Album review: Alison Wonderland – Run
Annastasia Robertson checks out the debut longplayer from Sydney-based Alison Wonderland:
Let me set a scene for you: it’s Halloween, I’m at a university party, I don’t really have a clue as to what’s going on, apart from I’ve fallen over and snapped my tooth in half, but I’m distracted because the music pumping over the speakers is consuming my pain and embarrassment. Music which was being played by none other than Alex Scholler, a.k.a Alison Wonderland.
Run is the debut record from the Sydney DJ and producer whose discography includes the 2012 Welcome To Wonderland mixtape and the 2014 Calm Down EP, with Run as the first full-length album Wonderland has dropped.
Fun fact: Wonderland is a classically trained cellist. What?! Musical diversity at its finest.
From the opening track ‘Run’, we are taken down the rabbit-hole and are immersed into the musical, magical land of beats and the aforementioned sweaty dance-moves.
Standout track ‘U Don’t Know’, featuring Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, sets the speed for the first half of the record, continuing smoothly into the catchy ‘Take It To Reality’, featuring three-piece Aussie band SAFIA (see: Take Me Over – Peking Duk).
While there are certainly four highlights; ‘U Don’t Know’, ‘Take It To Reality’, ‘I Want U’ and ‘Already Gone’, each song has its own unique feel, particular to the genre it sits in, and by the end you have been provided with 43 minutes of young, carefree listening pleasure.
‘I Want U’ (first heard on the Calm Down EP) provides the first taste of trap, or rather, trap lite. I know this to be true because listening to it doesn’t trigger that hurling reaction I usually get from most trap “songs”.
Run will have you switching up your dance-moves between anything from foot-tapping under your desk, to shameless boogying down the supermarket aisle. Her beats throughout are not so dirty that you have to take a shower afterwards, but a pat-down might be required.
Overall, the record is almost experimental as she flirts between techno, house and the baby of the electro-family, trap. We’ve been given a taste of what Alison Wonderland is capable of, and this is an impressive first go at a full-length album.
You can see Alison Wonderland at one of her Wonderland Warehouse Project shows across Australia, only catch is that the location is a secret. Tickets through www.wonderlandwarehouseproject.com
Review by Annastasia Robertson.
