The Chemistry Set - The Tragic Fridge Magnet / STP (winkle 61)
Okay, FdM ends the year with a triple bang! Three 7" singles, and that's the way the label started all those years ago. First we have a new single by the label stalwarts The Chemistry Set who have been involved since 2011, but they started already in the 80s. This UK band is one of my favourites among the modern torch-bearers of the 60s psych vibe, and they never disappoint me. "The Tragic Fridge Magnet" is an uptempo garage rocker that gets your ass shaking immediately! I can easily indentify with the vocals since we have a (un)healthy number of fridge magnets in out kitchen as well... This rocks! The B side is bit more psychedelic, slower "STP" (stands for Space Time Perception...). Could almost be a long-lost classic of Syd's Pink Floyd, it's that good! A must-have, naturally.
The Owl Service - A Tribute to Sandy Denny (Crustacean 103)
The Owl Service is a new act on Fruits de Mer, but backing vocalist Alison O'Donnell is probably more familiar. The single is a tribute to the music of folk rock singer Sandy Denny and has two beautiful interpretations of songs originally sung by Sandy: "The Sea" (Fotheringay) and "Genesis Hall" (Fairport Convention). Just amazing stuff and exquisite vocals by the lead singer Dorothy Chappel. Very well done! This single suits the Fruits de Mer Records catalogue perfectly. This will be sold-out very soon, so try to locate a copy if peaceful folk-rock is your thing.
Behind the Sun Collective - Children of the Revolution / Maggot Brain (Crustacean 102)
Behind the Sun Collective is another new band for the Fruits de Mer. Some of us have witnessed their set at the label's summer festival in 2024. So, we have two pretty common covers songs here, but presented in a relatively original way and I like them. Marc Bolan's hit song "Children of a Revolution" is hard-rocking and pretty dirty, it really works. "Maggot Brain" is of course shortened quite a lot from it's original 10-minute-plus length but sounds really cool and enjoyable as it is here. This act is obviously something to keep on eye on!
More info on all the singles and where to get them from:
Like I said in the previous news post, a new album by our side-project Strange Vibrations was released today to celebrate yet another Bandcamp Friday! Only 50 copies on factory-made CD-R and of course digital.
I also did a very different "Single Mix" of the album's last track "Children of the Perpetual Echo" that was released into the wild digitally last week. This version has sort of a 60s psych pop feel, I think? The original version on the album is more ambient in nature.
Check out the song at YouTube (for example):
There is nothing new out from the mothership Astral Magic, but as you might have noticed, I have put A LOT of old, sold-out stuff and vinyl debuts available to elasticStage with the help of Andy Wainwright (cover art on most) and Jonathan Segel (vinyl mastering for the lathe-cut versions).
I have ordered copies of each one to myself, but have not received all yet. But what I do have have been of high quality although being an on-demand thing and all products being done one-by-one there might sometimes be some mistakes. No worries though, elasticStage has a very fast and friendly customer support and if you receive something faulty they will send replacement a.s.a.p.
Almost all the sold-out CD-R's are now available in new packaging and the vinyl LPs available are:
As soon as we get the album artwork done, you will also be able to order LP copies of Cosmic Energy Flow, End of Time, Strange Sensation, Sacred Mysteries and Floating in Space! Happy daze are here!
If you have been wondering, then yes, there will also be an Astral Magic album out later this year.
Weird Encounters and Alternative Realitieswill be out on the 5th of December, the last Bandcamp Friday of the year. It is a weird hybrid of a new studio album and a compilation. The CD (100 copies in digipack) will include 13 tracks that have never been available in physical format before.
The CD tracks:
1. The Worm (Astral Magic Wormhole Remix) 6:04 2. Programmed Reality (New Song) 13:08 3. Colors Behind My Soul (Remix) 6:15 4. A Lucid Trip (Remix) 4:48 5. Lurking in the Dark (Home Studio Version) 5:38 6. Taste of Sunlight (Home Studio Version) 5:08 7. Psychic Resistance (Home Studio Version) 4:57 8. Mind Eater (Home Studio Version) 6:50 9. Remember Your Roots (Home Studio Version) 4:38 10. Emerald Tablet (Home Studio Version) 4:13 11. Longing for the Stars (Astral Magic Remix) 4:12 12. Solarwind (Astral Magic Remix) 4:29 13. Kingdoms in the Sky (New Song) 7:02
A lathe-cut LP with a 12-page booklet where the Astral Magic saga continues from the Astral Magic magazine released on 2022 will be made available through elasticStage. The LP version will have partly different track list, none of the tracks have been available on vinyl before:
The LP tracks:
1. The Worm (Astral Magic Wormhole Remix) 6:04 2. Programmed Reality (New Song) 13:08 3. Mind Melt Machine (L’Autre Monde Mix) 3:24 4. Heady Daze 4:20 5. Colors Behind My Soul (Remix) 6:15 6. A Lucid Trip (Remix) 4:48 7. Kingdoms in the Sky (7:08)
After years of waiting and fishing for labels, I have also decided to finally release the heavy space rock album Into the Cosmos by my own on Astral Magic Music. So LP and CD with bonus tracks coming out in early 2026! Other thing worth mentioning is that I have started album projects with two of my old collaborators, some exciting details will be given out at a later date...
