Bleep

The Simonsound are Simon James and Matt Ford, who have previously worked together on Ford's DJ Format project. This joint venture though is a lot weirder. Inspired by '60s space-age sounds, radiophonic experimentalism and obscure TV soundtracks, the pair produce music rich in ideas and compositionally off-kilter. This new release from the duo takes urban transport as the starting point. 'The Beam' tells the story of an imaginary monorail journey abroad the "SS Mk I Monorail". Reminiscent of the twitchy electronic probings of the likes of Raymond Scott, F.C. Judd or Tom Dissevelt, the tracks take the listener on a trip through "Outer Space World", "Inner Space World", "The Land of Myths and Beasts" and more, by way of tape manipulation, the Moog, EMS synthesizers and acoustics.

On the flip is 'In The Shadow Of The Skylon', a tribute to the short lived structure created for the Festival of Britain in 1951, a dextrously oscillating piece of off-balance sound that is more sci-fi in feel, featuring pinging electronics and squelchy trickles of noise of the kind that could soundtrack a UFO landing - though the atmosphere is more exciting than ominous. All in all, an intriguing release. Definitely retro in feel, but delivered with a playful charm that is quite irresistible.