Genre:  Avant-garde / Post-rock

Side A:
01 CYD
02 _
03 Ark
04 Up in the Eaves
05 Dawn
06 The Gloom
07 Lillian
08 The Letter

Side B:
01 Deathless
02 Wishlist
03 _
04 The Tipping
05 Shining Black
06 Salt of the Earth

Before we begin this review, first let us beat the dead horse once more by commending Equation Records for their work with supporting their artists and being more concerned about a great quality release than the money itself.  Once again, like any other release on Equation Records, Apse' “Eras” is filled with an onslaught of extras including a printed two-sided sleeve/insert (that was unfortunately somewhat screwed up by the pressing facility's inability to read directions – the records were shipped inside the sleeves), the usual sticker on the plastic casing with a short explanation of the album, and something that few labels include:  An explanation for why the inner sleeve was less than perfect quality.  They do this any time a slight mistake is made with one of their releases and while most labels would simply look away, they prefer to point out the issues.  Quality is of the utmost importance for Equation, and while most labels simply say that, its seen quite effectively through every one of Equation's releases.

Apse is a fairly genuine project having no real barriers apparent as far as the genre-influence is concerned.  One can make, literally, a million comparisons regarding the project and what they can possibly sound like but most are bound to fail due to the expansive nature of the project in general.  One moment they're playing drone, the next a laid back kind of minimal post-rock ala Isis on a shroom trip, and the next some wyrd industrial rock hybrid, then back to an ethnic ambient style that is present even in the rock aspect, and if there is one constant throughout this album, its that.  There always seems to be a light middle-eastern influence present.  While some find this album dark and frightening at times, it seems much more ritual to me.  The music is complex and inventive through old measures.  What you hear isn't necessarily re-inventing music or sound at all, but rather taking old methods and re-proportioning them to make a sound that is new.  They've invented something strangely organic while still maintaining the unique texture of trippy beats through tracks like The Letter. 

The ritual aspect is perhaps the most unique part of the album.  We find ourselves slowly drifting through dark spectrums of ambience with much more complex background sound than can be expected from your typical dark ambient specialist, only to come out into tracks like Wishlist that find us dancing gracefully around the fire to intense archaic thought patterns.  The music becomes strangely tribal and, while it probably wouldn't be considered akin to Ulf Soderburg's solo efforts by experts in the genre, Eras absolutely has this primal edge to it.  A strange motion that finds us both lurking behind walls of black sound and amongst the stars themselves only to be sucked right back down to Earth and the dusty red soil of native lands.  Its an understatement to say Apse re-defines genres, as they step outside even this label.  One can not re-invent something they never belonged to.  If the term avant-garde was ever to be saved for only one project, in the realm of rock and ambient influenced music, Apse would undoubtedly be it.

Even with this note though, the music is all about the atmosphere.  It's constantly moving, whirling towards its own epicenter.  Quaking, beating, breathing, and then suddenly only floating, only to be resurrected once more into the infinite skies between the spaces the music exists.  If there's a label out there today worth supporting, Equation is it, and with wonderful, strange, beautiful, and experimental releases like this, its no wonder.  Check it out!