How does one describe Sapling? Short answer: Ya Don’t! Long answer: They’re an incendiary fireball hurtling at your unsuspecting earholes at an aggressive pace… but in a good way. Make sense? No? Well, bear with us because it’s about to get weirder.
Sapling (Worcester/Providence) is a local outfit that’s been on our radar for some time. Whether they’ve been attached to shows we’re interested in already or just lurking on the interwebs, they just seem to be everywhere! And while we had every intention of reviewing their newest record, amor fati, close to when it originally released in May and timed with the June Bandcamp Friday we found that, GASP! Bandcamp Friday apparently took a summer break? Who knew! But now that we are speaking on it, amor fati really is some kind of wonderful. Straight outta the ’90’s… but not and falling in that Queens Of The Stone Age concept album mentality crossed with Rob Zombie’s philosophy when it comes to soundtracks (Read: it’s like listening to a radio) while hanging out with Shellac and Folk Implosion. Still with us?
“The Ballad Of Ned Ludd: A Dramatic Reading” is pretty spot on with its title and basically just the most perfect introduction to this world of weird you’re about to enter sharing tidbits on the ancient art of Tamagochi care as well as answering the age old question: “What the hell’s an NFT???” Rainy Maple Sugar Candy delivers one of the best opening lines from any song ever next as “A Fox Upon The Tomb” starts with “I have an IUD and a gun” before this stream of consciousness sonic journey really begins.
Holy fuck is “Mata Hari” is some next level cerebral Rawk to follow that experimental excursion with both Amber ToiletFire Tortorelli and Rainy Maple Sugar Candy putting in the work and emphasizing the MULTI in “multi-instrumentalist” on a track that’s a little reminiscent of later Butthole Surfers where they were kind of accepted but still recording some wacky shit. “Inaction in Action” is a fun trip with lots of clever wordplay from Tortorelli with Jonny Spaghetti Cordaro’s strikes solidly sounding off here and in “11:34” which follows.
Further in, “UK Modern is Soft” gives us those Shellac vibes we mentioned and then “Snake Charmer” brought to mind the dual sax attack of Morphine’s Dana Colley before we even saw the liner notes to declare that the sounds we’re hearing here were, in fact, produced by Colley. Later still, “The Little Monkey Who Wasn’t Very Good At The Accordion: A Bedtime Story” is a macabre tale that brings back the classic mega long song at the end of an album which is seemingly all over after just a few short minutes but then comes back with a whole other “secret” song… about paint night and the one rule you need to adhere to, again, when at paint night.
amor fati is out now on Sleazy Within Reason Records! And can be yours to stream, download, WHATEVER when you hit the link here or on the stream below. Similarly, for all the upcoming sonic somethings from Sapling plus ye olde socials and more you can head here which’ll have you covered in that department.