Union Pool's gold-framed stage was awash in up-tempo psychedelia this past Saturday as New York’s latest dance sensation, Apache Beat, blasted its unique brand of electro-for-the-tribal-set. Singer Ilirjana Alushaj, an Australian native and the editor of online mag Pop Manifesto, echoes Fay Ray's Sheila Macartney, Berlin's Terri Nunn, and the quavering croons of Siouxsie Sioux. Underneath her eerie vocals, the band drives a hard 4/4 techno rhythm that somehow manages to sound earthy and organic. Like drum machines in the wigwam, there’s nothing quite like it. Bartholomew Dougherty sat down with Alushaj and guitarist Philip Aceto after the show.

BARTHOLOMEW DOUGHERTY Your name was borrowed from the late Klaus Dinger of Kraftwerk, right?
PHILIP ACETO Yeah, in the nineties he started calling Motorik the Apache Beat. Motorik was the name the music press had given to Dinger’s 4/4 beat. I wrote a song called The Apache Beat for one of my old bands and it was because I'm a huge fan of Neu! and Klaus Dinger, anything he does. That song was very political, about the army manipulating the Apaches to go against each other.
BD Dinger's Apache Beat, seemed mechanical, motorized. You stray from that with more of an organic, tribal cadence.
PA Native Americans used a certain type of trance-like pulse. And I think they were trying to get to more of a rhythmic trance. I guess that’s what we’re doing.
BD Beyond music, what’s influencing you right now?
PA A lot of minimal film and art in general—just the same idea as the Motorik beat and what not. It's very minimal, something built on repetition through time. It's more of a non-Western way of looking at things. And a lot of art I like is moving in that direction in all mediums. I'm just bored, you know what I mean? You get kind of bored playing certain types of music, like rock 'n roll. I've been listening to more world or classical music; just moving music, you know, and how do you incorporate that into a pop song?
BD Ilirjana, you’ve lived in the States for four years. How has the music scene changed over that time?
ILIRJANA ALUSHAJ I got here when the Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs thing was exploding and it was kind of amazing to be around at that time music-wise. And all of this new stuff fashion-wise was coming out. And then there was this lull for a while and now it's like in the last year all of these amazing bands are coming out of Manhattan and Brooklyn. It's obvious, I feel, they're making it because they love it. I feel like in other countries people make music because they can get famous. I think people here are not, like, more knowledgeable about music, but they listen to much more of a variety of things. So you can talk to any New York band and they have these random influences.
BD Cool to be a part of that. What’s motivating everyone?
PA I think it has to do with is the political environment. People are just so fed up that it’s like, Where else do you go but forward? That's the way of getting it out and that's why a lot of the music now is a lot more experimental. It's almost like an awakening. I think it's pushing away from all that's corporate. You're just like screw all that stuff. I get that stuff shoved in my face on the television, on the radio. We're a mess right now and why be a part of it, why not just break it? People want real shit. If you're really putting you're heart into something, it's going to translate. And even if it translates with two people, whatever.

Photography Justin W. Lin

Apache Beat plays at Brooklyn's Studio B on May 15. The band's debut album is out this fall. For information: www.myspace.com/thisisapachebeat

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