APE! has come from the past to save our future. 1991, their newest release, with a blurb labeling the band as a NASA time travel project gone wrong, is ripe with proto-punk sleaze and grit. In all honesty, 1969 might have been a better title, were it not already taken. Their newest release is self-produced, and available digitally or on 12" vinyl.
Straddling genres can be a messy business, but APE! handles their time-hopping seamlessly, by combining classic rock riffs with hardcore screams and the aforementioned proto-punk attitude. The eponymous title track is a blissed out instrumental nod to psychedelia, while "Vile English," which appears later on the album, is a noisy clamor of aggression, heavy metal guitar work and frenetic drumming.
The conjoining thread of the album is energy and a refusal to take themselves too seriously. Which, in this day and age, is a sentiment that is often hard to come by. -allison