Posted in Whathaveyou on June 15th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Quickie lineup update from Desertfest Belgium 2023 for Antwerp. Having previously confirmed the likes of Yawning Man, Shellac, The Ocean, Monkey3 — whose 39 Laps is about to be reissued on Sound of Liberation Records — Dopelord and King Buffalo, Ruff Majik, Siena Root, on and on, the venerable Belgian installation of the Desertfest brand has put forth word that North Carolinian original-era sludge chaosbringers Sourvein won’t be making the trip after all, but that New Orleans mainstays Eyehategod will, alongside The Obsessed, The Great Machine, ultra-crushers LLNN, as well as Moonstone and Apex Ten, the latter of whom are Belgian natives. Their Aashray (review here) album was released last month.
A little context here offers potentially crucial information. What the below announcement doesn’t say is how on-fire The Obsessed are right now or that they’re headed into a new album release this Fall — release date still forthcoming, but I’m pretty sure Wino said on stage at Freak Valley that the album is called It’s Not Okay — or the extent to which Israeli trio The Great Machine tear it up on (or potentially off) stage, which is something else I was lucky enough to find out for myself in Netphen. Knowing that, they become more than just another name on a bill or another act who put out a cool record this year, and if you haven’t seen them and are headed to Desertfest, they are indeed a sight to see. All the more because the tones and sings are so right on.
Here’s what the fest had to say:
We’re thrilled to add a couple of new names to our Desertfest congregation. Joining our bill for the best fest of the year are:
EYEHATEGOD – The Obsessed – The Great Machine – LLNN – Moonstone – Apex Ten
Unfortunately SOURVEIN won’t make it to the fest this year due to a contingency.
Get your pass to Desert Heaven with a Reduced Three Days Combi Ticket or a Day Ticket at our Ticket Page!
[Click play above to stream ‘Awakening’ by Apex Ten. Their new album, Aashray, is out Friday and available to order from Bandcamp.]
The higher-pitched-but-not-abrasive feedback/effects noise lures the listener into the beginning of “Awakening,” departing when the guitar, bass and drums enter. A sense of space and a ‘setting-out’ vibe are almost immediate on Aashray, Apex Ten‘s debut album — that’s counting 2021’s First Session as a full-length demo; stay with me I’ll get there — as the Liège, Belgium, trio of bassist/vocalist Brad Masaya (also synth, theremin, guitar, tambourine), guitarist Benoît Velez (also theremin, lap steel, chime, tambourine) and drummer/percussionist Alexis Radelet (also güiro, tambourine) begin to dig into the seven-track/41-minute procession. An intention toward audience hypnosis is made clear by the bassline and the contemplative, earlier My Sleeping Karma-style rolling exploration that surrounds it, though the additional crunch in the fuzz that emerges late is harder-landing.
Quick in contrast, the subsequent “Unlock” feels based around the movement of the drums, a steady kick pushing the four-minute track through its winding cosmic course, the bass doing well to keep up with tonal warmth beneath the airier guitar. Vocals arrive after three minutes in, not like an afterthought, but obviously not the priority either, and the effect would be jarring had the band not been so outright immersive already in their heavy psych meditation. But the vocal melody — echoing, not so unlike Elder, but not just that either — is a distinguishing feature and one almost expects a verse to turnaround quickly in “Dazed,” which it doesn’t, as Apex Ten show both patience and a willingness to dive into texture and atmosphere more than separate jams and more structured ‘songs.’ It’s to be vibe, then. Fortunately, they make it thick, rounding their way into a low-end fuzz wash in the second half of “Dazed,” not losing themselves in it even as they seem to completely submerge as Masaya and Radelet hold to the core progression under the canopy of effects.
That march cuts and gives over to the drone and Tibetan bowl (contributed by Thomas Mouton) at the outset of “Naga,” the centerpiece of the tracklisting and a presumed side A closer on some future vinyl edition. If the percussion, bowl, synth, guitar and bass jam isn’t improvised, it sounds it, with the drums on the room mics deeper in the mix a solidifying presence as the inward delve continues. At about four minutes into the 6:50, the drums begin to lead more of a march with the hi-hat and toms keeping pace as the guitar noodles out over the established drone, a kind of ethereal blues taking hold that departs with a decisive strike of the crash and leaves one more swell of the bowl behind before ending. Low fuzz begins “Deaf Snake” with a more straightforward nod punctuated by the drums as side B unfolds, the core of the piece dirtier, riffier, trading back and forth in volume and impact, raucous, then receding.
But even “Deaf Snake” argues in favor of Aashray as being Apex Ten‘s first album, with a fullness of sound in its heavier parts that First Session was too raw to dig into. Wouldn’t be the first time in history a band figured out something about their sound between their debut and sophomore LPs — that’s an expected part of the process for most acts — but a ‘session’ is something different than making an album even if Aashray was recorded in a single day on Dec. 30, 2021, with production by Simon Lambert (who also adds Moog, chime and effects along with mixing and mastering) and Laurent Eyen at Koko Studio. “Deaf Snake,” which is as riff-led as Apex Ten get here, is more engrossing as it pushes into its final payoff, and that’s a distinguishing factor to coincide with all the atmospheric jamming and apparent improvisation or at least semi-planned parts.
