by Oliver St John

     This new offering from Apples In Stereo has been a long time coming; aficionados of the group's previous album "Velocity of Sound" have waited five years to get their hands on this new collection. I have no doubt after hearing it, however, that they will consider it well worth the wait.

     The brainchild of Elephant 6 co-founder Robert Schneider, the Apples are known for musical experimentation, and on New Magnetic Wonder they really go all out.

     The centerpiece of the album is Schneider's creation of the Non-Pythagorean Music Scale, a completely new 12-note scale completely alien to Western harmony. According to Schneider's statement on the Apples' website, these new notes "add according to a different algebra from the traditional, rational pitches. Music theory in this scale has not yet been worked out."

     Not only that, but the enhanced portion of this multimedia CD release includes digital sound files of this scale for MIDI usage and an in-depth description both in document and video form.

     A combination of hi-fi and lo-fi elements give rise to this album's sound, the complexity of which is such that on some songs, 96 different tracks of instrumentation are featured. This led to a great many difficulties with Pro-Tools software for producer Bryce Goggins. Additionally, the 8-minute suite "Beautiful Machine" was brought together from four different - and very distinct - songs by a painstaking and incredibly subtle process of production and mixing.

     It's not just music for audio geeks, though - songs like "Open Eyes" and "Can You Feel It?" show that the Apples can rock out with the best of them even with the regular musical scale, and a pop sensibility shines through just as effortlessly on "Energy" and "Same Old Drag".

     Clocking in at 53 minutes and containing 14 songs and 12 additional experimental link-tracks, this album may not be for everybody, but it has sounds to please most ears. Well worth a listen, and out this month on Elijah Wood's newly-minted label Simian Records.

     Overall: 8/10