Apoc

Patrick Felsenthal, better known as Apoc, is an artist whose name rings familiar, but whose music I haven’t heard before I received this EP to review. He’s from Chicago, his music is definitely hip hop based, though it blurs the lines between many genres (he describes his sound as post-hip hop), and he’s been quite prolific with his releases ever since 2003. “Make Horns” is a 5-song EP he released just a few days ago, and it's a FREE download.

The opening song is “Put Your Horns On Me” and you can see the cool video for it (directed by Scott Upshur) below. The single has Apoc both rapping and singing, and while the singing definitely surprised me, it was also a good fit. The single is unusual, weird, and it's fun.

As seen in the video, Apoc is all about the horns. On the EP, he refers to the "horns" hand sign in both the current way it's used by metal fans, and the old, mystical meaning of the gesture, meant to chase away bad spirits. In result he reappropriates it as his own thing, "a symbol of defiance against any forces, internal or external, that stand in the way of one accomplishing one’s dreams." I actually like that and Apoc, who seems like a likeable, down to earth kind of guy, manages to work with this theme without sounding like a pretentious anthropology major trying to woo you. More horns? The synth horn is heavily featured in the songs.

What this record has in abundance is style. The beats produced by Earmint are clean, tight and range from atmospheric to danceable (often being both in the same track). They're clearly influenced by many genres, but those influences are cleverly incorporated into a new, unique sound. From what I understand, both Earmint and Apoc are longtime collaborators and they really work well together, as this soundscape fits Apoc's vocals perfectly. Apoc himself, as a rapper/singer combo is very original and I can't really think of anybody that sounds similar. Like it or not, Apoc definitely has his own sound, and that's both rare and something that I appreciate.



Other than the single, there are two other standouts here. The title track (above) is the one that I enjoy the most on the EP. I like the vibe here and this song is where the multiple meanings of the “horns” gesture come into play the most. I also really enjoy the live cello at the end. I'm a sucker for cello in hip-hop tracks. Another song that I like here is the last one, the very tribal "What Aco Told Me". Who is Aco? It's Aleksandar “Aco” Todorović, a Slovenian human rights activist and a friend of Apoc's (the rapper himself currently resides in Slovenia, too). Both these last songs I mentioned show that there are many sides to Apoc, and that he's an artist to look out for.

I can't say I'm feeling "Can't Say No" and "Here I Am", but hey, 3 songs out of 5 is still pretty damn good!

All in all, "Make Horns!" has it's flaws, it's not for everybody, but it's also very original and stylish (and not without substance). It's worth checking out and it's free now, so go and check it.


Additional Apoc links to check out:
Apoc's official website,
Apoc's Twitter and Facebook,
His Soundcloud aaaand his Tumblr!
- See more at: http://www.trashmutant.com/music-review---make-horns-by-apoc.html#sthash.KU1ftXqN.dpuf
- See more at: http://www.trashmutant.com/music-review---make-horns-by-apoc.html#sthash.KU1ftXqN.dpuf - trashmutant.com

Normally when people talk about white rappers they assume the rapper is either trying to be something they more than likely aren't, or they're acting ridiculous, or they're making you pancakes.

Sometimes white people take the whole "I'm traipsing in a genre started by people with different skin color than my own and I'm unique" a little too fucking far and puff out their proverbial chests and act as if they are entitled to being taken seriously in said genre. Those people are what I refer to as "pieces of shit". Those who cannot respect the simple fact that they aren't the first to do what they do, well, they deserve to be slapped with a random corpse's decaying cock.

I've also noticed that some white rappers rappy rap like tourists might hula dance while on vacation in Hawaii. They're into it, and they're enjoying themselves, but they're okay with enjoying it for what it is. And what it is is a form of expression they may or may not be very good at, but the vulnerability makes appreciating them as a listener quite enjoyable.

While we can date most music (worth a shit) back to people of color, if we really wanted to we could make the case for all pasties (such as myself) to stop creating in certain genres completely. But that's an article for a publication where people get paid, Fuck you I'm too broke for research.

