The Tampa duo
Red Room Cinema only released their first full album in 2012 after having been founded in 2004 -- and, bluntly put, you can tell. Nodding throughout toward the galaxy of epic-scaled and generally instrumental bands such as
Mogwai,
Explosions in the Sky,
Godspeed You Black Emperor!, and
Isis,
Apsis shows that
Red Room Cinema are to a large degree simply comfort food for fans of those bands and anything like them. On the flip side, though, they actually hit their marks throughout, especially on the multi-part title song that makes up most of the album. If anything, they sometimes nod to the slightly more singular and spacious sound of
All India Radio, if not quite as distinctly as that excellent Australian band -- and more than once there's a feeling of
the Cure's strongest guitar moments as well. Ultimately and perhaps appropriately, it would be plenty easy to imagine
Apsis as a kind of soundtrack to an unmade movie, and if there's nothing truly remarkable to note, it's still done enjoyably and engagingly.