If you’ve seen Future Ape Tapes lately, then you may expect nothing more of this LP than a jumble of noise. Indeed, that’s perhaps the reason you saw them in the first place: to bask in the fractured light, the hailstorm of shattered sound. No recording can ever capture that same prismatic blunt force; fortunately, Pyramirrormid offers more than the usual blissful cacophony.
Don’t fret—Donald Whitehead and Thomas Valadez (better known as Tom Visions) can still drone with the best of ‘em, and drummer Nick Givens thrashes the music forward in thrilling spasms. But on record, patterns surface above the entropy. Details that usually slip under the mix spark to the forefront, like Thom Strickland’s bleepy “Q-tar.” A snappy, dubby pattern underpins “Russian Dolls” before it drifts into a sublime stratosphere of loops and clatters. “The Man With the Eagle Eye” throbs with a steady heartbeat, while spiraling ether washes over a hollow core.
You may, by the time “Oracle in the Sky” rolls around, shift in your seat and wonder if the Apes have stretched this glorified mess a hair too long. Indeed, the closer would pack a deeper punch had it stopped with that elegiac refrain instead of devolving yet again. All in all, though, the Apes’ brand of enlightenment translates well on Pyramirrormid. For an otherworldly respite from power riffs and melodies, look no further.
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