One of the rappers, who is beyond caucasian, that I've always appreciated the pants off is Apoc. Whether he's shitting on his nation's desire to consider itself infallible, pointing out the socio-economic plight of people our age, or making fun of himself, Apoc earned my respect by actually being as random as his subject matter.

His delivery is as varied and specific or as concentrated and broad as any rapper, white or black, you might take serious. He's half full of shit and half genius, and it's fucking fun as fucking Fuck to decipher.

Apoc's latest album Boredom In Full Bloom is definitely a calmer and more focused approach than I am used to, but if you think everyone in this shiteating age group is just floating through each day preparing for bed, you're in for a pleasant surprise. Apoc vocalizes the disdain and confusion of those of us teetering close to the age when we're supposed to pay more attention to output in the responsibility game vs. the merely self fulfilling drops in the music game.

I think what I appreciate most about Apoc the rapper, besides his drive to keep moving both musically and geographically, is that he hops effortlessly and blatantly from fad to fad. One year he's dressing like a longhaired shit for brains, the next year his jeans are fucking white, cock-showing 1950's tight and rolled taut at the cuff. What's funny about that is that he isn't just in on the fucking joke, it's that he's the one telling the muthafucker. If you're in on it, it's hilarious. If you aren't, you're probably judging him, which is right the Fuck where he wants you.

I once told Apoc in the basement of the Empty Bottle in Chicago that he was the Larry Dallas of hiphop. Now I'm telling you.

Apoc is the Larry Dallas of hiphop.

His talent is as flashy as his growing collection of Reagal Beagle sport coats, but if you think the dude's a goof, you're only half right.

Dude is fucking hell yeah.

SYFFAL SIDE NOTE: The brain behind Their Ocean, Keith or K-Kruz, did all of the production and is 77% of why Apoc actually sounds adorable on this.

SYFFAL SIDE NOTE #2: Racecar, a guest emcee on this album, is one of my favorite fucking rappers of all fucking time. SOMEONE TELL THAT DUDE I SAID SUP. - syffal.com

Jamie Thompson :: special to popmontreal.com

This isn’t really a blog, but can we say that rap music influenced by New York rap music is going to be a thing that happens again? Not that I’m down on southern rap music, I love the stuff. But I grew up with a different approach to rap, one that I am always excited to hear.

Case in point, APOC. The first song I heard by this non-NYC based rapper had a thick sample-based 90-something bpm New-Yorky rap beat and it made my ears prick up right away. His verse on it was decent. No Danny Brown, but he was putting work in, and I was impressed.

But after hearing a bunch of his songs I realized he wasn’t a New-Yorky rapper. He was trying to rap a million styles and every song was different. APOC claims to be “post-hip hop”, as he finds his music “feels too alive to still be considered part of a dying culture.” The funny thing about it is that I only really took notice because he was embracing a part of hip hop that meant so much to me.

I don’t buy it APOC. I think you love hip hop, but because of your race and general upbringing you feel you will always be an outsider to it. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You’re actually quite good at it. You have a solid delivery, you can be funny, and you’re on beat. You seem to have taken in a huge breadth of influence, and you’re Pick O’ the Week! Maybe you could embrace that you love hip hop and make some more New-Yorky rap tunes. I just want that to be a thing.

Jamie Thompson has has been a friend of the festival since 2002 and plays in some of your favourite bands. Follow him @svengully and #popsesh on Twitter. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of POP Montreal. Inclusion as the Popsesh Pick O The Week does not guarantee an invitation to play the festival. - popmontreal.com

I used to refer to Apoc behind his back as Larry Dallas.

He had this finger snapping, head wiggling, I just had sex, yes these are crocodile skin suspenders vibe to him, even when he was dressed in a mumu style Celtics jersey. His personality was 77% larger than his already swampman sized cranium, and all I wanted to do was hug him like it was Jewish wedding tradition and offer to share my hankerchief with him.

Yes. Capturing the sweat of Apoc was one of my goals before I got married. Call me crazy bro.

BUT THE WHY ARE WE THE HERES?

HERE BE THE WORLD PREMIERE OF APOC'S PUT YOUR HORNS ON ME MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTED BY NOTED LEFT HANDED PANAMANIAN ASTROLOGIST SCOTT UPSHUR!

