"The Plaza"   

APOCRYPHO.the reviews

"Our Washington state friends ADSR Musicwerks are just pumping them out these days. This time we are greeted to another debut release from elektro wonders, Apocrypho.  Made up of DJ Vex (electro synthesis, direction and album concept), Brian Von Gross (vocals and electro synthesis) and Sir Warren Deacon-Wren (film/graphics production), Apocrypho have been making major waves in the scene with tracks spun over dancefloors and reviews of high acclaim.

Their debut, Spiritual Cannibal, is an original and fresh hybrid of trance, industrial and synth-pop, blending the three with flair and aplomb. Rather experimental in places, Spiritual Cannibal provides a lush and heavily filled soundscape of intensity.  With a spiritual in-depth overtone that isn't bound to one religious promenade, but instead seems to overflow over a multitude of ideals throughout, Apocrypho's Spiritual Cannibal maintains a diverse collection of movements for your mind. Musically it is wide-spread as well, going from the groove-laden Catch My Fall to the heavier industrial sound of Blame, they move effortlessly across the EBM and heavier industrial genres well and apply a nicely arranged ambient synthetic background from one to the next.
Highlight tracks of this debut release include the opening Catatonic/Dreaming Of Sin. The former is an opening windy ambience with meaningful vocal samples and a binding melodic keyboard melody that is slow and flowing, sliding from note to note.  In the latter, subtle vocals swap from left to right for a surrounding effect.  Vocals don't like to come from both speakers at once often.  Another favorite of mine is the lush and rhythmic Connect.  An interesting mirage of vocal effects and layered samples, Connect is reminiscent of later work by Shpongle or other ambient-trance artists and is featured in the film A Deeper Sense of Surrender: a Spiritual Cannibalism documentary.

It seems that my favorite tracks found on Spiritual Cannibal reside mostly in the center.  Following Connect, which occupies the fifth track on the debut, is Beautiful Mistake.  A moving, beat-centric piece with a sliding and underground bass line and whisper-masked vocals.  Following this is Falling Down, a heavier, stompier ensemble with vocals that sink below you, deeper into the atmosphere.  Bass/drum/  something-or-other hits punctuate the track along with the bubbly bass track.  Closing the CD with the nominal Spiritual Cannibal (red curry mix), Apocrpho end with smooth keyboard layers and populate the background with deep-seated chants.

So what do we have in Apocrypho? A new, fresh blend of music with a wide array of flavors.  Like discovering a new drink at your favorite club - something different than others, but with flavors you can place from elsewhere - well-blended and arranged in your aural glass.  Is it a good drink?  That depends on your mood - sometimes it might be too soft, other times too tangy.  But it's a flavor you can get used to and grow to like as you drink more." Marcus Pan, Legends
 

...the compilation Static Landscape is presenting, as written on the cover, a total 17 "upcoming elecktro industrial, ebm, noise artists". As well, there's some well-established bands within the 17 tracks such as ... the sinister EBM of Noxious Emotion on The Sum of... REMIXED by DJ VEX.

As for the lesser-known acts... but rather good, Apocrypho with Replica, is creating a powerful and highly danceable mix of trance and dark electro that can gain a certain success.  Review by Final Man @ Electroage

 

The warped monologue that is the center of "Catatonic" didn't really work for me, although the music on this one is pretty inventive. "Dreaming of Sin" and "Catch My Fall" are more successful, with more straight forward EBM approach. "Blame" kicks up the tempo a couple of notches, while "Replica" heads off in a more trance direction. "Connect" is somewhat disjointed collection of samples, while "Beautiful Mistake" is one of the album's most memorable cuts. "Falling Down" starts off rather inauspiciously, but it eventually builds into a pretty storming track.  Brian Von Gross' vocals are a little more forceful here and sound better.  He even approaches a Chris Connelly level of angst on "In Vain" - always a good thing in my book. The creepy and ethereal title track (Spiritual Cannibal) makes for a suitably impressive ending to the album.

They try a lot of different things and some work better than others but...on the plus side, they score definite points for not sounding like anyone else or rewriting the same exact song twelve times."  Daniel Hinds, The Plague
 

This debut release begins with a spoken word track called "Catatonic" with lots of ambience and affects in which the words fade in an out as if floating/waving in the distance like a heat mirage. The album later builds into some more standardized EBM with their own branding of experimentation. One of the better EBM tracks here is "Replica", an instrumental.

Apocrypho also makes use of a synthetic vocal distortion that sounds not much unlike the Vogons in "Hitchiker's Guide..." if anyone's seen the movie version. It reminds me of some of the distorted synthetic vocal litanies you might find on a Pigface album. A good example of this is "Kneel" dj vex edit. They have created a unique sound without defining themselves...

Lyrically it's hard to tell if their content is typical industrial diatribe or if there is a purpose here. "Blame" seems to be the song with the most actual meaning attached to it with lyrics like "Religious delusion causes anger and hate, Look inside yourself...But the time will come, When we all become as one".

Overall there are a few solid tracks here but mostly it's experimental noise with vocals in which some of the "singing" comes through as though Apocrypho were speaking to you. Aside from the lyrics mentioned above it's not clear exactly what their main aim is, but there seems to be a purpose to them. Guess we'll have to wait and see what they come up with next. Maybe they just don't want anyone to "pigeon-hole" them as anything.

"This comp.disc is good opportunity to have an insight into musical contents of increasingly professional, electro-industrial magazine from Italy - CHAIN D.L.K., that covers by the interviews or reviews bigger part of current events within the world of electro. Generally, the whole is dominated by danceable and softer variants of electro music, that's not into the centre of my interest at all! However, you can round up a few interesting moments by ... APOCRYPHO(electro-harsh-wave)...
Krzysztof Sadza, ELD RICH PALMER ZINE (Poland): issue #9