Fruits de Mer Records specialize in vinyl only releases featuring contemporary bands covering songs – many quite obscure -from the 1960s and early 1970s. The Lucid Dream are from Carlisle, Cumbria, UK and have been together since 2008. Their new single on Fruits de Mer’s Regal Crabomophone label includes a Lucid Dream original and a cover song.

The A side, Hits Me Like I’m Stoned, is the original and is a nifty slab of cosmic heavy rocking psychedelia. And at nearly 7 minutes The Lucid Dream really stretch out, with lots of deep space guitar and liquid dripping down the walls acid guitar. Wow, based on this track alone I gotta check out more from these guys.

The flip side features a cover of The Factory’s 1969 song, Try A Little Sunshine. I’d never heard the original, though that’s a mere trifle, quickly rectified by the magic of YouTube. The music on the original is fairly heavy and intense, with potent guitars and a driving rhythm section. And while you might expect aggressive vocals to accompany such music, that’s not the case at all and the combination works well. The Lucid Dream’s version is faithful to the spirit of the original, though the music has a spacier psychedelic vibe, and the vocals have that edgier feel that for me goes so well with the music. A fun contrast, especially having listened to the two back-to-back.

The single will be available mid-June or so and is limited to 800 copies, and as usual this is vinyl ONLY, no CDs or downloads. If interested you better hurry because Fruits de Mer releases sell out QUICK!

For more information visit the Fruits de Mer Records web site at: http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

Fruits de Mer Records specialize in vinyl only releases featuring contemporary bands covering songs – many quite obscure -from the 1960s and early 1970s. nick nicely is one of those pop-psych craftsman who has yet to get his due, despite brushes with major labels and producers. Hilly Fields (1892) was released as a single in 1982 and is one of those instantly infectious songs that immediately brings to mind The Beatles circa Magical Mystery Tour or XTC at their very best. It’s also embellished with cool hip-hoppy scratching, though the music couldn’t be further from hip-hop. And if you’ve ever wondered about the title, the promo sheet notes that Hilly Fields is near where Nick lived with great views of both London and Kent.

This new Fruits de Mer single features the original recording, plus a re-recording that nick calls Hilly Fields (the mourning). The updated version is more acoustic based and moodier, and far more tripped out and surreal, as if nick were going for the Revolution #9 take, and makes for an interesting contrast to the original. The promo sheet also notes that the song will be on nick’s forthcoming album, Lysergia.

The single will be available mid-June or so and is limited to 800 copies, and as usual this is vinyl ONLY, no CDs or downloadsIf interested you better hurry because Fruits de Mer releases sell out QUICK!

For more information visit the Fruits de Mer Records web site at: http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

Fruits de Mer Records specialize in vinyl only releases featuring contemporary bands covering songs – many quite obscure -from the 1960s and early 1970s. A few months ago Fruits de Mer released the excellent Sorrow’s Children: The Songs Of S.F. Sorrow, a re-recording of The Pretty Things 1968 classic S.F. Sorrow, with each track contributed by a different contemporary band. And now the label keep The Pretty Things in the spotlight with this new single.

In 1965 The Pretty Things released a single with Honey, I Need on the A side (also on their first album) and I Can Never Say on the flip. This new single is an interesting twist on the original, featuring a version of Honey, I Need recorded live at The 100 Club in December 2010 and will be on an upcoming full album document of that show. It’s a rousing country-ish rocker that demonstrates the band are still a fiery live act. The version of I Can Never Say that’s on the flip side is an unreleased demo track taken from a 1965 acetate. Wailing Blues harmonica nicely embellishes this country-rock song, making for a tasty bit of the old and new.

The single will be available mid-June or so and is limited to 1200 copies, and as usual this is vinyl ONLY, no CDs or downloads. If interested you better hurry because Fruits de Mer releases sell out QUICK!

For more information visit the Fruits de Mer Records web site at: http://www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz

I first became aware of Ararat when I received the first CD they recorded, Musica De La Resistencia as a promo freebee in a package of other CD’s I’d ordered. Figuring it to be a throwaway, I admit it took me awhile to listen to it, but when I did, wow, I was knocked out. I’m quite pleased to say that it’s follow up is knocking me out too!

Ararat is the solo project of Los Natas’ Sergio Chotsourian. Los Natas is an Argentinian stoner rock band that is definitely not afraid to voyage into space territory. They did this especially on their Toba Trance releases, which consisted of lengthy, spaced out jams, filled with experimental noises, ambient drones and deep atmospheres. Most of their albums, however, tend more towards the traditional heavy riffs of the stoner genre. But it’s obvious that Chotsourian has a love of this more experimental kind of music because as Ararat, he explores it more deeply, also drawing in unusual elements such as Argentian folk music and avant-garde classical piano.

