten songs.

Alla is a Chicago trio known primarily for taking a long time to make their masterful records. Es Tiempo, the band’s full-length debut released in 2008, was the final product of seven years and $40,000. Prominent alt-weeklies and monthlies compared the band to Stereolab, Tortoise and Os Mutantes. The Chicago Reader called Es Tiempo a “masterpiece” and Pitchfork awarded the album a not-too-shabby-at-all 7.9.

But while effort involved yielded a terrific record, Alla singer Lupe Martinez says that repeating the process wasn’t feasible.  

“We knew we couldn't make another Es Tiempo that took too much time, energy and money,” Martinez wrote in an email to us. “It’s just us and the music.”

Martinez says the band kept the making of #FeedTheDragon as a strictly inter-band activity; in other words, no studios, record label, engineers, outside producers or even guest musicians. Martinez additionally says that guitarist and songwriter Jorge Ledezma had one condition for recording: that no guitars be used.

The results are dramatic. #FeedTheDragon is not so much a reinvention so much as a recalibration of the band’s sound. In contrast to Es Tiempo, an album filled with lush orchestration that helped fueled romantic, Tropicália-influenced pop, Dragon showcases more prominent electronic, hip-hop and soul influences.

Listeners themselves have had the chance to hear this evolution in the Alla’s sound. The band has essentially released about a third of the record already through posting tracks on their Soundcloud page.

There’s the romantic, subdued “Because,” a track that marries quiet storm passion and downtempo’s calming cool; “Without U,” the closer on Dragon, but the first song to be released publicly, is pure digital soul—what janet. would have sounded like had Dilla been behind the boards. And lastly, “All Fall Down,” a Matmos-like mechanical take on synth-heavy 80s-era R&B.

Having heard the rest of the record, we can assure you that there’s plenty more where that came from, and the result is a sumptuous sonic feast for listeners’ ears. If Alla aren’t the future of R&B, then maybe the genre doesn’t deserve a future at all.

These tracks are a result of a newfound collaboration within the band.

“#feedthedragon is totally different approach than the guitar/studio based band setting that we've been used to,” Martinez says. “Jorge and I shared the production and songwriting credits, which is also very different than Es Tiempo —which basically was just him.”

Martinez says creating Dragon was a slow, steady and break-less process over a couple of years in a homemade workspace, beginning in January 2011. Despite the hard work, the creative process wasn’t rushed in the slightest, according to Martinez.

“We definitely didn’t take a break. It was a definite ‘slowly but surely’ approach on creating—many nights spent inside illuminated by candles and outside Chicago street lights listening to dusty R&B records and UK dance,” Martinez said.

What was initially thought as a more traditional twelve-track album – a compilation of sorts comprising of the best of the many tracks the band recorded – blossomed into a more sprawled-out musical affair.

“We wrote and produced so much music for the last two years that we initially thought about releasing the best 12 tracks. But it developed into so many more songs we fell in love with that we're just ready for people to hear it,” Martinez said.

Volumes Two and Three of #feedthedragon are planned for spring and summer of 2013, respectively. In the meantime, the group has been fine-tuning #feedthedragon Volume One

“We see the volumes as one huge document. It will all make sense when listened to together, but three hours of music is a lot for anyone to digest all at once,” Martinez says.

So wade in carefully.