Apollo Vermouth “Fractured Youth”

09 May 2014 — Johanne Swanson

Alisa Rodriguez, crouched and cradling a guitar over a pedalboard, is purging some demons in a Wisconsin basement. They’re the ugly inner kind of demons that can only be quelled by intense vulnerability. A young crowd surrounds Rodriguez, eyes shut, swaying to the noise. What the demons don’t know is that the bravery of expelling them is met with moments that make us more human. Misery loves company and, for Apollo Vermouth, the expulsion of grief simultaneously destroys and heals, binding us together.

Apollo Vermouth is the ambient project of Alisa Rodriguez, who has been quietly releasing an incredible body of work since 2010. You can download the entire discography, except for AV’s most recent, from a giant MediaFire folder linked from Rodriguez’s blog. Her process is worth noting, drafting artwork first “just to get an idea of what I want the album to sound like” and recording “whenever I feel like I have to express my emotions.”  With a guitar, two delay pedals, reverb and distortion, Rodriguez records straight to a 4-track Tascam Portastudio and transfers the files to Garageband for editing.

Fractured Youth is the latest AV release. Closing at 30 minutes, it is disarming, minimal and melodic. It’s a departure from previous noisier releases, more contemplative and atmospheric. Rodriguez is returning to her initial ambient impulses here (which you’ll have to dig through that MediaFire folder for-- see 2010’s Florida EP.) AV's work is marked by doing what feels right, and revisiting these initial impulses is a sign of maturation and self-awareness. Rodriguez states that “Fractured Youth is about growing up. Making this album helped me immensely with depression and negativity I encountered all throughout my life. This album is not just for me, though, it’s for everyone.” Fractured Youth is dedicated to Jessie Blodgett, a 19 year-old musician and friend of Rodriguez, who was murdered in her home outside of Milwaukee last year. In the words of AV's label, “Fractured Youth is a memorial to the notion that internal growth comes not with age, but with the will for it.” 

Fractured Youth is out now compliments of our longtime friends at Bridgetown Records. It is a part of their spring batch of seven tapes featuring releases by Big Waves of Pretty, Paper Armies, Filardo, Autococoon, Widesky and Reighbeau. Be sure to download the 14-track Bridgetown Records Spring 2014 mixtape and pick up a copy of Fractured Youth. Milwaukee residents can attend the Fractured Youth release show on May 31st.