Give a monkey a brain, send it to school and maybe it’ll discover a Moog synthesiser in some long-forgotten corner of a classroom and make an album comprised of funky beats, synth washes and glittering guitars that sounds a bit like an updated Silver Apples.
Yes, entirely possible and pretty much what Michael Johnson‘s done on this, his second solo outing but the first with the curious hominid moniker of Ape School. Released on Ninja Tunes’ Counter Records, Ape School begins beautifully enough with the psychedelic ‘Wail to God’ and ‘Did what I did‘, and it would seem natural enough to assume that Ape School is a meandering, idiosyncratic homage to the ’60s and its most experimental musical groups. Indeed, as the album progresses, its perceived depth becomes inconsistent as ‘Caveman vs Canary’ blows a hole in Johnson’s experimental wall of sound exposing a confused primate stood behind a control desk.
Perhaps the pugnacious synth riffage of ‘Deathstomp’ will appeal to the inner animal of some, but it just comes across as noise for the sake of noise. Similarly, the otherwise pleasant ‘Floridian Grime’ deteriorates into incoherent spasms of sounds, and yet ‘In time you are’ flips the equation around, ascending from noise into song.
A rapaciously unusual album that thrives on nonconformity, if Ape School was a man, he would be the type to loaf on sandy beaches, rich beyond care with no other aim than to just be weird, man.
Irritating.
Ape School is released on July 6th (Counter Records / Ninja Tune)