Labels: Deep Elm
Review by: Martin Brown
I wrote a really clever lead-in paragraph but I think I got my facts wrong about it. It’s a shame cos it really was a gem. Oh well. Let’s just cut to the chase. It’s The Appleseed Cast, one of my all time favourite bands, it’s newest album ‘Lost Songs’, and arrived the other day courtesy of Mr Malcolm. I’m an English student at uni, and in submitting this review I have a similar feeling to when I hand in an essay on a really complex book and know I haven’t really managed to pin it down. But I’ve done my best. Some might say this album isn’t really an album as such; it isn’t strictly a collection of new material. This is The Appleseed Cast’s equivalent of ‘Come’ by Prince, of the new songs on ‘Anthology’ by the Beatles, of the four fucking billion albums 2Pac seemed to release after he was shot: this is a set of recordings made when Louie Ruiz left the band and before Josh Barouth joined. Unfortunately the mighty Cobra is not drumming on this record. The four-year-old recordings however have been beefed up during 2002 and this record is the result. So the question we all need answering (and which it is my delighted duty in doing so) is thus: Are these songs worth hearing or is this just a tawdry collection of dead songs they shouldn’t have bothered making people fork out for? My answer is as follows: It’s The Appleseed Cast, you stupid fuck. Of course it’s worth hearing. For the die-hard, this is extremely interesting to listen to. It’s the Mare Vitalis / Low Level Owl Appleseed Cast playing End of the Ring Wars Appleseed Cast. It retains a lot of the subtlety and lushness of their recent stuff, but has the bite of their earlier recordings to the point where you do actually want to jump around the room to some of these songs, particularly the ultra funky opening parts of ‘Peril Parts 1, 2 and 3’. This will take a lot of getting used to, as it’s such a strange mix for the fan to take in, and because the band have typically put in loads of different sounds and techniques to spice it all up. There aren’t as many moments of utter genius on here as one would like, but the songs are so typically well crafted and well played that it’s almost impossible not to enjoy it. If you don’t own any Appleseed Cast albums, buy Low Level Owl and Mare Vitalis before you even consider purchasing this, and even then I’d advise getting Ring Wars before that. However if you’re an attuned admirer of the band as I am, then this is well worth getting your mittens on. Good day.