New APSE - "3.1/The Whip" (Stereogum Premiere)

The "outer Cape Cod" quintet Apse's home-recorded second album Climb Up is worthy of its expansive album art. In fact, it's difficult charting the various textures, moods, and post-rock approaches contained in its dozen songs and almost 60-minutes worth of music. When we posted "Shade Of The Moor"" last year, I mentioned the band were together for close to seven years when they completed their first album Spirit, nine years after Robert Toher, aka Bobby, founded the project in Newton, CT when it was reissued by ATP. Life happens, and causes delays, but the passage of time also speaks to the band's attention to detail. The group's currently a quintet with various friends. If you ever dripped into the darkly-lit cinematic slow-release of Spirit, you'll be surprised Climb Up's more varied palette and pacing.

We're told:

Drawing from a mixture of existing demos that were turned into working songs as well as full-band improvised live recordings that Bobby cut up and formed into song structures, overdubbing effects and vocals on top of them - the band ultimately chose and honed in on a final cut of 12 tracks, culled from a larger body of work.

See if you can detect the splices on "3.1" and "The Whip."

"3.1"

"The Whip"

The "3.1"/"The Whip" Double A-Side single is out now. Climb Up is out 11/10 via ATP.

Posted at 1:54 PM by brandon in Album Art
Tags: Apse

10 Comments

Thanks for posting this! I was unaware they had new material on the horizon. It'll be something to look forward to before the year ends for sure!

Posted by: Michael_ at 09/11/09 3:45 PM  | Reply
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Two thumbs down.

Posted by: Matt_Duke at 09/12/09 3:33 PM  | Reply
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Explain yourself... It's easy to just say "two thumbs down" and walk away.... It's innovative, dance worthy, instumentally charged and fresh. see, i EXPLAINED myself.

Posted by: Sarah  in reply to Matt_Duke's comment at 09/15/09 3:02 PM  | Reply
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cool.

Posted by: joe G. at 09/12/09 3:53 PM  | Reply
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Looks quite similar to U2's most recent album art, albeit a bit less zen and a bit more emotive. Seems to actually have a narrative too, when considered with the album title at least, instead of the completely literal approach that U2 took.

Posted by: Coj at 09/12/09 8:23 PM  | Reply
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Seriously, is there an album-art-generation program everybody starting using this year?

Posted by: biasedbulldog  in reply to Coj's comment at 09/13/09 12:16 PM  | Reply
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I don't understand. I know you're being sarcastic, but I'm unsure about what you're implying. Do you mean me or the artists?

Posted by: Coj  in reply to biasedbulldog's comment at 09/13/09 6:07 PM  | Reply
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Sounds great beatmaster!

Posted by: Not Art at 09/12/09 10:58 PM  | Reply
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This is pretty rad.

Posted by: You Versus Me at 09/14/09 4:40 PM  | Reply
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the album art was a photo taken by the band on Cape Cod, where they live.

Posted by: chris at 09/14/09 8:09 PM  | Reply
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