Black Aleph – Apsides (Review)

This is the debut album from Australian post-rock/drone band Black Aleph.

Here we have a compelling work of post-rock and drone, one that’s enriched with doom elements and has a dark atmospheric weight that’s enthralling. Now, with that sort of description you might be expecting a monstrous record of sprawling song lengths from Black Aleph, but you’d be mistaken, as Apsides is a mere 29 minutes long.

Black Aleph’s music is of an experimental nature in a way, yet is very well-crafted with this. Apsides offers an atmospheric journey into darkened waters, one that’s textured and well-realised. The music boasts an expansive range of sounds and ideas, and is all the more impressive for being poured into such a brief running time. Here is a band that know how to edit themselves for maximum effect.

This is a, (mostly), instrumental journey, but there is no loss of power or presence because of this. The music is hypnotic and ritualistic, but it achieves this via multifaceted mechanisms, as Black Aleph have more than one way to express themselves. It’s always entrancing, offering soundscapes that are lesser seen examples of droning immersion. The album is heavily percussive, and features atypical instruments and songwriting that focus on providing music that absorbs completely.

Both intimate and vast, this is a record to confound expectations. It’s over so quickly, yet delivers a depth and substance that’s rarely found in albums twice its duration. I want to describe it as cinematic, but that doesn’t seem quite right, as that usually invokes blockbuster epic ambition and scope, whereas Black Aleph’s vision is more arthouse and individual. Either way, Apsides is music to savour and invest in over time.

While certainly its own creation, Apsides put me in mind of a few different acts in places, and I’ll list them here, for two reasons. Partially to note bands that you might compare Black Aleph too, at least loosely, and partially as a sort of ‘for fans of’ list – Jesu, Nadja, Russian Circles, Neurosis, Sumac, A Swarm of the Sun, Briqueville, Darkher, Sunn O))).

I have been very impressed with this. Apsides is an essential listen for anybody who wants to experience immersive music that’s dark and powerful. Don’t let this slip by under your radar.