Dead Sea Apes – High Evolutionary
Instrumental 3-piece Dead Sea Apes were one of a few then-unreleased bands which, along with The Janitors and The Cosmic Dead, inspired label boss Dave Cambridge to ultimately found Cardinal Fuzz. The spectral Manchester band pedal evocative echoes and doomed dub, their psychedelic repeats exploring drifting atmosphere in favour of climax. Spaghetti stoned-zoning of this type can’t help but be cinematic, hypnotic kraut moods layered with tantric grooves that evoke visions of starry desert skies and lonely corners of the cosmos.
Right on cue, “Planetarium” takes you on a journey, its circular riff somewhere between meditation and dream. Just as Lupus before it laid waste with the juxtaposition of minimalist guitar and destructive bass (“Wolf II” here is a contemplative reworking of that LP’s “Wolf Of The Bees”), so too is High Evolutionary a blend of sweat-lodge claustrophobia and slowly developing ambience. These patient compositions require your attention. They risk slipping into your subconscious only for the sudden revelation you’re trapped in a heavy post-rock storm, gentle picking taking on the form of fuzzy riffs, slo-mo drift cast as crushing tension in tracks like the standout “Regolith”.
High Evolutionary is one of those records that comes from within but seems a much larger product. Yet, despite its grandeur its best work is done in the mind, burrowing into untapped synapses and transporting you to a higher plain … and in doing so it makes your common-or-garden Homo Sapiens seem really rather outdated.
Best track: “Regolith”
~High Evolutionary is released 3rd November 2014 on Cardinal Fuzz.~