Well, well, well, look who it is. It’s only previous NEW BAND OF THE MONTH and MUSIC YOU NEED 2015 featurees, Calling Apollo – featurees is a word now – and they come baring gifts; said gifts being the five brand spanking new tracks included on their debut studio EP, Hunter |Gatherer.
A quick introduction for all those who haven’t seen these chaps around these parts before (though seriously, I just linked you to two articles just then, I wrote words, there were pictures and music and everything), Calling Apollo are a five piece progressive/post-hardcore/alt. rock band who, for their sins, are based around South Wales.
The band have had a bit of a slowburning start so far, having formed as a foursome at the tail end of 2012, before recruiting Christian James Neale on vocals early 2013 and getting the ball rolling with a bedroom born debut EP, Vessels, Â a couple of studio singles, and a number of very well received live dates. However, slowburned beginning or no, 2015 and Hunter | Gatherer feels like the start proper for Calling Apollo, having found their footing now and gone someway in solidifying a sound that is theirs to call their own (or Apollo, I am hilarious).
As mentioned, though this is their second EP it is their debut studio EP – produced by Romesh Dodangoda (Kids in Glass Houses/Funeral for a Friend) – and you can hear it in the spitshine and polish these tracks show. Down to the songs themselves though, ‘Hunter’ kicks things off with a chop and change compositional quality as Kevin Williams and Dan Hughes reel off riffs like they had a few to spare, not in your abrupt and abrasive matchore kind of manner though, but more in your shape-shifting and progressive kind of way; something the track itself follows as it works through a number of contrasting passages, both boisterous and subdued.
‘In This City’ continues the trend but pours on the melody, particularly in Neale’s vocals with a properly catchy chorus, and some impressive fills from Daniel Rees finding their way through. However, since recording Rees has left the band and been replaced by Zak Woolf. ‘Chemical Breaker’ leans more into the band’s progressive side as it opens up spatially, allowing for the five piece explore their more atmospheric interests as well as letting Luke Walters bass wriggle and rumble around in the open air. Of course, there’s still a considerable alt. rock drive pushing through. ‘ Monsters’ finds the band bringing their more post-hardcore components to the fore with punkier rhythms, harder hitting riffs, and soaring guitar lines.
‘Gatherer’ comes out of leftfield to close the EP off, and is perhaps my favourite track of the five on offer here. Now, I say it comes out of leftfield but it’s not like the elements that make it up haven’t been evidenced elsewhere in Calling Apollo’s music, it’s just they haven’t been focussed in on for so long as they are here. Previously the band have adopted ambience to colour tracks or flavour little tastes within them, but here the five piece unfold the track gently over a much slower, even swaying, approach fully embracing the space around the song’s delicate melodies to create a sombre and emotive climate for pretty much the duration as it subtly rises and falls, but never quite peaking until the latter part of the track. Aside from being a good closing track, it also confirms that Calling Apollo have definitely found their footing as they are clearly more than comfortable holding the listener’s attention as they spend more than five minutes exploring its dreamy melodies.
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