Apoc went full on creepy this time around. While still rocking his trademark griftin' suit, Apoc visits an abandoned mine shaft (yes code) surrounded by a horror film of his own creation. He says it's a mix between Disney's Alladin and Michael Jackson's Thriller, but I see it more as a playful reference to the German Expressionist films of the 1920s and rap videos of the late 1990s while creating something altogether new and patriotically pornographic bro.

IF YOU DON'T WALK LIKE THE BLUE SCARFED ALADDIN NINJA HOCKEY ZOMBIES, YOU'RE A SAD EXCUSE FOR A MUSIC FAN BRO.

Go stream this bro. Go download this bro. Go APOC on this Apoc bro. Go Apoc on the Make Horns EP when it drops 4/29/13 bro. - syffal.com

In a San Diego CityBeat article, a reporter said, “Apoc’s music sounds like the last 35 years of hip hop and electronic music happening all at once.” This is a perfect explanation of an artist that is sometimes hard to explain.

With an overall ethos that reminds me of Ceschi and other records coming out of the Fake Four camp, Apoc raps about his general dissatisfaction with the current direction of the western world with scathing humor and irony. Boredom in Full Bloom is a collection of sound sketches directed at his distaste for modern Americana, while shining a spotlight on many of its characters and providing personal solutions and opinion. Earmint provides an array of electronic distortion, bass heavy drums, and chaotic layers of synths and futuristic oddball samples, which collectively have been the go-to sound on Apoc's past records.

Apoc's commentary on the drowning-in-information generation's lack of attention, common sense, courtesy, tact, social skills, and obsession with materialism and technology is both refreshing and important. While most rappers continue to numb, Apoc questions and rips the veil off of a generation that continues to bloom amongst a garden full of boredom, apathy, and isolation.

(And with all that being said, I think it's hilarious that a few of these songs have appeared on Jersey Shore. HAHA.)
- whiskeyteeth.com

This is Apoc. Apoc is the guy who never should have started rapping, but did, and now he makes songs about how he should have never started rapping. Most of the time it's fucking hilarious how easy the shit flows from his fucking mouth. He's my rap doppelganger if I cared about rap with a schtick where I didn't care about rap. I remember maybe five years ago in the basement of the Empty Bottle, Apoc sitting there shaving off the lacquer from the burnt ass table in the middle of the room and making a pile about an inch high. When I asked him what he was going to do with it he says, in complete seriousness:

"You know how many fucking addicts played the Empty Bottle? I'm gonna fucking snort this shit and when I'm done, I'm gonna find the tamale guy and put his kids through culinary school."
- syffal.com

Ritz rappers
Duo's new CD took long road to reality
September 26, 2008|By Chicago Tribune

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Local rapper Apoc (born Patrick Felsenthal) of hip-hop duo the Ritz has an interest in film noir that borders on obsession.

"I have over 200 of them in my collection," says the MC, who attended a year of film school at Columbia College and routinely works at the Telluride and Sundance film festivals. "I'm drawn to them because there are no heroes. Nobody's totally clean. Everybody has some dirt in their past."

These seedier elements inform the recently released "The Night of Day," an album awash in drugs, booze and women ("All things I do well," jokes the rapper). Buoyed by dark, evocative beats courtesy of producer/bandmate Rel (Rory Miura), a certified black belt (his father is renowned karate instructor Miyuki Miura) with a knack for constructing club bangers, the album also makes smart use of vocal samples, drawing on classic film noirs such as "The Big Sleep" and "Out of the Past."
Despite the inherent strength of the music, there were moments when the MC wondered if the record would ever surface. Though recording was completed in late 2006, the album was caught in purgatory when a label deal fell through at the last minute.

"We considered just releasing it digitally," says Apoc, recounting the brainstorming session that followed the deal's collapse. "But we never talked about shelving it. Once the label thing folded, we decided we could do it ourselves better."

In the interim, Apoc kept himself busy recording; the rapper says he currently has five full albums at or near completion. This should come as little surprise to those who know the MC. The Elmhurst native has been drawn to writing since he was just a tyke, dictating children's poems to his mother before he was old enough to even hold a pen.

"It's not something I have to force," says Apoc of his productivity. "Some weeks I'll write as many as three [songs]."

