CD Reviews

APB

Something to Believe In | Young American

By RYAN FOLEY | May 1, 2006

3.5 Stars

APB, Something to Believe In
APB: Everything's fair game for reissues

Thanks largely to a massive revival in everything post-punk, the neo-new-wave resurgence, and the timely appearance of Simon Reynolds’s Rip It Up and Start Again, anything from the ’80s is fair game for vault diggers — even Scottish pop. Last year, Domino compiled retrospectives of Orange Juice and Fire Engines, and there’ve been rumors of a forthcoming Josef F comp. In the meantime, APB are the latest Scots to get the deluxe, two-disc reissue treatment. In honor of its 20th anniversary, the Aberdeen dance-rock trio’s hard to-find underground classic Something To Believe In is once again widely available. (Original copies were once listed on-line for as much as $2500.) APB’s influence on modern rockers like Franz Ferdinand, the Rapture, and LCD Soundsystem is at once apparent in the fusion of funky bass, dance grooves, and blasts of sputtering guitar. “Shoot You Down,” perhaps their best-known tune, marries hip-shaking dance rhythms with lip-curling punk. “Talk to Me,” with its siren-like riffing, is a reminder that APB were equally capable when it came to straight-up guitar rock.

Related: Real to reel, Post-punk prophet excerpt, Punk 2 techno, More

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY RYAN FOLEY

YOUNG FATHERS | TAPE ONE | December 10, 2012
Scotland does boldly inventive/wildly playful indie-pop (and prior to that, post-punk) with such machine-like efficiency that it's been a detriment to the country's other genres.

BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW | COBRA JUICY | October 09, 2012
Technology makes secrecy well-nigh impossible, so Black Moth Super Rainbow settle for employing it as a narrative device.

SWANS | THE SEER | August 28, 2012
Swans albums are the unparalleled expression of multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira, who often sounds like he's either deranged with enthusiasm or deranged with bitterness.

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE | ASCENT | August 14, 2012
Ben Chasny is the thinking man's shredder, a chin-stroking, Gaston Bachelard-quoting antithesis to philistine six-string savants like Steve Vai.

CANDLEMASS | PSALMS FOR THE DEAD | July 31, 2012
If this is truly, certainly, most definitely the final Candlemass album (the doom-metal progenitors called it quits in both 1994 and 2002, only to reform both times), then the swan song on their swan-song release is "Black as Time," a middling, excessively lengthy number.