Earthmonkey - Audiosapien

Audiosapien from Earthmonkey is largely based around lengthy cosmic jams of groooving basslines and blasts of free-form sax blasts which evoke comparisons with Krautrock. What sets Audiosapien apart though is the use of rhythms which are undoubtedly contemporary. The occassional track nods in the direction of trip-hop while others evoke the anarcho-techno travellers of the late 80s / early 90s. This isn't too surprising as Earthmonkey is the project of Peat Bog, a veteran of the English travelling scene and now resident in County Clare, Ireland alongside Steve Stapleton of Nurse With Wound. In fact Peat Bog has been a frequent Nurse With Wound collaborator (Who Can I Turn To Stereo, Rock and Roll Station, Alice the Goon etc) and a member of The Inflatable Sideshow (see Foxtrot, the compilation for the late Jhonn Balance of Coil). Although largely uncredited, on the CD, at least, Stapleton was responsible for much of the atmospheres herein adding surreal textures to these cosmic trip-outs. A number of tracks feature children's voices, with one recounting the Lord of the Rings, and so Nurse With Wound fanatics will be in familiar company. It's nowhere near as experimental or as unpredictable as Nurse With Wound. Elsewhere it's wigged out guitars using an assortment of effects and it dovetails quite nicely with the type of material you'd expect Julian Cope to be extolling the virtues of. I could certainly find myself returning to the mind bending psychedelic strains of 'Make Me One With Everything'. On the whole though, Audiosapien, released early last year, is one for Krautrockers who can stomach the weirdness of Nurse With Wound. And there are many of those, I'm sure. For more information go to www.blrrecords.com