John Sims, Palomino (Sorted) CD/(Fortuna Pop) LP
It's finally here and split between two labels on the CD and LP for
your audiophile pleasure. Across the ten tracks (9 original and one
Silver Apples cover) the Sims M.O. is revealed as a drone core from
which various instruments wrest themselves free just long enough to
add psychedelic embellishments to the tune before being drawn back
in. The first half---the brunette girl side---is quality hypnotic pop
music, the kind that prompts the Stereolab comparisons the band are
sick of and that serves as an appetiser for the second half---the
blonde girl side. In its turn, this is also hypnotic pop music but of
a much darker variety. The opener "Amory Blaine" is a superb slow-burn
vocoder/electro experiment leading into "When I lived on page 56"
which sounds like a runaway train careering down a mountainside with
the band hanging out the windows and laughing as they crash
along. "Spread the tikka" is an eerie, atmospheric way to unsettle
friends without quite knowing why and "Elfmeter" is the meatiest thing
on display, Julie's vocals battling for room in the sonic brew-up. To
close, we have the sub-continental chanting from Close Encounters
mixed with a hypnosis tape.
I've had a tape of the album for months and am still playing it. Which
is about as high a recommendation as you get round these parts.
Read the rest of Robots & Electronic Brains
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