Brian McWilliams here again as Aperus with new release Lost Tribe of the Shadow (GEOPHONIC RECORDS GEOCD07). This talented American from New Mexico continues to work the same themes with each release; landscape, environment, the weather, all of them expressed through carefully layered and managed field recordings and ambient droning sounds, made using such methods as loops, shortwave radio sounds, treated guitars, and such.
He’s always exhibited a strong concern for global climate change in his records, only now he’s convinced that things are worse than ever, and he’s not afraid to describe the 21st century as “apocalyptic times”. On Lost Tribe of the Shadow, he’s found that the best way to cope is to create an imaginary parallel world of some sort, a world which hasn’t been ruined or polluted or exploited by us strip-mining oil-burning use-up-everything humans. This other world is, in Brian McWilliams’ mind, now sending us coded messages, effectively telling us to stop what we’re doing right now before we destroy everything. He’s written a whole set of paras about this imaginary invention of his, as if it were all real, as if he’s tapped into a lost civilisation with its own mythology supporting the mysterious signs and signals, which are either written on the walls of caves, or broadcast as radio messages. All of these tropes and messages are clearly expressed in the long-ish second track ‘A Dark Age’, which has the added unsettling effect of a spoken-word recit which – poignantly enough – we can’t make out clearly. Compared with previous items in his catalogue, this one is decidedly dark and pessimistic, but the music is richly-textured and a rewarding listen. Should be required listening for all delegates at the next COP summit conference on climate change.
Excellent black-and-white insert is covered with images of coded scrawls in support of the theme. Mostly played by Aperus with some instrumental support from Jason Goodyear, Paul Casper aka Frore, Ivan Block, and Karla K McWilliams, with mastering by Robin Storey of Rapoon. (03/12/2024)