Even though Apoc began composing his own songs at 13, it wasn't until he was a freshman at York Community High School that he first rapped in front of a crowd, trading freestyles with friends in the school cafeteria. In those earlier days, the MC garnered frequent comparisons to the likes of Slug and Atmosphere -- a trend he didn't necessarily embrace.

"At first I was like, 'I'm my own [rapper]. I can't hear it.' But I see it now. It was derivative," says the rapper. "That really pushed me to oversaturate myself with music. Now I'm more comfortable. I know the direction I want to go in."

The Ritz

When: 9 p.m. Friday

Where: U.S. Beer Company, 1801 N. Clybourn Ave. The Ritz - Chicago Tribune

3 out of 4
Apoc and Racecar
Langston Bukowski
The joint venture between Apoc and Racecar is a match made in heaven. Here you have two rappers on Langston Bukowski showing their love for the game, all things conscious and are very reminiscent of the Native Tongues era. Using jazzy loops throughout the album and displaying their highlighted skills on "Nothin' But Sunshine" Apoc and Racecar show a lighter side of hip-hop by use of lyrical sarcasm on "Combo Platter #1." The influence of Chicago and Los Angeles from the two doesn't seem present in their raps, but it's certain that they both possess signature skills and are highly talented. Their announcement of social change while remaining good-humored, make this album an intellectual (and entertaining) listen. (self-release) by Jeremy Carmona - GhettoBlaster Magazine

The release of Boredom Springs Anew from Apoc comes just as the flowers bloom. This hip hop act cannot seem to stay put to any single location. Apoc releases tendrils to each place he blooms; he is more like a vine than any flower or houseplant. When I first met we were both observing the late night bar scene back home in Chicago. We got to talking after finding out that we both had a passion for writing. This was over 10 years ago. Look at him now! This vine has thrived, revived and Sprung Anew!

My favorite is I’m so important, track #2. I, like most in society, have a facebook page. I am ashamed to admit it out loud. Yet I log in daily. Okay, I log in a couple times a day. Okay I have my early morning coffee talk with my facebook friends pretty much every day. There. I said it. Apoc translates the truth of it all and teaches me to laugh at myself. - gratefulweb.com

A few months ago I was singing the praises of Chicago MC RacecaR; an incredibly slept on talent that some might know as 1/2 of Modill alongside producer K-Kruz. Since his Debilorithmicos feature, I made it a point to keep in contact with him and all his musical endeavors, a connection that quickly paid off when this dope record hit my inbox-- RacecaR and Apoc's (better known as Langston Bukowski) collaboration album, Down & Out in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Featuring production from Earmint, Rel, and K-Kruz, RacecaR and Apoc trade vicious verses over a riot of electro spiked foundations. This is quite a different sound environment for RacecaR, who usually has his feet propped up on K-Kruz' dusty jazz clouds, but the dude was blessed with one of those Black Thought flows that sounds good over any type of sample or instrument.

Peep two of my favorite tracks from the free album below and continue to get yourself affiliated with Modill & RacecaR by downloading it in full and checking the other tracks I tossed up. If you like what you hear, the full PHYSICAL version of the album (along with the 320 kbps digital version) is available to purchase for the gracious and meager price of 5 bones. Cough it up!

Sidenote: Apoc didn't get much love in this post, but it's only because he's about to get his own ode above in a few minutes. Stay tuned. - whiskeyteeth.com

“An album to play over and over again until its depths are mined for poetic twists and sampled turns that could easily be missed on first listen.” - cmj.com

“A cinematic musical masterpiece… nothing else out right now can touch them.” - the daily cougar

“Establishes Apoc as a stylistic equal of Big Boi and Jay-Z.”
“The Ritz should be to Rel what the Grey Album was to DangerMouse.”
- survivingthegoldenage.com

“As catchy as it is smart…a hip-hop album that breaks with conformity.” - raves.com

“Genius rap-noir" - xlr8r magazine

“Fresh and original.” - gapersblock.com

Hot CD of the Week – undergroundhiphop.com

Featured Mp3 of the Day “Heartless” – xlr8r.com

Urb Next 1000 – urb.com - various