The Fishheads – Pleasant Valley Sunday / Let's Get Together 7”

Fruits de Mer all-stars cover version single, just in time for Christmas!

 

We love a decent cover version here at HD, and here's a piece of 7” black plastic featuring two of them! The Fruits de Mer label have assembled an all-star band of their favourite acts to record versions of The Monkees' 'Pleasant Valley Sunday' and 'Let's Get Together', a song written by Chet Powers aka Dino Valenti, and covered by loads of people. Perhaps best known is The Youngbloods' version as featured on their eponymous 1967 LP.

The Fishheads feature Astralasia's Swordfish, Anton Barbeau, Crystal Jacqueline, Icarus Peel, John Chinn, Paul Chousner, Holly Bowler and more. Their version of 'Pleasant Valley Sunday' is a fairly faithful take, with that lovely folk-rock guitar motif and lovely layered harmony vocals. 'Let's Get Together' gets a spirited upbeat makeover, its communal cooperative vibe enhanced with suitably festive flute flourishes. In a just and fair world it would be a contender for Christmas number one. Unlikely I know but should you purchase this 7” single I suggest you play it loud in the run up to the big day.

As an extra incentive to purchase the mono-mixed vinyl, it comes with an accompanying CD featuring stereo mixes and a 40 minute mix by Swordfish that takes the songs as a starting point but branches out into new sonic realms. Well that certainly beats hearing Mud's 'Lonely This Christmas' for the millionth time while queuing at the checkouts in Tesco.  

 

Click here for the Fruits de Mer website.

 

 

The Fuits de Mer Guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Ltd. Col 7”)

Thanks for all the fish! Three wildly different takes on a British TV-Theme classic!

This limited edition 7” has been out for a few weeks now but is still available from the Fruits de Mer website. Well worthy of your investigation and your pennies it features the spacerock theme tune from the TV adaptation of Douglas Adams' sci-fi classic, re-imagined by Astralasia, Icarus Peel, and The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies. The track 'Journey of The Sorcerer' was originally by The Eagles. Who woulda thought eh fact fans?!

The Astralasia version is a driving piece of galaxy-spanning electronica, just the ticket for a journey into the unknown. Icarus Peel takes it to a more reflective soulful level complete with Hammond vibes and guitar wig-out. The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies take is straight out of the Ladbroke Grove speed 'n' squat scene of the early '70s. Get groovin' freaks!

All copies come with a bonus CD featuring additional remixes and an additional version by Quantum Surf Rocket Garage Dolls plus new music from Astralasia and Sendelica's Pete Bingham. A bumper package!

Out now on a limited edition colour vinyl 7”.

Click here for Fruits de Mer Records.

Sendelica - Ziggy Stardust

Welsh spacerockers' tribute to Bowie gets released on 7” vinyl!

As the we adjust to living in a post-Bowie world, and try to work out what that might mean, the column page tributes continue to pile up. Save for Lady Gaga and Lourdes there haven't been that many musical tributes. Fruits de Mer Records released a timely Bowie tribute CD at the tail end of last year for their regular customers. Whether the man himself ever got to hear it is unclear. It's comforting to think he might.

Sendelicahad a live acoustic version of 'Ziggy Stardust' on that compilation but it's a seven minute studio version that's getting a stand-alone release on 7” vinyl next month. It does not attempt to recreate Ronson's crunchy glammed-up guitar chords that give the original it's pomp and purpose, opting instead for a slower, more ethereal and atmospheric take. The yin to Bowie's yang is provided by the layered female vocal. The B-side is an equally enthralling remix by Astralasia's Marc Swordfish. Both sides honour Bowie's preference for the new and experimental over anything tried and tested. David would no doubt have approved.

Released as a limited edition colour vinyl 7” (600 copies).

Click here for more on Sendelica.

Click here for Fruits de Mer Records.

Various - Postcards From The Deep (Flexi-Disc Box Set)

10 flexi-discs, 10 postcards, a poster and a CD, all housed in a clambox! 700 copies worldwide.

Fruits De Mer Records raise the bar once again. Following on from their box set of 7” singles, the ever eclectic and vinyl-friendly label have gone one step further in their desire to release music in a lavishly produced physical form. Their latest collection is a set of 10 flexi-discs, complete with postcards, a poster and a CD, all beautifully housed in a clambox.

