THE CHEMISTRY SET – PINK FELT TRIP limited vinyl LP.

Fruits de Mer records www.frruitsdemer.com

The Chemistry Set have had quite a long and varied history since their inception in 1987, they have put out a whole slew of albums, EP’s and singles, beginning with a limited cassette entitled ‘Home Recordings’ up until last year’s brilliant 7” single ‘Paint Me A Dream’, released on the highly collectible Hypnotic Bridge record label and my single of the year. The last full album from them was about six or seven years ago ‘The Endless More And More’ which was highly lauded. They manage to fuse together both sixties and nineties psychedelia seamlessly and this new one continues along similar lines.

Bursting out of the traps with the extremely dense and heavy title track “Pink Felt Trip”, they take us on a magical trip, indeed the following track, a cover of Mark Fry’s classic ‘The Witch’ is given a special makeover, it’s a great version which they throw everything at, from Gregorian Chants, through to lazily spun Eastern flavoured sitar, and full on Psych rock, even referencing the main riff in King Crimson’s Thela Hun Ginjeet along the way. ‘Lovely Cuppa Tea’, manages to sound like The Soft Hearted Scientists covering an imaginary Madness Song and provides a fine slice of English psych pop. They follow this with ‘Firefly’, a dreamy soft psych confection.

‘Psychotronic Man’, is a glorious song, an acoustic trip to the stars and the twilight zone, enlivened with all manner of percussive instrumentation, true to The Chemistry Set style it contains plenty of humour, like the interjections of one of the Doctor’s assistants and the H P Lovecraftian echoes, something has definitely escaped from the lab! ‘Paint Me A Dream’, takes the tempo back up again with a full on sixties flavoured psych pop number. ‘Sail Away’, is a tabla infused, slide guitar song, ostensibly about leaving, about putting into practice those things that you often talk about before it is too late, cut adrift like a rolling stone, the islands in your dreams, it references white rabbit and if six was nine.

‘The Rubicon’, is a glammy style rocker with punk leanings, which leads nicely into the longest song on the album, the ‘Self Expression Trinity’, an eleven minute plus song, split into three distinct separate parts, the first part ‘Cesar Manrique’, is a tribute to the great Spanish surrealist artist, with misty, moody mellotrons being used to fine effect. ‘Once Upon A Time’, is more of that soft dreamy psych that they do so well, the final part of this trilogy is ‘Liberation’, a song which deals in freedom and escape, of loping throughout the cosmos with a suitable partner. Look out for a special edition, currently in preparation to be released later this summer; it will have a fuzzy pink felt cover, complete with pink felt bubble gum, posters, postcards plus a bonus CD. This is an excellent album which shows a band at the top of their game, highly recommended and up for pre orders now.

(Andrew Young)

JUSTIN HOPPER & SHARRON KRAUS – SWIFT WINGS.

Nightshade Records CD, available from  www.sharronkraus.bandcamp.com

This recording is a companion piece to Obsolete Spells : Poems and Prose From Victor Neuberg & The Vine Press on Strange Attractor Press by Justin Hopper.

American poet and English musician Sharron collaborate once again following on from their successful album about the strange Sussex landmark on the Sussex Downs that is the mysterious Chanctonbury Rings.

For this outing they celebrate poet Victor Neuberg, one of Aleister Crowley’s acolytes and indeed former lover and partner. Victor was born in London, but lived a large part of his life in the little west Sussex village of Steyning, at the foot of the South Downs. It’s slightly incongruous to listen to an American reciting these strange little nature driven poems, lending the project a feeling of listening to an undiscovered Eden Ahbez recording, had he travelled over to these fair isles to write pastoral odes.

The music throughout is played entirely by Sharron, who also adds vocals, often underpinning Justin. The words which are delivered in spoken word form by Justin, are all from the pen of Victor. The pieces are further fleshed out by Neal Heppleston’s bass playing, Jane Griffith’s viola and drums by Guy Whittaker on Rottingdean.

These songs make me want to go out and find Victor’s books, these were self published, utilising a hand operated printing press he acquired, but also to walk the South Downs Way. They are finely observed descriptions of nature on the downs, a cross between Gilbert White and Dylan Thomas, the poetry of Thomas with the vivid nature observations by White.

Sharron’s eerie synth playing underpins much of the album, echoing the words on the wintery strains of ‘Coombes’, or on ‘Rock Pool’, which glistens with bell like synth tones. Her woodwind playing is playful on the ‘Frenchlands’, even mimicking a cuckoo on the spring like ‘Cuckfield’. The final song on this EP is ‘Rottingdean’, a small hamlet right by the sea, to the east of Brighton and home to the Copper family. It’s delightful and I am again reminded of a transposed Eden Ahbez. Thanks to Sharron for sending this along, I found it most enjoyable.