Oh wow, this is already the seventh CD in the Astral Sessions series by Doctors of Space (Dr Weaver - electric guitars, bass, drum programming; Dr Space - synthesizers, hammond, mellotron). As always, the stuff is improvised on the spot, this time in the summer-winter for 2020 in Dr Weavers home studio and mixed and mastered later at Dr Space's studio.
Aug 2020 sessions give us the lengthy, mid-tempo space rocker "Ride on Freaky Father" and the at first bit more mellow "The Motherlode". The programmed drums join in after the four-minute-marker and a groovy heavy and heady rocking starts. Great stuff! Next we have a couple of tracks from jam sessions that took place in Sept 2020. "Fear the Light" has a spooky, ominous atmosphere and stays pretty experimental and weird with no rhythm. "Dark Is the Cloud of Indecision" has a techno-like beat with hypnotic synth arpeggio and heavy guitar. The last piece is the title track "Lost Souls Synthesized" and it is a more atmospheric, spacey number. If you have enjoyed the previous albums by the good doctors you will for sure also enjoy this one! Limited edition, as always, so be fast.
Dr Space (Scott Heller) played a solo gig at his local pizzeria in Portugal last March and this limited edition CD is composed of material he prepared and rehearsed in his studio before the performance. Also the gig was recorded but the rehearsal material was better so it got released instead. I'm glad that this was the case as this CD sounds fantastic! Scott really is getting better and betters with his ultra-spacey soundscapes.
All the nine tracks (from "Ambient 1" to "Ambient 9") were started with arpeggios from Novation Ultranova, Nord Lead 2 or Poly D and Scott then played his modular synths, digital Mellotron etc. on top of them. This results in very hypnotic, mesmerizing atmospheres with at first no actual beats or anything else except the synths. A drum machine makes an appearance later on. I really enjoy listening to this amazing sounding CD on headphones in vertical position with my eyes closed. It surely takes you to places, just like this kind of music should. I'm sometimes reminded of early 70s Klaus Schultze (just listen to "Ambient 3", for example) which is definitely a bad thing. Also Tangerine Dream comes to mind and I know Scott is a big fan. This is still original enough and not that many people make music like this nowadays. Can't wait to jam with Dr Space in this studio one of these days! You can also hear his synths on a recent Astral Magic album Wizard's Euphoria, a few CD's still left. Scott also has some over here!
Strange Vibrations, Astral Magic's more experimental and electronic little brother have a new album out! III was released on the Bandcamp Friday 5th of September. Only 50 copies on factory-made CD-R and going fast, so get your copy a.s.a.p. from:
https://astralmagic.bandcamp.com/album/iii
You Can check out the promo video for the opener Crystal Spaceship over here:
I must add that we already have a FOURTH album ready and it will be released on the next Bandcamp Friday on the 3rd of October! Just like III, Strange Vibrations - Higher Dimentional Beings also features Jonathan Segel on guitar, violin and bass and will be released as a factory-made CD-R limited to just 50 copies.
Check out the new Strange Vibrations Facebook site.
Some cool Astral Magic news! First of all, the latest releases include a limited edition factory-made CD-R of the latest Astral Magic album In Space We Trust! I'm really happy with how it turned up. Get it from:
Another recent, Astral Magic related release is Feed My Soul, a debut album by our project Chakra Vimana. It is out on the excellent Tonzonen Records from Germany on coloured LP and CD, both limited to 300 copies. Available from all good psych stores and mail-order companies! Also of course directly from the label and from Chakra Vimana, Herd of Instinct (US/Canada/Mexico) and Astral Magic (EU/UK) Bandcamp pages.
The latest release on Astral Magic Music is the digital Astral Magic Remixes II single of two tracks from the forth-coming Strange Vibrations album (out 1st of August). Check them out here!