The spacerock thing comes out straightaway with the thundering minimalism of the instrumental El Carro (The Cart), combining repetitive riffs with freaky sounds for some blistering Krautrockish times and the epic, 16-minute Caballos (Horses), with atmospheric synths riding along beneath raunchy riffs and tripped out vocals. But it’s songs like El Inmigrante (The Immigrant), with its strumming acoustic guitars, sounding a bit like a South American take on Hawkwind’s Down Through the Night; and Atenas (Athens), with its rumbling piano runs and distorted radio broadcasts that bring out the far reaching influences of Ararat’s music. My favourite though, has to be the 15-minute La Ira Del Dragon (uno) (The Wrath of the Dragon (One)). From its acoustic opening and closing to its intense, deeply heavy riffing layered with spooky effects, wailing voices and noisy space sludge; and Chotsourian’s snarling vocals, this is one freaky mindbender for the ages. The closer is Tres De Mayo, a powerful piano and guitar instrumental that again takes us into tripped out realms of mystery, leaving us there in some kind of delirious haze.

This is adventurous and highly original stuff that finds its balance between the raunchy and the beautiful, the dark and the light. II is a worthy successor to Musica De La Resistencia, and in many ways is an even better album that first one.

For more info, visit: http://www.elektrohasch.de and http://www.natasrock.com

Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald

Motion Sickness of Time Travel is the moniker for solo electronic artist Rachel Evans (she’s also a member of Quiet Evenings). Since 2008, Rachel has been an extremely busy woman, with over 20 releases under the MSOTT name (some LP’s, some EP’s), but this appears to be her most ambitious effort to date. This self-titled effort consists of just 4 tracks, ranging in length from 20-minutes to almost 25 minutes.

I want to say this is old-school electronic music in the grand tradition of early to mid-70’s Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, but that would not really be doing it justice, because MSOTT sounds so fresh and unique. Rather than duplicating the sound of those classic albums, in captures them more in spirit, while carving out new shapes and patterns of its own. The sound drifts from minimalist to deep and complex, achieving an organic space rare in electronic music.

Opening cut, The Dream shifts effortlessly from spooky experimental territory to hazy symphonic textures to melodic sequence driven passages and back again, as Rachel restlessly explores multiple sonic dimensions. Rather than using the boomp boomp boomp boomp bass sequences of her Berlin school counterparts, she utilizes fragile and sometimes quirky sequences, with multiple chord changes. And she crafts strange and beautiful melodies to haunt them, like the ghostly, distorted vocal melody, with a touch of Cocteau Twins, heard in the center of The Center. Summer of the Cat’s Eye is the most ethereal piece on the album, moving from wistful and summery and ending in deep space. It starts out like one of those old Moog soundtracks to some early 70’s film before more spectral voices and some distant sound effects and percussion weave their way into the mix. Beautiful stuff. The final piece, One Perfect Moment, utilizes a transcendent arpeggio that in the wrong hands could become new agey, but Rachel surrounds it with a complex haze of drones and wordless vocal melodies, allowing the sequence to submerge and surface in slow undulations. The piece eventually takes off into space, with a deep, Berlin school sequence buried deep in the mix, cosmic tones gurgling and surging about, and more of those haunting vocalizations (as far as I can tell, none of the vocals are synthesized, but are Rachel’s own heavily processed vocals).

If you’re tired of beat heavy electronica or those endless ambient drone pieces that seem to go nowhere, this may be the album for you. Because this album definitely goes places. This is one of the best, most engaging albums of electronic music I’ve heard in years.

For more info, visit: http://motionsicknessoftimetravel.blogspot.ca and http://motionsicknessoftimetravel.bandcamp.com

Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald

Nacosta return in the wake of last year’s superb 6-song EP Wilderness City with their latest, a 3-song EP called Liquor Eyes. Although they call themselves a psychedelic folk band, they quite easily cross over into the rock realm. In fact, nothing on this release could really be construed as folk music. It opens with the superb acid drenched rocker Secret Destroyer. Here again, as on their last EP, the band proves themselves masters of writing hook laden songs. But they allow their music to stray far enough into wild sonic territories to keep the psych heads interested too. The other two songs are perhaps not quite as hooky as that opener, but they still show the band in fine form. The semi-acoustic, frantically rhythmic title track showcases their lovely harmonies and the rumbling Coldwater Canyon swirls with colorful guitar licks as it builds towards quite a tasty psych freakout conclusion. The bonus here is that the band have designated this a free download, so head off to their website and grab yourself a copy!

You can find it here: http://nacosta.com

Reviewed by Jeff Fitzgerald