| |
|
|
Apse - Spirit
 Website: Click Here
Music: Click Here
Label: Acuarela Discos
Buy Link: Click Here
Score: 6/10
Apse is a bit of an oddity in the US music scene. The band has chosen Spanish based Acuarela Discos as it's home, and appears to enjoy touring Europe much more than the States. This wouldn't be all too strange, except Apse, which is located in New York and Conneticut, rarely finds themselves playing in the US outside of New England, and even those shows are few and far between. This adds a bit of mystery to the band, which isn't a bad thing, especially considering the type of music conjured up by this quintet.
Although Spirit is the first album that bears the Apse name, don't let that fool you into thinking this is a group of young, inexperienced musicians. This quintet formed in 1999 and put out a long series of self-released EPs and mini albums before dropping their debut self-titled EP on Acuarela last year. It is now clear (analyzing with the aid of retrospection), that Apse was the introduction to what would fully develop during the length of Spirit. The sly reader may even draw a correlation between the meanings of the two albums, and maybe some of the songs therein. I'm not one to label a work of art as a "concept album," but it's pretty clear Apse has a plan with its music and this isn't just a bunch of random recordings stitched together and put on the same cd. There's a clear motivation and purpose behind the music, although a lazy listener will be all too quick to miss it.
Spirit really is the logical conclusion of Apse. Many of the familiar sounds are present: dark, brooding compositions with strong rhythm sections and piercing percussion that occasionally transform into engulfing drones and (vocal) echoing. Again, Apse has a very gothic feel to it; this isn't music that lifts the listener into the clouds, but rather anchors them into the earth and buries them with organic richness. All the same, there are many songs that reach that transcendtal plane -- "Legions," "Blackwood Gates," and "Spirit" -- and these are the songs where much about the band is revealeld. It seems as though even though Apse really have no desire to play "post-rock," at least by traditional standards, they do aim for that ephiphanic moment that is so well encompassed by the genre. We then have an experimental bands with slight avant garde tendencies whose main trick is to break into post-rock's playbook through the back door for the glorious finale. This trick was highly used by Magyar Posse in Kings of Time, and it not all that different than Kayo Dot's winning formula, albeit at a much lower intensity.
The downfall of the album is that it doesn't quite stick out as much as it should. The industrial influence of the album should be taken further, and in general Apse would do good for itself by indulging itself in the extremities of many of the genres it utlitizes. Spirit remains a conservative album, and as such, much of the music is largely predictable, which inevitably will tire the experienced listener. This is really a travesty, because Apse is undoubtedly an experienced group of musicians with a strong motivation and a clear source of inspiration; the only problem is they seem unsure of their own abilities and question whether or not they can make this music work if they actually do carry it out to the finish. But, they can, and they should -- so far everything they've released has pointed them in the right direction, they're just very slow about getting there.
~Jordan Volz
Written By: hostDate Posted: 12/8/2006Number of Views: 943
Return |
| | | | | |
| | |
|