Astral Magic has started to work with elasticStage, an on-demand CD-R/lathe-cut company from the UK. I am really excited about the opportunity to make some stuff available this way! There are already 11 sold-out, rare CD-R albums in better packaging available again form the elasticStage Astral Magic page:
The next phase will see the vinyl releases of In Space We Trust, Black Floyd's Trinity (also CD-R coming up), Wonderland and Dance of Destiny. Also some other old albums will be available on LP as soon as we get them mastered for vinyl and artwork modified as well. How cool is that?
Urtidsdjur is a Swedish folk/prog/psych/retro rock band from Uppsala. I have reviewed their eponomos LP in 2020. This new album released on limited edition vinyl, 60 black and 40 red(ish). All come with cool, hand-marbled and hand-numbered covers making them all different. Very nice touch!
The debut album was very much influenced by Neil Young and this is pretty much still the case. But there are also some other vibes and the band has matured and progressed a lot. There is also some violin and saxophone as well as Moog, so the sound is rather varied and interesting. The te tracks flow fluently into each other forming an organic whole. The music is very pleasant and I like the vocals that are in Swedish. Some songs are a bit heavier , some more folk orieted. Playing and production is excellent too so I do really like this album. Give it a try!
The Chemistry Set from UK started already in 1987 and definitely are one of my favourite bands that have released stuff on Fruits de Mer. This double CD-r compilation is the ninth in the series on the label including 25 tracks mostly released by FdM, all remastered for the release. Dave and Paul chose the tracks that were the best and closest to their hearts and made a great job at it too. When the disc one starts with the amazing cover of Del Shannon's "Silver Birch" you know you are in for a real treat... These guys really don't let the listener down!
I don't have the time, space or energy to get through all the tracks here, but I have reviewed all their FdM releases here before, so you can search the old reviews. Let's just say that this compilation is full of killer covers of the old psych classics and their own compositions are of just as high quality. We also get some cool remixes by Astralasia's Swordfish and other rarities and oddities. As their releases usually are sold-out very soon, this double set is a very welcome and useful addition to any psych rock fan's collection. Unfortunately I'm a bit late with my review (the release date was last month), and the album seems to be already sold-out at Fruits de Mer shop, but I'm sure you can still locate a copy somewhere! Best of luck.
La Nouvelle Music is a London-based (neo-)psych folk duo formed by Joanna Beck (vocals/bass/piano) and
Ian de Silva (guitar/vocal). This LP to be released next week on Fruits de Mer Record's sister label is their first album. They have put out a couple of digital single tracks and one sold-out 7" before.
To my ears there is nothing very psychedelic about the duo's music. They sound pretty commercial and radio-friendly and it's strange that they are not on some major label. Some of the acoustic driven tracks have a more late 60s/early 70s vibe (like the beautiful "Time Ticks Slowly"), but some have a pretty modern vibe. There also also drums, orchestration etc. on some of the songs. I really enjoy Joanna's clear, excellent voice which is the best thing about this duo. There are 11 tracks on the album and all pretty good, some even superb. Nice melodies and emotional, cinematique atmospheres. The album is very well produced with crystal clear sound. All in all, a very enjoyable album with great, original compositions. I'm sure the album will sell out rather quickly.
Himmelaya is a new krautrock oriented project by Astralasia's Swordfish and Jochen Oberlack (Bellerephon Records, Düsseldorf). First, it was supposed to be an instrumental project, but Britt from the Swedish psych folk duo Us and Them was also asked to join on spoken word (in Swedish and English...) and vocals (in English...), which is wonderful. There are also some other friends guesting and the 2LP comes with a bonus double CD full of bonus tracks and remixes by the likes of nick nicely, Schizo Fun Addict and the Lost Stoned Pandas.Wow!
Now, all this sounds too good to pass already on paper, but I can tell you that the music is really great on this one in reality too! I'm not going to go through all the 11 tracks on the double vinyl, but I can say that there are definitively vibes of of 70s krautrock and experimental electronic acts like NEU!, Kraftwerk, Amon Düül (II), Ash Ra Tempel, Brainticket etc. It is all done with a modern touch, though. Some of the stuff is pretty up-beat and motorik, but we also get slower, dreamy ambient tracks, some acoustic stuff, all in good balance. All this makes me wish they would have asked me to join as well... Would have been so cool! Anyway, this seems like the most important Fruits de Mer Records related release this year, so make sure not to miss it.
I'm not that famiar with UK alternative/post rock act Babal and I don't have any of their previous albums. I do know they have played some of the Fruits de Mer Records related festivals and I saw them at The 20th Dream Of Dr Sardonicus Festival in Wales last year. Anyway, their music is not exactly made for me, anyway, it seems, but they still are good.
