Apache Beat - Last Chants

As a force to be reckoned with stateside, New Yorkers Apache Beat have got a lot to live up to with their debut release. Having spent the last three years building up a strong fan base through various releases, gigs and playing the world renowned Siren Music festival over summer it seems like the sky’s the limit for the post punk-quintet…

For all it sets out to do, ‘Last Chants’ should be lauded; crafting a rock sound that infuses a sense of modernity and edge to the channelled zest of late 70’s early 80’s post-punk. It’s a great shame then that whilst the intentions were great, the expectations were high and the vision was there that it’s all a bit of an underwhelming misguided mess. Whilst it may be all part of the post-punk ideal most songs seem to flit between a multitude of styles without offering a clear sound which ultimately makes it all a little distracting and disengaging for the listener.

This is by no means a bad album; it does have some great aspects, percussion and vocals are the two most interesting elements on the album. The layering of fuzzy, lo-fi guitar lines and tight, tribal-esque percussion offers some engaging moments in particular in opener ‘Knives’. There are some great stand out tracks that make up the album; in particular single ‘Tropics’ which sees the perfect fusion between musical styles and execution, with a killer intro to boot.

Cohesion is the album’s main stumbling block; there’s no pleasant segue between tracks and whether this is a stylistic choice or just poor production isn’t overtly clear, though it’s most likely the former, this is post-punk after all. What the album may lack in consistency it more than makes up in charm; this isn’t some self indulgent post-failed-art school generic sounding Brooklyn-hipster pleasing band, its balls out post punk rock that at times is frenetic, melodic and downright raw.

Whilst the album is clearly expressive of Apache Beat’s style and sound, it’s sparse in terms of collective ambition and direction. It’s clearly the first of a series of stepping stones, and whilst it may not be the seminal debut it should have been, it clearly paints a picture of what’s to come, and that in itself is pretty exciting.