Music review: Silver Apples

Published on Sunday 7 September 2008 21:02

STEREO, GLASGOW

THERE should be some form of award for a musician who has influenced the influential. Kraftwerk are commonly cited for inventing electronic pop as we know it, while New York duo Suicide are the godfathers of electro punk. But both acts would acknowledge the trailblazing proto-electronica of cult Sixties duo Silver Apples as inspiration for their machine music, while more recently Portishead have borrowed from their analogue experiments.

Following the death of drummer Danny Taylor a few years ago, Silver Apples is now the work of one man – a distinguished old dude called Simeon, who since breaking his neck in a road accident nearly ten years ago has pared his act down to just a few key pieces of vintage hardware, including his trusty audio oscillator.

This was all he required to reproduce Silver Apples' distinctive sound of tomorrow from yesterday – a hypnotic insistent pulse of exotica overlaid with simplistic vocal mantras, either chanted or spoken, some of which were specifically written for children. These were less rewarding than his wide-screen compositions which recalled the bizarre electro dystopia of the Clockwork Orange soundtrack. Simeon even confirmed the parallel by finishing his set with a synthesised burst of Beethoven's Ode To Joy.

There was a very quaint endearing quality to this show. Yet it is a tribute to how far Silver Apples were ahead of their time that, to this day, you will find serious young men emulating this sound in venues around the country.