Dead Sea Apes – Psychic Tension

Having recently moved to Greater Manchester, it feels fitting to review a band native to my adoptive city. Formed in 2009 Dead Sea Apes are Brett Savage – Guitars, Jack Toker - Bass, Guitars and Chris Hardman on Drums, in other words they’re an instrumental outfit. My personal history with the band comes from reviewing their collaboration with Adam Stone (Pound Land) and Black Tempest on 2021’s Dataland for The Sleeping Shaman.

The trio have an astonishing amount of releases to their name (too many to list here) of which Psychic Tension is the latest. The PR which accompanies the release states “our collective psyche is under attack, reeling from the chaos of a modern world under siege: from war, death, destruction and climate catastrophe to political decay, media manipulation, growing inequality and the rank depravity of the so-called elite”, in spite of all this gloom and doom the record promises to ‘create catharsis from chaos’. I think we could all do with a little of that right now.

‘Damn Your Eyes’ is ominous, recalling Samhain, particularly the Unholy Passion EP. It definitely has a Gothic/Deathrock tinge, or alternately, evil sounding Psychedelia (no whimsical flower power here). It is monstrously heavy, intensely loud and an absolute beast of a track. What a start. ‘Psychic Tension’ sees the Apes adopt the Drone laden, free improvisation approach of PSF outfits such as High Rise and Mainliner. The unpredictability is what makes the music so thrilling, the Foo Fighters this most certainly is not! The Guitar and Bass work are predictably fantastic but its the Drumming which impresses the most, easily as hard hitting as John Bonham. A mighty kick in the bollocks and an amazing piece. ‘Severance’ is, despite its volume, hypnotic and mesmerising, rivalling the creative excellence to be found on Earthless’ first couple of albums (their best in my opinion). There’s some very cool Post-Rock vibes too, the use of repetition leaving you breathless rather than bored, so that if you enjoy say Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the exhilaration to be found on songs like ‘Rocket Fall on Rocket Falls’ then you’re in for a positive treat.

‘Ursa Minor’ is the record’s longest number at well over nine minutes and evokes Desert Rock, its surprisingly melodic sounding, kind of what one would expect from any Yawning Man release. There is a sense of the expansive and the epic present, the whole thing sounding massive, positively overwhelming in fact. It's kind of like walking across a vast landscape and feeling like you are nothing but a tiny blip, which of course you would be given that environment. The whole affair has a meditative, healing quality, how could one not feel cleansed having listened to it? Being straight edge I have no idea as to the effects of weed and their like, but I’m imagining it has to be something similar, just beautiful. ‘Deathless’ has a Country twang, but before that makes you want to run to the hills at top speed, its more akin to what you’d find on Earth’s Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method. There’s even some post reunion Swans present, in the sense of how that band has since embraced Post-Rock. If the trio ever decided to rerecord it with Vocals then I could easily envisage Michael Gira making an appearance. Spiderland era Slint may also be another comparison, an exceptional conclusion to an exceptional album.

There isn’t really much else to add other than this may be Dead Sea Apes strongest effort to date and one that I’d highly recommend purchasing.