On record, Portland, Oregon’s Ape Machine are a decent prospect. Three albums of solidly listenable stoner rock suggests maybe their profile should be higher, but their new live album Live at Freak Valley (Ripple) falls short of expectations. Recorded at the band’s set at Germany’s Freak Valley Festival last year, the 11 tracks on offer are billed as a “scorching recording of Ape Machine’s performance in front of the sold-out audience,” but in reality there’s little on here to set the world on fire.
Drawing most of its material from 2013’s Mangled by the Machine (Ripple), Ape Machine are clearly a decent band; vocalist Caleb Heinze has a decent set of pipes while guitarist Ian Watts combines 70 stoner boogie with an aggressive hard rock edge, but the recordings just lack any spark.
The accompanying PR goes on about “captivating and commanding an audience” but it’s the crowd’s absence from the record that drains it of all atmosphere. Only occasionally is there an audible response from the people and little of the way of interaction from the band, so instead of a feeling of “being there” you’re left with what feels like live demos.
The band sound fine; the songs are solid and the quality of the recordings decent, but there’s just a lack of excitement from start to finish. ‘Strange are the People,’ ‘Every Body Bleeds’ and ‘Angry Man’ all have a confident swagger and plenty of bouncing riffs, but when the album highlight is a straight cover of Deep Purple’s ‘Black Night’, it might be a sign that something isn’t quite right.
While far from terrible, Live from Freak Valley barely registers as a classic among Ape Machine’s own back catalogue, let alone in the history of scorching live albums. Which is shame as on record they sound like they’ve got potential to be pretty great. One for the dedicated fans.
6.0/10
DAN SWINHOE