Red Room Cinema members Anthony Maltese and Brian Burleson have been working diligently on a follow-up to their 2008 Black Friday Session EP and debut full-length Apsis finally hit national shelves via New Granada Records on Tuesday, with a record release party this Saturday night.
The post rock duo instrumentally navigates through themes of loss, hope and "human connection during the final hours as the Moon begins to collapse and rain onto the earth" in the four electro-lunar hued movements that open the album and take its name. The quietly slinking loops of "Apsis I: Yoizuki" open the suite, the title likely taken from the Japanese destroyer Yoizuki (which means "Moon Visible as Day Joins Evening"). The meatier "Apsis II: The Observatory" adds notes of hope with ascending guitars, marching drums, light strings and twinkling glock while "Apsis III: We Raise Our Eyes Between the Walls of Glass and Steel" ushers in the soaring drama of propulsive guitars and cymbal-crashing rhythms (listen below). The epic nearly 11-minute conclusion, "Apsis IV: A Storm of Meteorites," builds to a spectacular crescendo, aggressive layers of instrumentals drenched in washes of reverb and distortion for that extra explosive final tempest. The last two tracks are both nine-plus minutes of tension peaking and crashing, although set closer "Shadows of a Forgotten City" carries a greater sense of doom, aggression and urgency than precursor "White Arrows," winding down from its visceral intensity with a quiet, electro bright-bliss close.
Critics’ Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Red Room Cinema stages a CD release Show with Permanent Makeup and Alameda on Sat., Sept. 29; 9 p.m. doors, New World Brewery, Ybor City, $8, newgranada.com.
This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 3, 2012.