ALVARIUS B Schallplatten & CDs

Review: A reissue of 2022's covers single, Alvarius B's 'Karaoke' gets a second run via Unrock. A titan of the US underground singer-songwriter scene, Alan Bishop is best known as a co-founder of Sun City Girls and owner of the labels Abduction and Sublime Frequencies. His less-known alias Alvarius B has nonetheless seen an extended panhandle of releases at least since 1994, and plays host to a string of 'characters' and sub-pseudonyms. One such 'charakter', as he calls them, is Karaoke, whose forte is covers of noir cinematic rock classics. Here we've got two dark rundowns; on the A, a dark rundown of Ennie Morricone's 'Solo Nostalgia' from the film Comandamenti per un Gangster, and on the B, a version of Indonesia's finest Koes Plus' 'Tiba-Tiba Ku Menangis', whom Bishop had already interpreted as part of the band Koes Barat. Both detail Bishop's talent as a rarely-performed alter-ego, a cosmopolite solo-entertainer.