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Silver Apples -- Beacon Whirlybird
Before you make the mistake of comparing this to the first two records, it's 1997, folks. The flowers of the 60's are long since wilted. The "love" generation evolved into something to be reviled, especially for not plucking Silver Apples ripe from the tree when they had a chance. Simeon spent decades putting it all behind him only for it to sprout again in another age. Rightly so, he deserves a ton of respect and accolades for many things, mainly for those first two classic recordings. They're the World Trade Center of electro-psyche, still way ahead of their time. Let's not forget Danny Taylor, still a premier drummer wherever he may be and deserving equal admiration as Simeon, together they were (are) the greatest duo in the history of music. It's hard to put into words what those records mean to me, years removed from their original release dates. When I listened to them for the first time, I couldn't believe anything this great went unnoticed for so long. Unappreciated in their own time, it seemed like both a mystery and definitive proof of the hippie hypocricy why they were ignored and then vanished into thin air. The fact that Silver Apples did what they did without credit from their generation is reason enough to applaud them their efforts. What's even more incredible is that Simeon is back and bearing witness to the influence of those oscillations on me, you, and many others, the cool and foolish false topaz of today alike. It's a magical story beyond comprehension closer to divine right. So, thanks to Dominus, the pen is my cadeseus of jus divinum but I could still write it with a crow's beak dipped in ink: Bow To Simeon's Rainbow. He deserves it. If you're casting stones over "Fractal low" (a great song), you should be ashamed of yourself. Sure, I'm a guy who holds an eternal grudge over bands who betray my petty sensibilities or ruin their track record or return without welcome but Simeon is an exception to all the rules, as is Silver Apples. If the music meant anything to you in the immense way it did to me, you'd shut right the fuck up with that non composmentis ... Granted, Beacon is nothing like Contact or the first record and it doesn't have to be. First of all, it couldn't be without Danny Taylor. Second, it's the go's, everything has changed. Third, I like the fact that Simeon is with us again doing his thing freed from his moon prison and shackles of misperceived failure. The guy is a giant talent and it's evident on Beacon. I don't know what Steve Albini did that Tom Smith couldn't do better but let's not get sidetracked on the lil' Big Blackman's lack of tangible studio skills. The power comes from Simeon, stupid. The new material is up to code in how it affects this listener's soul. It stands on its own in this sacred place, delivering love from above and below. . It pulsates with the saturating facets of a compound eye that sees into the unseen realms that surround us, fumigating misery and replacing it with a victorious exuberance of life's overlooked beauty as only related by one-of-a-kind minds. If you need to feel the phantazein of idealized reality that true art tries to express, Simeon succeeds were many fail or come up short. He makes you believe in his utopia of hope, his lyrics are sung from a sun among stars whose light takes years to reach our putrid atmosphere. Often, he dreams of that special lady amoung dryads and ordinary women, delivering bouquets in the shape of a sidereal seiche. Xian and Michael are up to the task of accompanying Simeon on his rounds and the music is strange as expected in this stellar transmission, translated by faradic limbs and brains to our primitive sound orifices that try desperately to understand something God said to us in whispers we never hear in our sleepwalking through work and play. This dazzles in the daze as it gazes at us from amber waves far away on a mountaintop where Simeon is peeking loftly at dizzying visions he's readily donating to our lowly awareness. Play twice before kneeling. -Greg Chapman |