We Are Apex are one of Delhi’s best-kept musical secrets — but potentially not for much longer. Having worked as crewmates before coming together over their shared love of poetry and free-spirited expression, Shyko and Kaafir approached vocalist ANA for the project. When a fresh, fully-bloomed voice arrived into the soundscape, laden with Ayush Dehliwal’s mechanical twinkling and offshore strings, ‘Must Weep Or Die,’ chimed as a dream about eternal love with mid-monsoon gloom.

Exploring the complexities of youth, love, and resistance, the EP studies how shattered expectations and personal anxieties fed into each other, with the pursuit of love being the common denominator. On the opening track ‘Frank Ocean,’ the trio reinforces this newfound belief in a relationship in decline — it is everything you could hope for. At no point does it sound like they’ve buckled under pressure; instead, they use poetry for you to go deeper into the well and their creative palette.

“Ha jo tu le gaya voh saath tere aadha sa, voh hissa jo mera gaya, ‘Waapasi’ dila jara,” ANA softly sighs. Her voice works like therapy, while Kaafir and Shyko smoothly meld their troubadour vulnerability over guitar riffs. The tune unlocks something primal inside you, only described as a yearning to be free from the ache. Just like clouds in the sky, however, that thought evaporates fairly quickly.

This is a self-reflective diary of the artists, giving their all away, still dipping their toes into the water. There’s pain, warmth, and comfort in their music, but also a lot of heart. This will leave you light-hearted while you weep into your snakebite, while the true EP highlight and closer ‘Must Weep Or Die’ shows the most promise as a real heart-wrencher.

Against a cozy arrangement and through half-sung words, the three probably come closest to what they meant by the title. “Ye meri upaj thi jo humein alag kar gayi,” Kaafir says. By putting his faith into what he believes to be the truth for himself, he ultimately liberates himself. And Shyko rises above the anxieties around falling in love, the expectations of youth, and even the need to constantly defend himself.

Listen to the EP Here