APARTMENT 26 — Music for the Massive (review)

APARTMENT 26 — Music for the Massive album cover Album · 2003 · Nu Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Unitron
It's a shame that Apartment 26 called it quits after this album, because there's some serious untapped potential displayed on Music for the Massive. The beginning of the new millennium was when electronic artists were rediscovering old school jazz and swing music, between the nu jazz scene and artists like Eat Static (and Merv Pepler's other projects at the time), DJ Food, and the Propellerheads among others making heavy use of horn samples and swing rhythms, it was old world meets new world in full swing (no pun intended).

So why is this relevant to a relatively obscure forgotten nu metal band? Apartment 26 was an electronic influenced metal band from the start, but Music for the Massive shows an influence from this new trend in the realm of electronica. The infectiously catchy opener Give Me More displays this with jazzy piano rolls and finger snapping beats (literally, at the start) combined with metal guitar crunch. 88 follows suit with an occasional horn sample. I can only assume that these guys were following what was going on in the electronic scene at the time.

Where it fails, is that the band doesn't consistently utilize this sound. Most of it is just semi-industrial pop metal, and they do a decent job at it, but it helps their sound so much whenever any jazzy beats and melodies come in. It doesn't help that they start the album with the two best songs, and you're just waiting for them to give you more of Give Me More. Book (Be My Friend), Axel Off, and the beginning of 5 Day Rental is the rest of the extent they go with the unique twist they start off with.

Who knows if Apartment 26 will ever come back, and who knows what they'd even sound like if they did, but it's a shame as I can't see this kind of musical combination coming back, anytime soon at least. It's not like 2003 today which was the prime time for it. Right time, right place, but not the best execution unfortunately. Still recommended though for mostly the first two songs and just to get an idea of how great this sound could be, but it could've been even better.
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