Duplex is the third album by Apparat. Previous albums showed lots of change in Apparat’s musical style. While the first album showed a quiet and sad side, comparable to the works of Funckarma, the second album was much more hectic and jazzy.
On this third album, Apparat shows another side of his musical capabilities. There is still elements of the other two albums, but this album seems to be influenced a lot by recent post-rock and poppy electronica. The album consists of more traditional electronica tracks, and song-like tracks. The songs used have been electronically manipulated, and the CD therefore is a melancholic whole.
This combination of song and electronica is not exactly new, it has been quite a trend since the succes of the group Mum from Iceland. Although ‘Duplex’ might not be the most original album, Apparat manages to produce his music to such an excellent level that this is easily forgiveable. In fact it is one of the best albums in this genre I’ve heard so far.
Again an outstanding album on the Shitkatapult label, who seem to be getting more and more professional. Tip: the CD contains a lot more tracks than the LP.