Running in the Gutter is already their 13th album, and the first one on Fruits de Mer, or to be more exact, on their sister laber Friends of the Fish which might also mean that they really do not have that much to do with the production or sales of the album, but just do some promotion etc. I guess this is the case here too, since the album is only available form the band's Bandcamp site. They have previously released a split 7" lathe-cut with Astralasia on Friends of the Fish that I have. Their music has some definitive prog and jazz elements but for some reason I can't really get hold of it. Some parts sound nice to my ears, but then come something else comes up that leaves me scratching my head and wondering what happened and why? Maybe I need some more time with Babal, that's all! Anyway, only 100 copies of this LP will be made so order fast if you want one! Also available on limited edition CD.
This is the next Sendelica album (the first one in many years NOT including me as a guest on synths...) and will see the light of day sometime this Summer. This has a bit different, more positive vibe after the albums about human kind, and there's a good reason for it. I'll let Pete explain himself:
"Well its been quite a year for Colin and myself, Colin surviving his
liver cancer and myself, with first of all my heart condition, (Enlarged
Heart) and then a further scare at the end of last year when I suddenly
became very anaemic which turned out to be a severely inflamed, blocked
and bleeding bowel. But out of adversity comes inspiration, as Colin was travelling around
Asia we started working on a new Sendelica album remotely, we were
joined by Glenda and Lee, who recorded in Cardigan and also by Calli on
vocals, Kate Riaz on Cello, and by The Last American Poet, Shane Beck,
on spoken word. I used some audio samples of my ultra scan, who knew that heart valves
opening & shutting could sound so trippy!, and off course my talking
blood pressure monitor at hope, which funnily matched Colins Asian
Journey. Colin took some amazing photos on his journey through Asia, some of
which feature on the album cover. 'Nirmata' is the sanskrit word for
architect / creator, and seemed a fitting title for such a project as we both felt we had come out of a very long tunnel into the light."
So I guess this could be considered as some kind of victory over potential death album. I'm so glad these lovely guys are still with us to make their amazing music! Okay, so what do we have here. Six new, mostly instrumental tracks. Programmed drums, as usual, which is fine. The tracks are shorter than on the previous albums, so no 20-minute epics. Actually it seems to me that these would maybe just fit on on LP, but I'm not sure if they'll end up doing a 2LP anyway for maximum sound quality. "Wish You a Good Health" includes cool samples of Pete's talking blood pressure monitor (I want one too!) and heart valves and is a rather positive, relaxed number in the Spiritualized vein. There's also a short section of spoken word by my constant Astral Magic/Strange Vibrations/Chakra Vimana collaborator Shane Beck! The mid-tempo title track has a groovy beat. One of my favourites is "Singled Out and Strangely Left in Limbo" that has some beautiful synth leads and a bit trip hop like beat. "Blood One" is the longest track at over ten minutes. It's a quite slow one, soulfull sax by Lee. "Save Your Breath" is a short ambient pice with the other guest Calli on vocals. Pretty! "Peyote Sunrise" starts of with trippy Shane section and grows slowly. Nice sax again, and cello. A very wonderful soft ending for yet another great Sendelica album!
Quasars of Destiny is a new duo project of Scott Heller aka Dr Space (ØSC etc.) with his cousin Craig Wall. I've known Scott since 1998 but have never heard of Craig, but I'm glad they joined forces for this one! While Dr Space plays synths and keyboards Craig proves out to be a great guitarist and drummer. He also plays the bass and some Rhodes piano. The album was improvised and rcorded in five days at Scott's studio in Portugal while Craig was visiting.
There are just three instrumental tracks, "Colossus Approacheth" (6:17), "Colossus Consumes" (32:18) and "Colossus Seeks a New Planet" (6:14). The whole album has a sort of early to mid 70s Pink Floyd feel which is very cool. Things do get heavier and more psychedelic at times, though. I must say I really enjoy this album and it is a bit different to many of the other projects and bands Dr Space is in, but also a lot similar in that it is mostly improvised jamming. Very cool stuff and I do hope they will make another album sometime!
Horizons of Events is the fifth album by Polish psych rock group More Experience and a great continuation to the psychedelic journey of the previous album I reviewed over here. Like before, the band pours out wonderful late 60s/early 70s psych/prog/folk vibes and really shines.
