Heard It Here First

Bass music’s classical composer, Apashe (pronounced ‘A-pa-she’), follows up his epic Renaissance album with a dark and moving EP, I Killed The Orchestra off of BTSM’s Kannibalen Records. His SoundCloud has the statement “The soundtrack of your life if you were a supervillain,” and this EP underscores how clear that vision is for him.

Throughout each track, the live orchestral samples, vocals, and more traditional synthesized bass sounds all come together in uniquely elaborate arrangements. Each piece is wrought with tension, fervor, and precision providing a truly stunning experience that will perfectly accompany the rest of Apashe’s work.

“More (Prelude)” sets the mood for the EP with a slow orchestral build. You can feel the different instruments all swelling and accenting one another. Lost in this cinematic atmosphere, suddenly Apashe brings in the “Majestic” hybrid bass. The slow trap groove just starts to lock into place and… then the track ends. It’s just enough to egg you on and bring you into the moment. 

You’ll be thankful for the warmup because the music video for the next track, “Witch,” opens bleakly with our supervillain burning witches on a beach. This video tells a story of “evil” vs “evil” as we see Apashe wearing a very formal and severe robe and hat, such as worn in the late 1500s/early 1600s, right at the height of persecution for witchcraft and in the middle of the Rennaisance. He appears to be searching for some kind of magic and he finds it in the form of a levitating black slab. Suddenly he is teleported to a near-modern/future dystopian landscape and shortly after gets capture by a group of witches. The vocals are in Ukrainian and sung by Alina Pash. The chorus consists of her chanting blood and singing about being alive, the rest of the lyrics portray raving in a club as some kind of ritual, testifying for life itself. The witches bring Apashe to a gritty warehouse rave before tying him to a cross and presumably burning him. 

This provocative journey continues with a slower and more lumbering rhythm in “Time Warp” featuring Sami Chaouki. This song is more drum and groove-based, allowing a greater focus on Sami Chaouki’s moving vocals. Apashe delivers his trademark sound with pulsing orchestral chords and distant horns. The orchestral segments are interspersed with a gritty and distorted bassline. The second portion lays deeper into the brass section with broader swells and an interesting counter-melody with the bassline. 

“Never Change” feels like a small departure from the previous songs, with an almost alt-rock style lyrical intro carried by the vocalist YMIR. Apashe even mimics an arpeggiation akin to an acoustic guitar using classical stringed instruments. The sufficiently punk-rock vocals are suitably accompanied by a face-melting midtempo drop. Apashe flexes his compositional skills for a drawn-out bridge section featuring a full collection of orchestral instruments before doubling down on the midtempo drop, infused with an aggressive break. It’s refreshing to see Apashe return to his breakcore roots for the drums on this one.

The last track, “More More More,” throws back to the majestic hip-hop/drill Apashe released with his Requiem EP. Lubalin holds down the verses including dramatic lyrics about wanting, receiving, and taking what you have for granted. The structure follows more traditional hip hop, with lush layers of classical flutes, strings, and a deep bassline. Overall, this serves to round and close out the EP while promising Apashe knows we want more more more. 

This EP is extremely promising for both the future of Apashe’s euphoric classical-bass fusion and for the following two legs of his current (2021) Rennaisance Tour. There’s nowhere to go but up for this uber-talented supervillain!

Crates I’m putting this into: Epic Bass, Hybrid Hype, Cult Movers

Let us know what you thought of Apashe’s “I Killed The Orchestra”.