The Apples In Stereo – Electronic Projects For Musicians
Posted by AlMachine on Thursday, April 24, 2008

If you think about it, over eleven years, the number of b-sides, additional tracks for Japanese versions of albums and other odds and sods recorded for compilations and split 7 inches soon mount up. This album is basically all those often forgotten about tracks along with a trio of unreleased songs, two of which are 60’s influenced gems, and there are real gems to be found here, ‘Onto Something’ and ‘Man You Gotta Get Up’ are real standout tracks. Influences are easy to spot as The Beatles and Beach Boys clearly had an impact on ‘Rob Schneider’ who’s used these tracks to fuse more traditional guitars onto a light electro tinged sound. For most bands a collection such as this is hit and miss, and normally marketed solely towards the fans; however here, The American indie band have created a solid albums worth of tracks (let’s just ignore ‘The Apples in Stereo Theme’ which makes the band sound like they’re in competition with ‘The Banana Splits’!) that are easily accessible to more casual fans.

It’s easy to see the bands progression as the spacier sound of the early years is stripped back to reveal a more acoustic and organic sound, and then you feel the band plug in the amps on tracks such as ‘On Your Own’ and rediscover sound effects on ‘Other’. This is a fun, quirky album which acts as a great introduction to one of the most consistent and under rated (in terms of the UK) bands of the last decade. Discover and enjoy; and then invest further. (Recent album New Magnetic Wonder is a good starting point!)

Greg Thomas

8/10

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