(ATP)

www.atpfestival.com/recordings

The body-moving, bass driven psychedelia of Apse's Climb Up represents a sharp curve away from the more cerebral atmospheres of 2006's Spirit. Where before the band rode galloping drum beats over vast, brooding landscapes, now their tunes writhe and groove hedonistically. Spirit felt like an obscure sacrament, while Climb Up seems more like a celebration, one that culminates in two late-album pop psychedelic anthems, "Climb Up" and "Closure." 

In fact, the Apse of Climb Up is pretty close to a different band, with only founder Michael Gundlach and long-time (one-named) collaborator Bobby as holdovers from the previous record. Gundlach moved from Brooklyn to Cape Cod during the interim, lost half his supporting players in the process and recruited new ones on the island. Climb Up, recorded in the quiet off-seasons of fall and winter, ought to be pensive and wintery, but instead it plunges hip deep in riotous sensualism. Bobby's falsetto-soul croon, far more prominent here than on the last record, adds a lush, romantic sheen to live and programmed beats. If Spirit put you in mind of Bardo Pond, Climb Up recalls Mercury Rev, Brian Jonestown Massacre and Blur in its stoned but physically compelling grooves.

Climb Up is wildly backloaded, its first handful of tracks barely gelling, its latter ones gaining heft and swagger and sway. By "Climb Up," next but one to the end, Apse has settled into a haze-shrouded,  hip-shifting, Satanic Majestic groove, and "Closure," aptly enough, right at the end, takes this ramshackle journey straight into the far horizon. Tambourines trailing, guitars slashing, melodies trembling, you can barely see the road anymore for the radiance of the sunset.

Standout Tracks: "Climb Up" "Closure" JENNIFER KELLY