L'altra "In the Afternoon"

Whenever I intend on spending an afternoon or an evening writing, I always make a pizza. It's a simple, easy to make dish. I put the ingredients in my bread machine, and I let it mix the dough. I'll spend my time on my computer or with my notebook and work until the dough is ready. then, I take a simple break, put the fixings on it, then go back to work until it's ready. Then, when done, I have something to snack on while gettin' my writin' on.

Lately, however, I've been a little more creative when it comes to preparing my pizzas. I discovered that I would spend less money if I were to buy two or three slices of fancy cheese instead of packages of shredded cheese. My world changed. Now I could pretend to be a gormet! With the newfound cheese goldmine, I thought that maybe I could expand on the other toppings as well. So now, when I make a pizza on Sunday nights, I'm adding two or three different meats, such as hamburger, ham, bacon, pepperoni, sausage, as well as having as many as six different cheeses. I also learned that if you put italian seasoning in the dough, it gives the dough a less bland taste, and if you let the dough rise for a few hours longer, then the dough has a nice, rich texture.

The key to good pizza is love. You have to love what you're making to really appreciate its goodness. Once you realize your love, you can play around with it and have fun trying different things. Remember---the ingredients all work together to create the whole pizza. For example, if you choose the wrong cheese (white American in my instance) it seemingly unbalances the delicate nature of the pie, and makes your experience not as great. Ultimatly, the key to making a killer pie is knowing what you think will make your pie killer, and then acting on it.

L'altra is a lot like my pizza making experience. The four memeber of L'altra are all experienced musicians who have their own loves and passions and styles. Like the mozerella on the monetrey jack, the singing of Lindsay Anderson simply melts with the music being made by her bandmates, and the rest of the music also forms itself quite nicely around her singing as well. Variety being the spice of life (and italian food), L'altra have brought in numerous guest musicians to accompany them on In the Afternoon, and the taste is utterly yummy! Instead of being your typical post-rock band, however, L'altra are rather layered--a little jazz here, a little folk there, a little indie-rock right here, and a whole lot of good music all around.

In the Afternoon is a tasty mix of atmosphere, passion, and space. It's a quiet record that can be served any time of the year. Burning up from the heat and too cheap to turn on the air conditioner? L'altra will cool you down. Feeling cold and lonely on a grey winter afternoon? L'altra will heat you up for that as well. In the Afternoon is a soft, sonic, soothing record that will intoxicate you and fulfil your hunger for dark, intelligent music. Serve it at your next candlelit dinner, too, for atmospehre, and you'll find that you'll get your fill.

--Joseph Kyle