“I think the goal is to get people to say ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before in my life, and it fucking rocked.’” –Brian Wolff, on the making of “Mostly Ape.”
Instrumental music can be described in a near infinite variety of ways. It’s more malleable; listeners are allowed to interpret and reshape the music for a variety of their own life situations, as opposed to those that a singer or lyricist might explicitly discuss. And then there’s the advantage of being able to focus solely on the music — notes, rhythm, et cetera, which often allows instrumental groups to become more technically proficient.
“Drums & Tuba” is actually a misnomer. The band’s name implies a duo, but the group comprises three musicians: Tony Nozero on drums, Brian Wolff on tuba and trumpet and Neal McKeeby on guitar. “Mostly Ape” is the band’s fifth album overall, their second released on Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records label. DiFranco co-produced “Vinyl Killer,” the band’s first release on her label. No producer credit is assigned for “Mostly Ape,” however.
The songs on “Mostly Ape” are composed, tight-knit musical arrangements. This means that the band isn’t improvising or simply jamming off a few chords and then recording the results. Reviews of the band’s past work have attempted to describe it as “jazz/funk” or “post-rock/experimental marching-band funk.” Based on the supplied press material, band members seem comfortable referring to their sound as “rock ‘n’ roll.”
The album has a narrative structure and often comes across like music for a movie that’s never been made. There are song breaks between each of the 12 tracks. Listening to the segue between “Superbee” and “Breakfast with Miletus,” for example, shows that the band carefully considered the track order.
The jacket notes that “Mostly Ape” was largely recorded live in the studio, meaning there were minimal overdubs or additions to the band’s original recording sessions. It’s surprising that a trio could create dense pieces in such a manner. Interesting sounds pop up on every track, but who knows if they come from instruments or other sources (Nozero is also given credit for “electronics”).
Tuba-player Wolff is at an advantage — despite all the interesting things happening on some of the songs, they might otherwise come across as standard funk exercises (“The Metrics,” for example) without the anachronistic instrument accentuating the groove.
“Mostly Ape” is too strange to come to any final conclusions about. People who buy the album will probably end up listening to it many times before deciding whether they like it. This translates to “interesting” — although the question arises as to whether it’s possible for listeners to dance to this stuff.
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