How do you like them apples? Take a bite out of Aplsoz’s 7-track ‘Kore’ EP [INTERVIEW + REVIEW]

Cody Bones, who runs around under his Aplsoz alias, is a self-proclaimed “electronic melodic mad man from the matrix.” Hailing originally from the Emerald City of KCMO, the long time purveyor of bass is now living and thriving in the underground bass community of Orlando.

“The move,” Bones says, “was inspired by how many great interactions I’ve had with people of all calibers in the Florida music scene over the past four years of playing shows down here.” He was so completely enamored by the music scene in the Sunshine State that it inspired him to take the plunge, pack up, and leave his hometown.

“Florida has played a big role in expanding my brand and shaping my sound all the way in Kansas City. Each time I came down here I was massively inspired to create when I went home. I have always wanted to live near larger markets and the East Coast is practically all new to me.”

Drawing on the frequencies of past mentors in Bassnectar and ill.Gates, Aplsoz has begun championing a wildly experimental style that’s a little bit sweet and a lot saucey. It’s a sound that lays out an all-encompassing, total sensory, and completely immersive wild bass music listening experience. He dubs it his very own line of “ultra-captivationism,” laced with dripping melodic breaks, muddy lows, crystal-clear highs, and high-energy progressions that can slow down and get sexy at the drop of a dime. The goal is to get people up and down and around, moving like jelly into so many different directions.

“The Kore EP. Take a bite.”

– Aplsoz

CE sat down with the edgy, free form bass artist to discuss everything from his EP release and musical inspirations to his time as an independent self-releasing machine, working with multiple labels, and a few exciting upcoming collaborations he’s got on the horizon

With past releases on Thazdope Records, Street Ritual, Mal Label, Aplsoz now comes to the table on West coast indie bass label ShadowTrix to serve up a heavy dose of his usual gritty, mid-tempo bass. Enter: Kore. It’s a snack that has left fans hungry for more.

Arriving today as his third studio EP, Kore marks the next evolutionary step for Aplsoz’s trademark sound stamp. It still has all the makings of his formless, ultra-captivating sound: dubstep progressions that draw on metalcore, ragga vocal sampling, glittering high ends, spacey synth work, and earth-shattering bass lines. But it also signals a darker direction for Aplsoz.

Speaking to that new route, Aplsoz says the most influential thing for him this year has been the half-time movement. “Halftime acts like Alix Perez, Shades, Chee, Jon Casey, and Noisia have reshaped the way I think about sound design.”

“For this release, I wanted to maintain elements of my sound, but create a similar grit and vulgarity that I love in the music of those who do it best.”

– APSOLZ

The Kore EP spans four original tracks with three remix add-ons from fellow label mate SuDs, Madison-based duo Moniker, and Ohio bass producer Mt. Analogue.

And he’s already released two tracks from the project in the EP’s title track, “Kore,” which premiered on TheUntz, with “Coming Through” arriving yesterday as a ShadowTrix exclusive. Both titles set the scene for a thematically tight project.

When asked whether the track’s titles were intended to reveal deeper meaning into the sonic stylings of each song, Bones responded with light-hearted candor.  “After the music was finished I considered the song names as if you were eating an apple.” He elaborates, “‘Krunch’ would be the first bite, ‘Slapple’ would be the taste, ‘Kore’ once you’ve reached the middle, and ‘Coming Through’ as the apple was ingested.”

While “Kore” takes a deep dive into the dark and dangerous world of metal core sampling, “Coming Through” feels a lot like falling down a rabbit hole and simultaneously coming up for air. The process is a symptom of submitting one’s self to his immersive vision — the leading track is meant to aggressively take hold from the start, while the album’s closing track eases listeners back into reality.

But eating the forbidden fruit wasn’t the only thematic thread Aplsoz had in mind. As Bones revealed, “another way I thought of it was traveling through an apple as if it was a world.” The EP allows listeners to enter Aplsoz’s otherworldly dimension and taste it along the way.

“‘Krunch’ would be the outer layer, ‘Slapple’ engages a transport from the entrance to the center where the listener meets the ‘Kore,’ or the most intense part of the journey, and then ‘Coming Through’ is the victory of the journey on your way out in an intense fashion”

How is that for a side of mind-boggling, psychedelic quantum entanglement?

Much like traveling on a spaceship into some far-off planetary core, listeners crack their way through the EP’s outer layer in “Krunch” as the track cranks up the intensity with some crunchy basslines and gritty half-time sorcery.

Then they are transported from the entrance to the nerve center in “Slapple,” a composition which aptly resembles its name in how it — quite literally — slaps, especially as it draws to a close with drum kicks. One can’t help but get visions of Will Smith inside the alien mothership in Independence Day. Certainly, this is alien bass at it’s weirdest and most wonderful.

Always one to deliver fully original, always-changing live sets, Aplsoz is on a steady incline in the underground world of bass. It’s this approach that has led the young artist down a path of sharing stages with the likes of Liquid Stranger, Dirt Monkey, Jantsen, Koan Sound, Marvel Years, Illenium, and Minnesota, to name a few.

In fact, Aplsoz has been working alongside a few bass music heavyweights on some exciting upcoming collaborations. “I have recently just come off of a ‘Road to Imagine’ tour with Jantsen [and] I have done some stuff in Florida with Yheti & The Widdler,” Bones reveals. “I am looking really forward to the rest of this year.”

But he says his goals are really more centered around releasing onto several labels. “I have recently began working with a new agency Street Ritual and I am excited to see what all we do together in the coming months.”

“One of the most beautiful things about the underground bass scene is that most people don’t have to sign away any rights to any one label.”

– APSOLZ

For the coming year, Aplsoz sets some rather lofty goals for releasing his music on every imprint he can get stamped onto his name — everywhere from Circus Records, Bassrush, and Gravitas, to Sleeveless Records and Wakaan, although in no particular order.

“I just love making music and getting it to as many like-minded people as possible,” he tells CE. “The best way I have found to accomplish that is by covering a span of labels that have different styles and different approaches curating music.”

With a few EPs already under his belt in Wizard of Soz and Radix, along with a whole bevy of self-released original titles, Aplsoz’s Kore EP officially sets the stage for future trajectory of his career-defining sound.