So the story started on the 2022 album Electric Laboratory of High Space Experience continues with four new tracks. "Deep Cosmic Kisses" is a 14:30 long trip with tablas, sitars, backwards guitars, drums, bass, synths, pretty cosmic vocals etc., everything you could ask for a very nice oldies style psych trip. Amazing! "Death" starts peacefully with bird-song and acoustic guitar & bells, and slowly builds up with organ etc. I'm loving the soft, effected vocals too! 1969 era Pink Floyd vibes. On "Wait a Moment" the dreamy, hippie and peaceful vibe continues with some cool Fender Rhodes sounds and the the jazzy beat and bass joins in with some sitar and bluesy vocals. This one has a very jazzy, lazy mood for sure. It is the longest track at 14:50 and the hypnotic, extended jamming takes you out there... Some King Crimson vibes in there as well, and a killer fuzz guitar solo, among other cooliness. They must have been listening to some John Coltrane as well. Love Supreme at least. Wonderful! The last track "Lunatic Space Diary" is a bit more progressive in nature and very good too. Vocoder is added to the arsenal at one point. Apparently the 2LP version also has an additional fifth track but I have not yet been able to find copies... But this very cool CD version is available at several places and comes much recommended.
Today it is the official release date of our psychedelic, spacey and atmospheric prog rock project debut:
Chakra Vimana - Feed My Soul (Tonzonen Records TON177)!
The beautiful coloured vinyl is limited to 300 copies and comes with a download code. The CD is also limited to 300, comes in amazing digipack and has a bonus track (also available on digital download).
Chakra Vimana’s album is the debut collaboration of spoken word artist Shane Beck known as The Last American Poet from Astral Magic, Talking Clouds, Language of The Moon & more, Mark Cook from Herd of Instinct, Liquid Sound Company, The Forever Moment & more, Santtu Laakso from Dark Sun & Astral Magic.These three create a sound that delves deeply into different forms of space and prog rock with heavy influences of Porcupine Tree, Nik Turner, King Crimson, Bill Laswell, and Tangerine Dream.
You can order copies directly from the label in Germany:
Doctors of Space are Scott "Dr Space" Heller (synths, keyboards) and Martin Weaver (guitar, bass, drum machines and synths). Unlike some of their other albums, this was formed putting together older tracks along the years from 2022 to 2024 rather than being the fruit of one or two studio sessions. I think it's a good thing because we get more variety. It's a real pleasure to hear Martin play some killer guitar which is something he apparently can't do much nowadays due to his arthritis.
We have eight, instrumental tracks in about 70 minutes. Things start with the minimal four-minute synthesizer piece "Intro". The title track "Fusing Your Synapses" has a steady drum machine beat but is rather experimental in other ways with tons of electronic noises. No guitar nor much melody here yet. The pretty dark and slow "Doomstar" is the longest track at almost 16 minutes. It also has guitar, quite heavy. Then we get some more electronic, hypnotic and trancey stuff ("Down the Ferret Hole You Go"). A very ominous vibe, somehow. "No More Bombs (Only Bongs!)" has bass and a bit more chilled out atmosphere, although it also is slow and sort of heavy when the guitar joins in. Nice name, as well! "Pinned Codes" is more synthesizer-based again. Later on it also has some lead guitar and then bass. "Chicken Shit Burger Boy" wins the funniest title competition... Another long piece, has an up-beat drum machine as well making it closer to space rock. I'd say this is my favourite with some soaring lead guitar. The album ends with the spacey, two-minute synth piece "Outro".
The official release date is May the 5th but the album is already available on the band's Bandcamp site. I guess it's limited to 50 or 100 copies, so hurry up!
Like the Pink Floyd-isnpired Espaço CD the band released last year, Espaço 2 is a Bandcamp subscriber album recorded by the group in 2023 at Dr. Space's studios in Portugal. The line-up is:
KG Westman - sitar
Mattias Olsson - drums
Hasse Horrigmoe - bass
Jonathan Segel - guitar, violin
Luis - guitar, gong, noise box
Larry - rhodes
Dr. Space - synthesizers, mellotron etc.
The CD starts off with the rather special, sitar-lead 30-minute experimental track "Wholetone Breakfast Circle". It has an unique, tranquil but weird vibe to it, but still being spacey in the OSC style. It's a very ambient, floating thing without any definitive drum beats. Strange stuff! After that, we've got two shorter pieces. Well, if you can call the 12-minute "The Darkness Beyond the Mind's Eye" shorter... But shorter in OSC terms, anyway. This is even more minimal and hypnotic stuff. I can't hear any drums, and same with the even more minimal/monotonic ambient piece "Espaco Para Você" that lasts "only" little over five minutes. If you prefer the more rocking OSC stuff this might not be for you, but those who enjoy the weird and dreamy stuff should definitely try to score a copy. I guess the extra copies will be on sale on the band's Bandcamp site in a few months, so keep on eye out!
The band is celebrating their 20th birthday in Copenhagen next week, go there if you can! Should be a lot of fun.
