Band of the Week: Apollo 18 (아폴로18)

[April 4 - 10]

Apollo 18 (아폴로18)
Sounds Like: Experimental / Post-Rock / Shoegaze
Terroir: Seoul, Korea
Drinking Buddies: Wax on Radio, And So I Watch You From Afar, Battles

Synopsis: An hybrid of spacey post-rock and rockin' post-hardcore.

Makes You Want To: Rock out; Scream; Gaze.
[Official] / [Myspace]

One week, one band. You know the drill.
This week, the featured artist is Apollo 18 (아폴로18).


The digital age is a magnificent thing, especially in terms of music. Only thirty, sometimes even twenty years ago, we were extremely limited on what we could hear musically. You were either listening to the local music stations in your town - oftentimes, frankly, which can be quite lacking is quality - which would normally feature the biggest recording artists as selected by the music industry; limited to the bands that came thru your area on tour, trips of which were no doubt rare and less publicized than they are now; and of course, stuck with whatever artists may have been local to your locale, and again, these were oftentimes not the best quality.

However, with the power of computers, the entire planet is our locale, and you have the freedom to experience all manner of different musical tastes and cultural styles. Which is why it's odd that these two music discovery experiences - the old school "analog" style, if you will, and our new digital style - convened for me at the local punk rock venue. For those who don't know, I'm in Fort Worth, Texas, where we are more than fortunate to have the one and only 1919 Hemphill, an communally run music venue centered around punk rock. And it was within those very walls that I was introduced to Apollo 18.

Named after the iconic space exploration vessel, these South Korean rockers bring spacey to a whole new level. Blending their sound calm, post-rock/instrumental sound with heavier hardcore and metal elements, the result is a sound that is perfectly juxtaposed between calmness and chaos. Apollo 18 moves their listeners with quiet, fulfilling guitarwork similar to that of This Will Destroy You or Explosions in the Sky. And in similar fashion, they can build their songs up until they rip apart the speakers with massive walls of sound and wild expulsions of dense musical release.

They aren't instrumental, to be said. But it is also to be said that their singing, while crucial to their songs, is more an instrument than an instrument in itself, rather than a poetic form of expression - the voices that join the powerful gutiars and rhythmic bass are more a contribution to the musical construction than trying to say something in particular, similar to the Vonlenska experimented with by Sigur Rós. However, as I compare these guys to similarly spacey artists in the post-rock world, do not underestimate their ability to lay down some proper rock. Their sound is significantly heavier than most of their peers, as if a rejection of the seemingly structured South Korean society, generating wild, raucous energy all contained and exploited within a concentrated process of musical performance. Their sound weaves between genres, from experimental, to jazzy, to some good ol' fashioned rock 'n roll, and they are definitely a name quickly on the rise, one you'll hopefully be hearing from more as the days go on.

Apollo 18 is only two years old, and brand new to the American coast as far as I'm aware. But they're quickly climbing into the consciences of savvy music listeners around the world. They won the award for "Best Rookie of the Year" at the 2010 Korean Music Awards (2010 한국대중음악상), and have been a major performance at both the Green Plugged Festival in Seoul, as well as one of the biggest festivals in Korea, the Jisan Valley Rock Festival (지산 밸리 록 페스티벌), playing alongside the likes of major international acts such as Pet Shop Boys, Mutemath, Vampire Weekend, Belle & Sebastian, and Muse.

From what I can understand, the show I got to catch here in Fort Worth, Texas was the last Apollo 18 had booked for their first tour on American shores, which had them roaming all across Texas and around the south, culminating in a tonne of awesome shows down in South by Southwest. Assumably, the trio returned to Korea to relax and recover. Apollo has three albums under the belt already: Blue Album, Red Album, and Violet Album. They were also selling some strange album - which I have - that has NO name beyond the band's and no info beyond their contact information. So I'm nicknaming it the Black Album, and it's filled a compilation of all their different releases.

Apollo 18 has their official site, both in Korean and English, as well as a Myspace, where you can get quite a bit of a preview into their music. They have quite a number of live videos posted around the net so you can experience their live performances for yourself. And of course, you can snag all their awesome albums from their online store or via iTunes for digital download. Enjoy their wicked sound, and have an awesome week, readers!