Leon McDermott, Big Issue in Scotland, July 17 2003

If the band name reminds you of a bunch of morally suspect Afghan warlords, then the album title ought to confirm that, rather than Northern Alliance being gun-totin’ mercenaries, they’re an indie band. A nice little indie band, with pretty melodies and budget production, whose personnel, divided between Edinburgh and Paris, include sometime contributor to this magazine, Doug Johnstone. There’s plenty of what the band does out there, but this is lovely. The echoes of American shufflers The Kingsbury Manx, on the opening ‘Buildings of the Future’, give way to a robust coda, and Mormon quietist legends Low appear to be required listening at Northern Alliance towers. Still, that’s no bad thing; there are occasional reminders of Low’s dual boy/girl vocals in Johnstone and co-vocalist Viv Strachan’s gentle lines on ‘Campaign for Dark Skies’, and if it’s a little derivative, well, who cares?