So, what kind of stuff do they do, The Simonsound?
Words can be no substitute for the aural experience, but if you will have words, the duo’s first album offers an intriguing variety of sounds, including what the duo describe as ’50s and ’60s-inspired space music, mood music for film and TV, haunting vocal tracks inspired by the windswept beauty of their home town, and switched-on cover versions of ’70s funk classics realised on the Moog synthesiser.

Reverse Engineering? Why?
The Simonsound’s debut album is named in allusion to the old-time technology with which they made some of their music – while everyone else was using newly affordable digital technology to make music in their bedrooms, the Simons were harnessing the power of an ancient BBC tape machine in their quest to bring forth the new from the old. The title also reflects the state of withdrawal and reappraisal which characterised the bandmembers’ lives at the time of their first meeting – both found themselves retreating from a world of intense science-based work yet applying their scientifically-trained minds to a different kind of creativity.

We hear they’re putting out a ‘45’. How quaint.
Yes, well, plenty of people continue to put out 45s, and The Simonsound are no exception. The debut 45 features the traditional two tracks. On the A side may be found a switched-on moog cover of the classic B-boy funk track It’s Just Begun, originally recorded by the Jimmy Castor Bunch. In putting their own brand on the tune The Simonsound have replaced the original’s soulful vocals, gritty rhythm and horn sections with heavy Moog synth and electronic sounds that place you, as the Simons would have it, ‘firmly in outer space’.
The B side shows The Simonsound in markedly different sonic form. Bad Love features the vocals of Debbie Clare, backed up by a wash of spaced-out drums, organ, strings, brass, electronic tones, feedback and effects.