Apse
Spirit

When the "Fatal Quiete" becomes more of a "Imago a me sì cara" and turns into a tangible reality... when it's cold and maybe a sense of existential void grips you... when you feel the disturbing transit of "Saturn" upon you... when the moon is full... and high in the sky it winks at you enigmatically, like that woman from Bari asking her son Giovanni to do his math exercises - "Giò Conda"!!... when lycanthropy makes your hair stand on end and prevents you from going out... when you feel the need for an intimate gloom that is paradoxically relaxing, as in the spirit of Homeopathy... when you desire to be alone with the presences that dwell within you... it’s time to put on the turntable or in the player (everyone does what they can according to their means... but do you need to be told absolutely everything?.. curse you!) this album by Apse titled, not by chance "Spirit"...

Even the cover is quite intriguing; a misty and hyperborean lakeside landscape, like Gudmundsson’s, to be clear... Like Escher's polyvalent images, at first glance, I saw something else... but don't ask me what... I know how curious you are... can I have a little secret for myself? God Almighty!!! Are we ready? Here's the "Intro" which, like three or four martinis at parties, prepares you for the journey... Ladies and gentlemen: to you!!!... the adventure of the mind!!! Off we go!!!!

"From the north"... and you're wrapped in tough, hypnotic bass lines indicating the direction and sonic orientation to take; psychedelia? dark? Chicago post-rock? post-punk? medium-Tribal? dreamlike and imaginative?? It’s up to you!!! Aren’t you a river of musical wisdom? I would rather not reveal more of such clichés!!!! I was talking about the bass and, off to the side, evocative and reverberated distant voices, indicating imagined and unreal presences... Sonic ghosts tickle your ear lobes and ignite the most deeply repressed fantasies... Inside north, I see Annamaria who, with wild fury, strikes a blow on Sammy... Murderer!!!! And here is the rain pouring down to wash away the blood in "Legion" track number three... With the keyboard carousel-like, it evokes beauty and fear and the rot that resides, alas, in the human heart... Squinty witches’ voices beguile my now dormant and mesmerized synapses... Suddenly the strikes of a robust bass drum and a hi-hat are there to break and give rhythm and new marching order to the images that have now become a rich profusion... Here we go with collective march advancement!!!!.. The "Legion" has moved. Now the breath of the group becomes panting... Are we on a slope? The ominous shadow of the moor appears "Shade of the moor"...

In "Transition" the threshold is marked and delimited... New doors of perception open wide... Low-flying ravens (Edgar Allan Poe)... silver crowns shine... In "Backwood Gates" the powerful four-string instrument and the drums walk ahead, marking the step... Strikes so clear and distinct in the silent night that they leave sensitive imprints in my head... The heart beats hard in "Earth covers us"... tension, fear, and fatigue from the great run... bumbumbum!! Oh, what is it?? And in "Spirit" the catharsis is realized... Will the wind that blows at the end of the song succeed in sweeping away all the visions and terrors accumulated in the musical chiaroscuros, in the manuscript crevices, and in the artfully provoked shadows? Epilogue with a church "harmonium"... slightly exorcizes this diabolical and intriguing sonic exercise...

How can we not thank this overseas band (members partly from Boston and partly from New York) for a work that is one of the best expressions of the new musical waves... Guys, do you want to miss out on this pindaric-sonorous flight that will make you become free thinkers even if you've never had an idea in your life? This CD is an imaginative propellant... a sonic magnet that you will find hard to turn off... This "SPIRIT" is a Must for me!!... and I liked it a lot... word of Rainer!!! What are you still dumbfounded for?? Do I really have to tell you what you need to do now??? Oh, are you really that silly?!!!

Bye! smiles from unknown distances!

P.S. To avoid offending either Hal or breaking... I wrote this piece with a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo... How's this wine, guys??