Ape School Ape School (Counter)
4/5
By: Dickon Stone
Although being a debut album for Michael Johnson, this is only true under this particular moniker. He has in fact released solo records before, just not as Ape School. Johnson has gained some notoriety for his work with Daedalus - in fact, this album is indeed being put on Ninja Tune's Counter Records - but it is with Ape School that he has perhaps come truly into his own.
An interesting mιnage of influences and post-modern bit-a-this-bit-a-that approach to music creation brings about a maelstrom of sounds reminiscent of anything from shoegaze to hip hop; Flaming Lips psych rock to Beastie Boys cocky brand of beats.
The use of synthesizers under calamitous almost clumsy instrumentation and drumming adds such a charm to this album, and with vocals tied up and shrouded in a fog of distortion and reverb the outcome is delightfully fresh and satisfyingly chunky.
'Wail To God' is a Bright Eyes-esque, Fun fair of sound textures with heavily swinging drum and bass rhythms, lots of clapping, chirpy vocals not too far from Arcade Fire's happier stuff or the Polyphonic Spree. 'That's Okay' follows with acoustic plucking and a slow-tempo slow-dance slow-motion mission statement with high pitched vocals and dreamlike organs. The shake-yo-booty 'My Intention' beats are paired with ever-so-White-ever-so-clean vocals straight from youth choir training I'm sure... I think it's just that ambience that you get when a white guy sings over very hip hop beats; Beck, Tom Vek; not by any means necessarily BAD, and often very interesting take on the sound; lots of synth input.
Elsewhere, 'Be An Encore' has Flaming Lips written all over it, only with vocals being provided by Ben Kweller in his 'Radish' days. 'Caveman Vs. Canary' uses breathy ooo's and hard piano, monotonous vocals and rolling toms throughout, with some pan pipe-esque but plucky sounds. Ape School emerges as the King's fool with the freaky balladry of 'The Underground'; sounding as if Tim Burton had directed the animated Disney version of Robin Hood. And with lots of organic percussion and tickled ivories, this plod-fest soberly guides us through some dark woods to some even darker ones where 'Deathstomp' is lurking. All vocals on this entire album seem to be obscured from clarity by a wall of fuzz, as if Michael Johnson had a grating cough and they needed to cover it up somehow.
The final tracks of Ape School drag your ears through a jingle jangle downward spiral of funfair sounds, a backwards clown show with sketchy noises backflipping from cochlea to cochlea. 'Rip Together Rip Apart', the penultimate offering from Ape School's debut is a Saharan horn driven bluesy - less distorted - Weezer-ish number. Final track 'No Shame' begins like a Police cover before diving into multilayered harmonising vocals in a quasi-Frankmusik style... plenty of phasey noises kicking around in the back of this clicky, snarey, clappy textured track. Daydreamy and quite optimistic, this track leaves us with wisps of twinkly air vibration; albeit slightly weird scary children's music toy-like.
All in all, this is a great debut from Ape School - all the musicians here were students from the university where Johnson teaches music, though a new band has been formed to play the material on the road. That'll be absolutely worth attending.
Artists in this article: Ape School
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