Contact – SILVER APPLES*

You & I/Water/Ruby/Gypsy Love/You’re Not Foolin’ Me/I Have Known Love/A Pox On You/Confusion/Fantasies

Contact was the follow up album from the New York electronic duo Silver Apples. Some critics have argued that their work is the precursor of the techno bands of the nineties; others have concluded that it is not really music at all.

“All syth-pop, techno and industrial bands of the 80s and 90s can trace their music back to the Silver Apples albums. Songs like You & I give witness to the birth of synthesized music. Silver Apples percussionist Dan Taylor's driving metronomic style is so precise that, you'd swear he was a machine. All in all, anyone who makes claim to being a connoisseur of techno, industrial or alternative music must have this.”

“Truly pioneers in experimentation this second (and best) album from the US psych duo explores interstellar drones and hums, pulsing rhythms and electronicallygenerated melodies. Sounds from another world created by a series of oscillators to form a collage of strange but extremely enjoyable music.”

“This album seems as hypnotic as you can get. Somewhere along the way this music parallels a mantra. It is repetitious in a way that may leave you wanting to go farther out. I've never heard anything like it before or since.”

“They seem to have concocted a crude form of synthesizer, known as oscillators. Mr Simeon does well for one man at playing all bass and lead instruments. Dan Taylor never misses a beat, becoming the first human drum machine.”

“I really hated this LP. It was very eccentric for both the music and the singing. Most of it is too psychotic and over the top to be even remotely enjoyable. What a let down. It has been considered by some to be ahead of its time but in reality it's just overrated noise.”

“What little melody the first contained, is all but jettisoned here. And the repetitive rhythms that seem to be their stock-in-trade often seem to be more monotonous than trance inducing this time round.”

“Was the band flying high into outer space? They've gone a bit too far for us ordinary folk who have no idea what they're doing. Come back to Earth, Silver Apples. You're too far 'out there', we can't communicate anymore.”