Apples In Stereo - Velocity Of Sound

by Cara Ross

published: 26 / 10 / 2002

Label: Cooking Vinyl
Format: CD

intro

Life-saving "poppy fuzzy psych" from the consistently reliable Apples in Stereo

Okay, here we have another top album pick of the year from me, because I can’t get enough of this one. Maybe it’s the fact that this new Apples record clocks in somewhere around 29 minutes, that I feel like I can’t get enough because I really haven’t actually had enough...I still usually play it twice back to back before I finally feel sated. Each song is a poppy fuzzy psych masterpiece that whips by in what feels like 30 seconds flat. Front man Rob Schneider is the mastermind behind the Apples in Stereo who come from Denver, Colorado, and is also one of the founders of the Elephant 6 recording company which produces similar pop-pysch luminaries like Neutral Milk Hotel, the Minders, Beulah and the Olivia Tremor Control. Part of the charm of this new Apples album is its flow. There is often the tendency in a lot of Elephant 6 recordings to have pop gems interspersed with psych trip-out experimental noises which can often make for a disjointed listen if you’re not high...not the case with the 'Velocity of Sound' .Track after track is pure melody. Schneider has also managed to kick up the sound of his own voice a notch giving it at times a highly female and cartoonish quality, (like sucking on helium) often with barely a discrepancy between his own voice and that of his wife’s, drummer Hilarie Sidney. Sidney manages to devote her standard one or two vocal tracks to 'Velocity' as well, and it’s clear that she’s really come into her own vocally. Her tracks 'Rainfall' and 'I Want' being in many ways the highlights of the album...the former being vaguely reminiscent of early 80’s all girl punks the Dish Rags...Hilarie easily needs an entire album devoted to her saccharine voice,which is never so sickly sweet that you’d ever get tired of it. The Apples in Stereo never fail to impress, and this is probably their most start to finish consistently amazing album so far. There is a pervading heavy lo-fi fuzz throughout that still manages to keep their psych sounds through a lot of the heavier riffs, and as always with Schneider’s hand in its production, it’s like peeling an onion...each track feeling like there’s about 15 separate layers of fuzz or harmonies, or organ, and so on with other effects. The whole production is so thick that each track drips with those layers of depth. The closing track 'She’s Telling Lies' is an extreme Beach Boys-esque homage, and 'Better Days' has a keyboard heavy part that even Ray Manzarek would claim to be his own. You can see each track as a Power Puff Girls theme song...”saving the world before bedtime”...and more importantly saving pop music for us.

Track Listing:-

1 Please
2 Rainfall
3 That's Something I Do
4 Do You Understand?
5 Where We Meet
6 Yore Days
7 Better Days
8 I Want
9 Mystery
10 Baroque
11 She's Telling Lies (Bryce's Mix)

Label Links:-

http://cookingvinyl.com/
https://twitter.com/cookingvinyl
https://www.youtube.com/user/cookingvinylrecords
https://instagram.com/cookingvinyl/
https://www.facebook.com/cookingvinylrecords

reviews

The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moon (2001)

Back in the late sixties a type of music given the title of 'Bubblegum' was frowned upon for not being real music. It was bright, bouncy and had no substance according to those who knew better. Strang

The Wallpaper Reverie (2001)