many apologies to the Fruits de Mer chaps and belated birthday wishes to head honcho Keith. We’ve had these lovelies on repeat play these last few weeks trying desperately in vain to free up time to mention them in full so hopefully there be Fruits de Mer words aplenty here at the weekend. For now just a brief hi, hello, how are you meet n’ greet for their latest batch of wax wowers available right now or thereabouts. Also to start the ball a rolling – here’s a version recorded for the BBC – the John Peel wing ding in fact from ’71 – by Pink Floyd of ‘fat old sun’ – reason for including this – well at the forthcoming ‘15th dream’ FDM summer shindig there’ll be a chance to get your paws on a super limited 12 inch lathe by Cary Grace featuring a rewiring of this very track……
First up Anton Barbeau, much admired around these here parts, his latest EP ‘heaven is in your mind’ has a rather spiffing cover of Mr Bowie’s ‘scary monsters and super creeps’ tucked amid its grooves, always a favourite in our gaff only bettered in the affection stakes by ‘up the hill backwards’ – still before we go off tangent – left in the hands of Mr Barbeau the fracturing psychosis of the original is displaced by a darkly seductive insular / walls closing in shadowy vibe, the angular hysteria smoothed and woozily redecorated into a mind expansive mosaic of soft psych flashings with the effect still eerily pitched at panic attacking level.
Also incoming on the Fruits de Mer imprint a superb full length set from the Sidewalk Society entitled ‘strange roads – the songs of rolled gold’ – the collection, a faithful revisiting and re-recording of the Action at the height of their powers is superbly finessed in such a classiscist vintage that might suggest the band themselves were loitering in the famous Abbey Road studios out of shot of the watchful eye of George Martin hiding beneath the mixing desk whilst these lost heroes were laying down their sonic threads. This wee video showcases excerpts from this sublime set into the bargain revealing an acutely tuned turn of retro phrasing that effervescently fizzes with a savvy, a swagger and a coolly cut vibrant strut from which out of its grooves permeate rekindled moments from a faded golden age.
Last up for this summer batch of Fruits nuggets, a double disc set from the legendary Fuchsia. A smattering of career spanning cuts feature on this essential limited pressing with rare cuts from the vaults – an early recording by Louise – a pre Fuchsia adventure whose line up featured future Henry Cow man Chris Cutler,also featured a rare Fuchsia demo predating the recordings for the first album plus a smattering of cuts from his recent ‘Fuchsia II’ set. As said earlier fuller mentions arriving soon.
the sunday experience 