JAPE – This Chemical Sea
aaamusic | On 02, Apr 2015
This Chemical Sea was released earlier this year and became Jape’s fifth album. This record could be called a pop record if there were no experiments with the usual sound, but one can clearly hear things that distinguish This Chemical Sea from similar projects. Lyrics are not that simple and the approach to using the wide range of music effects is creative enough.
‘Seance of Light’ opens the record and gives it dynamic and philosophic direction. It’s a gentle, melodic track with catchy lines – features that can describe the whole This Chemical Sea LP as well. ‘The Hearts Desire’ is the song which seems to be the closest to gothic pop – the genre that Jape themselves claim to be basic in their music art.
The lyrics of energetic ‘Absolutely Animals’ carry out the verdict for human society and float in dissonant piano accords within synth-pop surroundings. ‘I Go’ and ‘Breath of Life’ remind of a light version of once popular IDM music with extended attention to the words. Lyrics are really important to Jape and for most of the tracks on This Chemical Sea words serve as a driving force in the songs’ dramaturgy.‘Ribbon Ribbon Ribbon’ welcomes another sonic mask of Jape – some minimalistic ambient with delicate ‘cosmic’ samples.
The final track (which gave its name to the whole record, by the way) calms down the extraterrestrial inertia of the LP and adds a ballad atmosphere which This Chemical Sea all in all lacks although at the end it’s a pop album.
This Chemical Sea was released via Faction Records but if you prefer not to dig for the records but listen to live Jape instead than you should consider seeing them live.
