I wrote this review a couple of months back, when I was completely in love with APTBS' debut. Nothing's changed. Apart from now, I'm a little bit wary about this review. Hmmm.
Smashing up walls of mediocrity with massive sledgehammers of riffs, oddly beautiful melodies, intricate lyrics and - crucially - spine-tingling distortion, APTBS debut is certainly refreshing. New York's self-confessed noisiest trio may well be staring intently at their shoes but the brutal, relentless; blaring of noise resembles a Joy Division if they’d tied explosives to their equipment and not My Bloody Valentine. From hearing a revived Ian Curtis narrating to the downtrodden masses over 'The Falling Sun' and the screeching dinosaurs in 'Don't Think Lover' – it’s not only diverse, but really, well, just bloody exciting. Drenched in frustration, Oliver Ackermanns' lyrics cast further shadow over the crashing drums and dynamic bass, and amidst album highlight 'To Fix the Gash In Your Head's' callous, sprawling synths and buzzsaw guitars, Ackermann breathes a cold-blooded delivery worthy of Mr H. Lecter.
In a time where a ten-a-penny hook can see a band hijack the top ten, 'My Weakness' is like a glass of traditional lemonade after an all-day trudge in the scorching sun. The sound of a thousand fighter jets bursting off the runway, which is impossible not to fling your limbs around to like a demented zombie, Ackermann’s desperate pining controls it all. And, who could ignore the fantastic finale, 'Ocean', which crashes a beautiful riff against rocky, pleading verses. Placing you at the edge of a cliff searching for an answer, an escape - 'it's love that controls you, you can never let it go', it mimics the sound of an apocalypse, leaving you completely wrecked after it finishes.
It'd be easy to dismiss APTBS as just another noise-rock band, simply adhering to the motto 'the louder the better', but you'd be ignoring the underpinning indie-pop of the album (especially in 'Breathe' which sounds like a faster take on The Strokes’ Barely Legal). APTBS are a band that has yes fallen in love with the effects pedal, but have used it to create a steely, oppressed ghetto for the listener to writhe in, it's both contorted, dark and scary and hopelessly fragile. Exhilarating.
Rating: 9/10
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