Apse
Spirit EP
Transportation has been a dream of sci-fi fans ever since the words “Beam me up, Scotty” were first uttered. So maybe we should email the nearest convention to spread the news: you now can be transported to another world and for little more than a tenner! None of that inconvenient molecular breakdown and reconstruction is needed, no danger, just one shiny CD by a hugely talented band.
And it’s true – Apse do take you to another place, albeit an eerie planet of uncertainty in a post-hardcore universe. The atmosphere that the band creates with a recording that is (amazingly) their debut album, is of such intensity that it’s almost hypnotic, sounding in places like the wall of noise regularly thrown out by the Deftones. Yet it’s also brilliantly fluid, moving you from one scenario to the next with a slight drop in tempo or a subtle change in instrumentation.
So perfect is the mix of parts, however, that you’d be hard-pressed to pinpoint any change, as the individual instruments materialize and slip away from the mix with ease. Yet it seems that the layering of the vocals is the key aspect in the creation of the ‘Spirit’ world, as the echoes produced by several voices define exactly what situation you imagine yourself in.
For instance, on the stand-out track ‘Legions’, the ghostly choir of harmonies sneaks up on you and then places you firmly in a cavernous area before the pulsing drum beat has you fleeing in terror from these disembodied nightmares. Yet the real fear comes when there are no vocals at all, for then you’re hopelessly alone in the enchanted scenes that Apse have left you in, and there’s nothing left to do but embrace it.
So yes, it would appear that this New York quintet have achieved the impossible and made transportation a reality – but be warned: the world awaiting you is disconcerting, occasionally terrifying, but undeniably fantastic.
Guest article from Heather P.
Written by Guest Writers on
