Search - Appleseed Cast :: Low Level Owl, Vol. 2

Appleseed Cast gets closer

Candice R. Ward | Soquel, CA USA | 06/07/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Appleseed Cast comes from Kansas City, Kansas. Rumor says they used to be an emo band. Bad start; I have judged, stereotyped, and written off bands for less, and in my mind Middle America emotional core rock gets no second thought. Good thing for me, then, that I happened to see Appleseed Cast at a local venue, sandwiched between math rockers Crime and Choir and indie cutie pants Mates of State. Appleseed Cast put on a good show - then I found out about the Kansas origins and emo history. Intrigued, I bought their latest (2001) release "Low Level Owl: Volume II" and have been listening to it all week.
This is, maybe, an emo album, but not in the laughable sense that has created such a stigma attached to the genre. This is not a Jimmy Eat World, Linkin Park, or Stained CD, thank god -no white bread spasms, or screaming, or childhood crybabies. Instead "low Level Owl: Volume II" is 12 tracks of thoughtful music in the fashion of emo godfathers Sunny Day Real Estate. In fact, Sunny Day is a noticeable influence on this album . The vocals soar in and out, the lyrics are poetry, and at just the right moments Appleseed Cast lets open the gain and rocks. The band has done some diverse listening and has covered their tracks, taking subtle and not so subtle cues from Radiohead, Sunny Day Real Estate, Wilco, Depeche Mode, (the list could be endless) and blending them into a dense and interesting sound. The drums bang loud in the mix, riveted ride cymbals sizzle continually. One guitar is driving and prominent, propelling the band with constant 8th notes, the other guitar crackles and feeds back adding noise and texture. The bass is subtle - the droning weight holds the other elements in place. Keyboards add space, ambience, atmosphere. And the vocals are relatively low in the mix, the lyrics disappear in the layers and the voice become another instrument instead of the focus. So the melodies are haunting and infectious and repetitive, catchy and satisfying.
For Appleseed Cast the overall sound is key. No one song on "Low Level Owl: Volume II" is extraordinary on its own; the album stand as a whole with melody and noise pushing one song through the next. The entire CD breathes and moves as a single entity, with every track responding to the track previous and introducing the track to come. The tone varies with plenty of instrumental tracks answered by out and out rock and roll. This is not an album to put on shuffle or skip a track. Next album they put out will be brilliant, they're getting closer."

Moving but desperate

Ryan Etzcorn | Kalamazoo, MI | 08/06/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"with the emergence of indie rock and it's explosion in the new millenium, rock is facing difficulties not before anticipated. Bands are going further and further out of the way to prove that everything hasn't been done, resulting in some amazing sounds such as The Dismemberment Plan and The Fiery Furnaces. But what is the sacrifice in such cases? Unfortunately the result of this desperate quest is high level art that can have problems connecting with the listner.

The Appleseed Cast's Low Level Owl sessions will definitely catch your attention with a wealth of unique sounds and amazing landscapes. The studio sound is innovative and the arrangements are pretty courageous, but I think they went just a bit too far.

For one, the vocals are dissapointingly sparse on this album, yet their singer is so talented! what a waste! The instrumental style that is instead thrust upon the listener is also noticeably repetetive, and although it interests with the unique sounds, the melodies at it's core are just flat-out inferior to the master-melodies featured on Two Conversations and The Last of the Ring Wars. You've really got to be in the right mood to sympathize with this record more but who knows, maybe it will grow on me as most 'high art' things do.

For now it's only getting three stars. imaginative - yes, but it fails to connect with me as a listener like their other works have."