the 13th dream of dr sardonicus 1

Okay we are heading into the final section of this very extended Fruits de Mer releases round up (the rest will be FdM related niceness)…..with news of an imminent festival – this weekend in fact – over three days – a co-hosted event between FdM and Sendelica. Alas sold out, ‘the 13tth dream of dr sardonicus’ is a three day gathering  (7^th – 9^th August) in Cardigan, Wales – that features a formidable billing that includes live sets from the likes of Astralasia, Earthling Society, the Luck of Eden Hall, Bevis Frond, the Soft Hearted Scientists and of course Sendelica among the many…..whats been seen as an special event the festival will include all your usual trademark gubbins – stalls selling bands wares, rare Fruits de Mer oddities which include those aforementioned ultra limited lathe releases, a plethora of specially pressed to wax ‘momentary’ 7 inches, signed posters, download cards, t-shirts and the now legendary FdM goodie – this ‘un featuring 10 CD’s from acts as disparate and familiar as the blue giant zeta puppies, zx+, the portraits, me and my kites, a signed todd Dillingham set from the 90’s, our solar system, a headspin comp and a CD version of that excellent Art of the Memory Palace set put out earlier this year by Static Caravan on limited cassette. As though that wasn’t enough there’s also the inclusion of three specially cobbled together ‘dr sardonicus’ compilations – one for each night of the event. And its these that we turn our attentive eye and ears to. Featuring friends old and new – CD1 gathers together 20 tracks from a select specially invited roster – included among the grooves unreleased and alternate early versions of cuts by the likes of Soft Hearted Scientists, the luck of eden hall, us and them and the past tense to name just a few. So where do we start – well unusually and impishly at the end for tucked away at the close sits a previously unreleased cut by Beau dating back to 1981 – a track that will flip wigs – seriously have you ever heard that Midgley man sounding so loose as he does on ‘moonrock’ – kinda like the classic rolling blues sound trademarked by a young Sun Studios rephrased through a cosmic visor – Clinic and their ilk need to get onto this. Space and time pressing a quick ramble through the grooves reveals a plethora of tastily tuneful nuggets such as the very kooky and crooked Barrett-esque ‘the ice cream song’ by the mysterious Mooch from a set released a few years back entitled ‘1967 ½’ which I’m suspecting we really must hear before we shake off these mortal shackles. Somewhere else the seventh riong of Saturn kick in with the grizzled power pop perfection that is ‘time to fly’ from their latest set ‘ormythology and something which we reckon in our much humbled opinion those digging the flaming groovies will do well to check out at their earliest convenience. Elsewhere there’s the radiantly smooth shimmer pop of the demurring ‘summer dresses’ by Zombies of the Stratosphere to keep the most ardent World Party admirer suitably smitten while Hollow Hand’s ‘chariot’ sumptuously swims in sonic waters once upon a time frequented by dark captain light captain and these days intricately weaved by the amazing Tokolosh. Other must hear pickings include the frankly eerily enchanting ‘night spell’ which finds firefay shimmying up to Alison O’Donnell while quickly becoming a fixed listening point around our gaff of late and on this occasion positioning the seduction settings to tempting, Cary Grace offers up the slyly uplifting and dare we say quite celestial ‘razorwire ’ from her ‘tygerland’ album – further adoration to come.