Flexi-discs are evocative objects for those of us old enough to remember them as album tasters, music magazine freebies and fanclub-only specials. With new ones almost as rare as the proverbial rocking horse excrement, it's a pleasing and brave step for a label to put together a collection of the things. Equally impressive is tracking down a record plant that can manufacture them!

While flexi-discs will have serious audioheads and hi-fi enthusiasts hiding behind their 180g vinyl, the rest of us will be weighing them down with two-pence pieces, spinning them and enjoying the sounds. And good fun it is too. Playing these artefacts is in itself an act of time-travel, even more so when one considers the agreeably retro nature of the music.

To keep the hi-fi buffs happy a bonus CD is included that contains different versions of the flexi tracks. The music is as varied as you'd expect from FDM, and is an all covers affair showcasing the label's stylistic breadth, and ranges from surf, psych, progressive garage, and krautrock. With one foot in the past, each band manages to add some twist or spin to make you admire their take on the track as well as making you want to check out the original version.

My favourite of the 10 tracks is The Thanes' take on The Pretty Things' LSD, a track that will be familiar to many. Less familiar though no less enjoyable is Soul Fiction, a track released on South African Brigadiers label in 1968 by The Hippies, and one which borrows heavily from Soul Finger by The Bar-Kays. It's ably covered here by The Past Tense. Check out the video below to hear it on flexi-disc.

The question is if Fruits De Mer further investigate the alleyway of long lost formats, what will they have planned for 2015? Tape reels? 8-track cartridge? The smart money may just be on wax cylinders!

TRACKLISTING

1. The Luck Of Eden Hall – Psychotic Reaction (Count Five)
2. The Loons – Celestial Empire (Dragonfly)
3. The Crawlin' Hex – I'm a Living Sickness (Calico Wall)
4. The Thanes – LSD (The Pretty Things)
5. The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies – Time Machine (Satori)
6. The Past Tense – Soul fiction (The Hippies)
7. Schizo Fun Addict – Take A Heart (The Sorrows)
8. Crystal Jacqueline – You Just Gotta Know My Mind (Dana Gillespie/Donovan)
9. Astralasia – Brainticket (Brainticket)
10. Icarus Peel – The Avengers Theme (Laurie Johnson)

Limited to 700 copies.

Click here for more on Fruits De Mer Records.

Various - The Fruits de Mer 2014 Annual

Three bands, five tracks! Fruits De Mer Records find a home for the weird and wonderful. Limited 7” colour vinyl pressing with tracks from Astralasia, The Raiders and The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies.

A marvellously eclectic bag which somehow holds together, this shared 7” opens with a spirited surf-guitar version of the Joe 90 theme tune, performed by the oddly monikered Blue Giant Zeta Puppies. The band also put their souped-up-surf stamp on John William's Lost In Space. Fans of Man Or Astroman will no doubt approve.

Astralasia is a band I never thought I'd see appear on a Fruits De Mer record. The long-serving trance and dub specialists have turned in a version of Johnny Remember Me complete with a Lee Marvin-esque deep vocal. The song was originally a hit for John Leyton and was Joe Meek's first number one record. Here the band have brought the song kicking and screaming into the modern age yet kept that eerie otherworld quality that made it a special song in the first place.

Joe Meek is also a name that springs to mind on hearing The Raiders track on this compilation single. I Remember is an unreleased instrumental from 1964, and features a guitarist called Trevor Midgley AKA Beau, who went on to release albums on John Peel's Dandelion label. Why the track was unreleased is a mystery as it's a real gem. Perhaps its haunting and eerie Meeks-meets-David-Lynch quality was too much for folks back in the pre-England swings era. Anyway it's available here now so check it out.

The best is saved for last though with Astralasia's Johnny In Dub. A heavy skanking dub mix of Johnny Remember Me. Again, even with Fruits De Mer testing the time limits of a 7” single there still enough deep groove on this record to carry the room-shaking bass-line. Nice!

TRACKLISTING

1 – The Giant Blue Zeta Puppies – Joe 90 Theme

2 – Astralasia – Johnny Remember Me

3 – The Giant Blue Zeta Puppies – Lost In Space

4 – The Raiders – I Remember

5 – Astralasia – Johnny In Dub

Click here for The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies on Facebook.

Click here for the Astralasia website.

Click here for the Fruits De Mer website.