The Appleseed Cast
Low Level Owl Volume 2

What a surprise to find that there still isn't anything about Appleseed Cast.
I'm happy to be the first to speak out, a bit disappointed because they deserve more visibility. The same friend I gave a pat on the back for taking me to see Uzi & Ari handed me a CD with a rather peculiar title a few years ago: "Low Level Owl Volume 2". The artists in question: "The Appleseed Cast".

I still remember today, after so much time, my expression on the first listen, that of when (for example) you see a painting that fascinates you but you need to take the necessary time to absorb it. The first thing that crossed my mind was the sounds. Atypical, subtle, at times cardboard-like, at others soft (but in those cases, it's the melody that softens them), on almost exclusively mid/high frequencies. What initially seemed bizarre then turned out to be one of the strengths of the work, namely the production supporting an album that at times is "conceptual", at other times well-sectioned.
Here we talk about songs stripped of their essence, the song form revised and "corrected" to travel on tracks already defined at the time as "post-rock". The album rests celestially (I always associate colors with songs) in my ears, keeping me curious and impatient.
The first piece (an intro) opens the acidic dances in slow progression, then leaving it to "Strings" to reveal to the listener part of the remarkable inspiration the group had to produce such work. For almost four minutes, "Strings" is a psychedelic music box that makes the listener hope that something will change eventually, and once the song is assimilated, I understand that it all makes sense, and what a sense it makes. Let Appleseed Cast be known for who they are. Then let "A Place In Line" make us smile for how sunny it is in its glass case with a Pink Floyd sticker stuck on it (final chorus of the piece to understand).
I'm swaying as I write with the track in question playing in my headphones...
This is followed by another couple of minutes of abandonment of the canonical instruments to leave the calm voice of Christopher Crisci light on an organ, a sort of bridge between two of the best pieces on the record. "Rooms And Gardens" arrives, a masterpiece of dynamics, sounds (but they are the same sounds that carry through the entire work of the American band) melody and intensity while traveling on a few tones. A final opening that makes you travel and hypnotizes you even without having the trippy Windows media player graphics in front of you.

Another redundant piece "Ring Out The Warning Bell" (Appleseed Cast must absolutely love to make listeners impatient, but I say this in good faith) which can annoy you halfway through, then gently caresses you almost as if apologizing. "Sunset Drama King" is another of those passages that make this "Low Level Owl Volume 2" an important work (I don't say masterpiece because with twelve tracks, the handbrake pulled by those 4 or 5 pieces that bring the mood to linger on the acidic can become tiresome in the long run, but this is a matter of taste...and the product could receive the opposite opinion from a genre fan). "Decline" and "Reaction" complete the picture of the most accessible moments, still remaining faithful to the deconstructed matrix of each track on the album.

If you like the cleaner paths of Mogwai, if you enjoy the trails of Sunny Day Real Estate and if you don't disdain a small but significant trip into some Pink Floydian field (complete with a little tree pruned by Edward Scissorhands) then make sure to occasionally stroll through Appleseed Cast's small garden.