Apparat goes for a ‘Devil’s Walk’ with Mogwai

It comes with a bit of irony when it says “(we’re) losing our voices for the day” in Sascha Ring’s aka Apparat’s new song ‘Song of Los’ – when his new album itself seems to tell an epic story of death and evil. The track that was just released as a single together with remixes by Park Frequency and post-rock masters Mogwai comes alongside the new Apparat album ‘The Devil’s Walk’ – which is a direct reference to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poetical work from 1812 of the same title.

During the early 18th century England was suffering from harsh economic conditions, food shortages and inflated prices. Shelley himself was experiencing this situation and published a collection of ballads as ‘The Devil’s Walk’ – in which he satirically criticised the British government with a description of satan meeting up with key members of the government, church and monarchy. The moral of the story: the rule of tyrants will be short-lived and they will eventually be overthrown – Shelley’s goal was to achieve political and economic reform.

So back to square one and Apparat: His new album ‘The Devil’s Walk’ is certainly no guide to revolution nor a direct hint towards the overthrow of a corrupt, unhuman empire but its title still fitted right into the London riots a couple weeks ago. However as soon as we focus on what we have heard of the music until now, Apparat’s ‘The Devil’s Walk’ isn’t a soundtrack for revolution either: ‘Ash/Black Veil‘, ‘Black Water‘ and now ‘Song Of Los’ are complex but calm pieces of electronica featuring sweet vocals of both Ring as well as Chicago based singer and Telefon Tel Aviv contributor Alfredo Nogueira.

But enough of the chitchat: ‘Song of Los’ was just being released this week with the whole Apparat album out on the 23rd of September via Mute Records. Catch up with Apparat Band all around Europe and especially during Electronic Beats Festivals in Bratislava and Budapest, and now listen to that noisy-distorted Mogwai take on ‘Song Of Los’ already and watch the Apparat Band live recording from EB Festival Prague afterwards!

Published September 08, 2011.