Review by Gil Gillespie, Future Music: 4.5 out of 5 ‘Life can be tough if you live in the shadow of what used to be known as trip-hop. The genre, if it was ever actually a genre, has long been consigned to history, along with Goa Trance and speedcore. Alpha, of course, were never trip-hop. But almost twenty years after they became the first signing on Massive Attack’s Melankolic label, they remain on the periphery of European electronica when they really should be right at the centre of its gently pulsing synthetic heart. Now relocated somewhere deep in the French countryside, Alpha mainman Corin Dingley has spent a Scott Walker-esque seven years crafting Loving Nobody and it is well worth the wait. Darker and more noirish than the woozy 2am Bacharach feel they are often associated with, the new sound is both heavier and more inventive. Slabs of synth orchestration combine with all manner of fractured sci-fi fiddling that makes every second of the hour plus running time a captivating one. There’s drums too, loose wristed and offbeat. And acoustic guitars. Traditional futurism, you could call it, if you really want to. Nowhere is this more impressively realised than on the title track itself and the truly outstanding Without Walls. Both are blessed with enough wide-screen presence to hold up an entire movie. Loving Nobody starts as if it has been snatched from the Donnie Darko soundtrack and builds into what feels like an endless crescendo of rapturous drone-like electronic fuzz. It sits in the same giant chair as the majestic horrorshow of the excellent The KVB. Rarely has analog noise been so moving, so utterly human. Without Walls is an even more haunted affair. Over a chilling metronomic beat, an almost dismembered vocal relates a weird tale of the everyday lives of free-spirited forest dwelling folk. It is probably Alpha’s finest moment to date. Lauded by those in the know, overlooked by far too many others, Alpha remain one of those bands who should be talked about alongside their more celebrated Bristolian cousins, Massive Attack and Portishead. On this form, they might yet find the space among the clouds that their music deserves. Undoubtedly one of the albums of the year.’