I remember seeing Apes & Androids a single time before they played FRICTION at Sin-e in the summer of 2006. There wasn’t anything particularly over the top about my first A&A live experience, except that the band put on a solid and impressive set. I think the most out-of-the-ordinary thing about that Asterisk Art Space show was glowing keyboards. After booking them for FRICTION, the band had mentioned that they had a few “surprises” up their sleeves, which I forgot about until the day of the show. We were squaring away the guestlist for the night over email with the agents at Sin-e and they mentioned that the guys from Apes & Androids had been there pretty much all day working on their show. I thought it was odd, but didn’t think much of it until I walked into the venue that August night and saw a huge robot head with tentacle-like arms and glowing eyes gracing the back of the stage. The band was still hard at work putting the finishing touches on the “glow balls” and situating their own lighting for the stage. I think my first words to a complete stranger in the venue were “this is fucking incredible” and that was hours before the show even happened.

After the aforementioned shows and subsequent jaw dropping live performances – I realized how much time and effort A&A puts into every single performance (not to mention, their attention to detail). Each time seeing the group was a unique (some might say surreal) and intense experience. Given their live show track record, I didn’t expect anything less from their abilities as songwriters and recording artists on Blood Moon. The Brooklyn quintet’s debut is true to form as Apes & Androids lives up to their reputation delivering an 18-track hour long epic album.

While it’s great to hear reworked and remastered versions of Apes & Androids’ Queen/glam/rock opera-inspired demos (and faves) like “Hot Kathy,” “Sweetest Secret,” “Nights Of The Week,” and “Radio” on Blood Moon, the real strength and success of the album was branching out to include a whole other set of genres into their already unique sound. The more dancey and glammy beginning of the record is offset by a block of downtempo songs that recall “more recent era” Radiohead. “Doyle Is Dead” could be a kissing cousin to a combination of Radiohead’s “All I Need” and “Down Is The New Up,” while “Imaginary Friends” and “Locked In A Car” sound like a hybrid between Radiohead’s somber “Life In A Glasshouse” and the Edward Scissorshands soundtrack with swooping vocal harmonies and gently plucked guitar strings.

The album’s standout track and the one song in particular defines the group’s ingenuity as recording artists is the last true song on the record, “Riverside.” Not only does it keep in line with the band’s futurist rock opera sound, but it also incorporates elements from other genres. The track begins with a Gallows Pole-like strummed guitar before merging into crashing Tommy-ish guitars that are blended with swirling oscillations, operatic vocals, and oddball samples that bridge to a section of blowing free jazz horns until everything explodes into a slicing guitar riff that shoots chills up and down my body. It’s absolutely mind blowing and has been on some serious repeat every time I get to the end of the record.

Blood Moon hits the streets officially on February 5th, but the band has already made the album available to download (and order) at this nifty little site. A&A play Hiro Ballroom on February 28th, don’t miss it, this band does not disappoint.

[MP3]: Apes & Androids  ”Riverside”
Blood Moon, Self-Released; 2008