The upcoming debut LP from Winnipeg psychedelic jazz-funk collective Apollo Suns, Departures (out Sept. 22, 2023, via Do Right! Music), finds the band evolving across new styles and moods, encompassing the shifting tides of the pandemic years. The band stayed busy then, writing over Zoom with midi-programmed instruments in a recording interface. When restrictions relaxed, they flew Juno award-winning producer Ben Kaplan (Bootsy Collins, Five Alarm Funk) to Winnipeg to record the new songs at No Fun Club over 10 days, re-igniting the chemistry of their high-energy live shows. Departures is a cinematic journey inspired as much by artists like Lettuce, Frank Zappa, Goblin, as film, TV and video game scores and soundtracks like those for The Warriors, Akira, Cowboy Bebop, Lupin III, and The Legend of Zelda. The band combines classic compositional techniques with synths and electronics, showcasing genre-melding finesse. Introducing strings, acoustic guitar, grand piano, and lap steel into the mix, Apollo Suns explore the visceral and heavy, the elegant and ethereal, epic house rock to New Orleans-y brass, proggy pathways, string-backed balladry, greasy stank-face funk and beyond, reflecting the many emotions of the pandemic's unpredictable days.
