The compilation of disturbingly dank, hybridized beauties, Requiem, is Apashe‘s major nod to Mozart and has been described as his “biggest project yet”. The three epics tracks are mixed with, and titled after, different sections of Mozart’s famously unfinished work.
Rumor is that while the original Requiem was commissioned to be played at a count’s window’s funeral, Mozart thought it was for his own, and it supposedly made him a little crazier before he died tragically young- ICYMI in music class.
Oddly enough, Apashe’s passion project was carefully pieced together, and is an impressively unique product. He recorded choirs, and orchestras around Montreal, inspired by a lasting fascination with classical music, and the curiosity of what Mozart’s Requiem would sound like as a banger. Collaborating with Wasi (from ‘The Landing’ on Copter Boys) with regal rhymes on ‘Majesty’ and Black Prez’s fierce flare on ‘Dies Irae’, Apashe’s genius reveals itself through his mash-up of classical melodies, hip-hop vocals, and intense electronic bass.
‘Lacrimosa’ is by far my favorite though, and it can only be described as an immersion into the trappy, orchestral orgy that is Apashe’s mind. It is an insanely haggard and haunting thrasher that conjures images of an orchestra from 1750 crawling out of their graves, awoken by filthy bass. The chilling choir samples start out majestically, just to be sliced by jabbing violins, and then you hear the sighs of the bass, and a flutter, like a butterfly knife, of snares. Before your mind can even digest the diverse palate of sound, it has already taken you.
Savor his tribute to one of the most old-school musicians of our era of music below.
