The Apes make a strange and sludgy stew without the help of guitars, using the distorted low-end of bassist Erick Jackson and the mushroom-fed organs and moogs of Amanda Kleinman, while Paul Weil wails like a snake-oil salesman and drummer Jeff Schid holds it all down. The bass and organ are great textures in themselves, but Apes consistently pull it all together for a unique and surprisingly dense sound.
With two albums and two EPs behind them, the Apes don't change their approach much on Baba's Mountain, but it is a more ambitious record, folding new rhythms, a few moments of calm, and more than a few moments of manipulated vocal weirdness into their smirking psychedelia. It's a little less similar to heavyweights like Black Sabbath and more like Jesus Ape Superstar, especially on the organ-driven tracks such as "The Green Bus" or the sunny "Ornaments and Windchimes". Ape Amanda is flexing her muscles more, while Weil is along for the ride, echoing the themes that Kleinman outlines and just as quickly discards.
Apes match their ambition on "Imp Ahh", the rhythm and melody shifting wildly while the band displays its usual swagger. Weil takes the reins on the melody and the chaos seems controlled when he's in command. Baba's Mountain still sounds more or less like Apes, but this is a band full of percussion instruments-- change the rhythm too often, you risk losing the listener. Songs that remain static, like the strutting bass line and smarmy vocal tics on "What We Do Best", leave a stronger impression.
Without the band broadening their palette, you wouldn't have songs like "The Zookeeper's Night Out", where feral drumming and a cautious organ melody meet with a wall of face-melting fuzz bass, and "Imp Ahh" or "Can U Handle This" would be half as stunning without their fluid structure. However, Apes still sound best with their inimitable sound over a heavy, steady groove. Put "What We Do Best" against any other track here, and see which one you remember.