The penultimate “Brahma” is the shortest of the cuts at 3:27 and finds the vocals returning — the lyrics: something about monsters waiting outside switching faces, something about drowning in space — after a pointed solo and headed into a heavy psych roll that reminds of Sungrazer playing off Colour Haze influence, but it comes apart quickly and gives over to silence ahead of 10-minute closer “Godavari.” The finale takes its name from a river in India, and while I don’t know if Apex Ten are travelers or just daydreaming, the first two minutes echo “Awakening” in their drone, but the spirit is warmer and more subdued as the guitar enters sweet and with still-developing patience the song begins to unfold, drums feeling their way in along with the rhythm in the initial buildup. They get where they’re going before four minutes in, moving perhaps a little faster than the song wants to go, but not egregiously so as they weave through a kind of riff-henge, working around heavy riffing with wah laced after a quick inhale circa six minutes, the bassline at the core of the piece almost in its own world, righteously.
“Godavari” emphasizes and finds its crux in the jam, but there’s linearity as well as they rear back before pushing into the harder fuzz that is the last crescendo, the guitar departing for a solo as the drums and bass keep the plot moving forward. If they were all playing at the same time in the studio, I don’t know who was giving the head signal — maybe Masaya — to bring it down, but they meet back up at the end and draw Aashray‘s last stretch to a relatively quick stop; a cymbal wash and some residual amplifier hum, a swell of synth the last element to go. There’s symmetry of purpose to the finish as well as to the start — Apex Ten sound aware of the genre in which they reside, and that’s to their benefit here — but the personality of the band is found more in the journey than either endpoint, whether that’s the limited use of vocals that seems to be reserving that spot for later development or the extrapolation from a classic power trio dynamic that allows the guitar to meander while the rhythm section moves forward and awaits its eventual return.
None of this will be strange to those with experience in mellow, meditative or progressive-tinged heavy psych, but Apex Ten demonstrate fluidity throughout Aashray — the word translated from Hindi as ‘shelter’ or ‘refuge’ — and the album lives up to the name it’s been given in creating a three-dimensional aural sphere to inhabit, like a biodome of fuzz, world-building. As to what or whom the band will become over time, given the jump in complexity between First Session and Aashray, it seems silly to speculate, but there’s room for them to continue to explore their meld of structure and spontaneous seeking, and in listening, one hopes the next time they decide to spend a day in the studio the results are as rich and engaging as they are here. And if you want to call it their second record, fine. It still feels like they’re just getting started.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 14th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
First of all, you should note that this is not an album called ‘Ashtray’ by Aphex Twin. The Hindi word ‘aashray’ translates (according to major tech company’s linguistic matrix) as ‘shelter’ or ‘refuge’; Aashray is also the name of an NGO in India that helps homeless kids, if you’re looking for someone else to give money to besides this band. And the band, by the way, are called Apex Ten and they come from Liège, Belgium. Not exactly downtown Mumbai, but fair enough use for the organic vibe they’re capturing in their instrumental sound, improv at the foundation of what they do — even if the end result on the seven songs of the record can be more aligned to structure and more actively shoving than one might think looking at the cover or digging into the info below.
The text emphasizes the jams, which is fine. There’s plenty of that, as one might hear in the 10-minute closer “Godvari” or the earlier “Naga,” but you also get the heavy post-rocker “Unlock” or the build-and-release of tension in the penultimate “Brahama,” as the band take it upon themselves to — wait for it — actually do more than one thing in terms of their approach. I know. It’s scary stuff. There’s no audio yet from Aashray, but it’s a fascinating blend of spaciousness and songcraft. I’m looking forward to getting to know it better, but an ability and will to change it up is almost never a detriment more generally. Plus they’ve got theremin, so that’s a win.
Note Aashray was tracked in 2021. I wonder when or if we’ll get all the way back to relative record-then-release concurrency. Or maybe time just melted this decade and that’s what happened.
Either way, one proceeds:
Belgium’s Instrumental Psych and Stoner rock trio APEX TEN release their album Aashray May 5th, 2023
APEX TEN is a Psych/Space/Stoner Rock Instrumental power trio formed in 2021 in Liège by Alexis Radelet (Drums), Brad Masaya (Bass) and Benoît Velez (Guitar). The group also uses instruments such as a Lapsteel, a Synth, a Theremin,… Their productions and performances are centered on improvisation, offering an ephemeral and unique side. Their style is recognizable by the hovering, psychedelic side and is reinforced by layers of synth and/or theremin. The powerful and hypnotic strike of the drummer is accentuated by the bass playing and the well-marked “fuzz” spirit of the guitarist. Everything gradually accompanies us in a “sound trip” specific to the group.
This album was recorded in Sprimont (Belgium) at the Koko studio in December 2021 by Simon Lambert and Laurent Eyen. It was again mixed and mastered by Simon Lambert who had also mixed First session and Fourth Passenger.
Aashray is essentially composed of jams/improvisations. You will also be able to hear Hindu sounds, hence its name. With this album, Apex Ten offers a more space rock, psychedelic style than their first album: “First Session”. There are also more accomplished jams and the cohesion between the three musicians is greatly strengthened.
Since October 2021, the band has been recording and releasing a DIY-recorded debut album “1st Session” with the help of their sound engineer and producer Simon Lambert. These songs have been well received. “1st session” has quickly reached 10,000 plays on Youtube. In February 2022, the group released a first single titled “The Fourth Passenger” in February, receiving a warm welcome from Belgian radio. A live album, “Chaim Trails Live”, recorded at the MPC Apache in Fontaine l’Evêque, was released on April 20, 2022.
