ESCAPE FROM POST-ROCK Apse
Aug 11, 2008
Like a ghost, New England collective eludes the confines of genre.
BY KENNY HERZOG
Architecturally speaking, an apse is a semicircular recess often seen in classic churches. However, the Spirit that passes through New England collective APSE's album of the same name feels distinctly non-denominational, evoking a ghostliness that's passed through eras and ideologies to haunt the halls of the genre formerly known as post-rock.
"'Post-rock' in itself, as a term, is horrible, and makes me think of all the boring crescendo bands… I'm fucking glad it’s over," says vocalist Robert Tohe. Parallel to how the album (initially unveiled via Spanish label Acuarela Discos in 2006 and reissued this July through ATP) travels off into darkness and distorted ambience before winding its way toward menacing tribal undulations and discomforting voodoo chants, APSE is reacting to the movements in music around it. "If anything, the whole post-rock hysteria indicated to us that we were to do what we could to get away from that sort of thing," adds Tohe.
Exactly what Spirit is in search of remains amorphous by way of Tohe's analysis, as it does through the restless rhythms of the record itself. "It marks a time for us," he says, "an investigation into a certain world or worlds." But if one thing is clear, that investigation has led the group to sonically paranormal realms.
"With Spirit it ended up that things came out a bit haunted in places to say the least," Tohe concedes. "The one thing we knew is that the album should have that sense of a kind of danger throughout it."
[Photo Credit: Michael Piccirillo]
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