(Andrew Young)

ELDER & KADAVAR – ELDOVAR – A STORY OF DARKNESS & LIGHT

(LP/CD/Digital on Robotor Records)

German band Kadavar and the US’s Elder, now working in Berlin, have collaborated on this set while on hiatus from touring due to the pandemic.  Album collaborations can be a tricky and uneasy thing, but the two have made it a worthwhile venture.

Coming into the project, both bands’ styles had been in the process of morphing, and musically speaking, they more drifted together than collided.  Kadavar spent many years as a hard psych/proto metal band, and have evolved over time.  In 2021 they released ‘The Isolation Tapes,’ including a massive premium edition, in which they embraced space rock and psychedelia.  Whereas Elder, around since 2006, has swerved over the years between metal, stoner, psych and more recently, prog.

So which direction would Eldovar take?  The seven-track, 45-minute record is a combination of psych and prog, with space rock undertones.  Perhaps surprisingly, both bands seem to have toned down their heaviest instincts, and the resulting album is quite often mellow and ethereal, though there are plenty of rock jams to get you through the night.

Despite the rather grandiose title ‘Eldovar – A Story of Darkness & Light,’ there’s no high-falutin’ concept to the album.  That doesn’t mean they don’t take on weighty topics.  The songs are all extended journeys, musically and lyrically.  Trying to figure out which band contributed what to the tracks is pretty tough, aside from the contrasting voices of the two lead singers, Christoph “Lupus” Lindemann from Kadavar and Nick DiSalvo from Elder.

There’s also a healthy appreciation of Pink Floyd all over the album.  The Floyd’s influence is never far away, with references aplenty.  You’ll find yourself hearing bits both fleeting and lingering that’ll make you wonder, ‘hey, isn’t that like Pink Floyd’s ____ ?”

I rather liked the back-to-back instrumentals “Rebirth of the Twins” and “Raspletin,” with its echoes of, er, ‘Echoes.’  Neither will turn the world off its axis, but they’re quite pleasant and keep things moving along smoothly.

At eleven minutes, “Blood Moon Night” is the longest track, and not surprisingly, contains the most variation, most of it on long instrumental passages.  There are plenty more Floydian easter eggs, and an extended machine-like synth session to close it out.  The album concludes with the beautiful, slow-motion, harmony-soaked arpeggiating lullaby “Cherry Trees.”  It’s a fitting conclusion to this mostly laid-back collection.

While well-versed fans of both bands may feel that ‘Eldovar’ is inessential to either band’s catalogue, I’m an admirer, though not a superfan, of both Elder and Kadavar.  I like the way the whole thing hangs together, often suspended in air.  If you come in with an open mind, you’ll find a whole lot to like here.  ‘Eldovar’ often has a narcotic, heavy-lidded feel that’s a balm to our crazy times.  The unexpectedly gentle (to me at least) tones have a most welcome spirit cleansing quality.

(Mark Feingold)

THE GREEN PAJAMAS - UNDER THE RADAR VOL. 3 - A BOOTLEG HISTORY: LIVE 1984-2018

(Available from St. Brigid Records)

And so we come to the third and final volume of Pajama rarities and also perhaps the most eagerly anticipated. Several factors, including the perennial bugaboo (day jobs) have limited the Pajamas forays onto stage to kick out the jams and stretch their studio concoctions to the breaking point. The band have rarely ventured outside their Seattle backyard aside from several Terrastock performances (including their first appearance at Terrastock II in San Francisco, which is represented here by an incendiary ‘Three-Way Conversation’) and indeed 16 of the 17 tracks were recorded at local venues (bars, saloons, clubs, and the local Uni). Jeff Kelly admits the sound quality is not always pristine, but it’s the rarity and historical value of these representative performances (sometimes under frustrating circumstances) that shines above any inherent clarity of lack thereof.

     Running chronologically from one of their earliest gigs (Seattle University, 16/11/84), ‘Thinking Only Of You’ stems from the same source as ‘My Mad Kitty’ on Volume 1. An incessant earwig of a song with frenetic skin pounding from Karl Wilhelm, it’s an early indication that these guys really have the potential to go places. Apparently the student council was pleased enough with their performance (or turnout), as two weeks later they returned on 1 December and we’re treated to Steve Lawrence’s rockabilly twangfest, ‘Dancing In The Jailhouse’, a sweaty toe-tapper that no doubt had the floor sagging under the pogoing paisley poppers in the audience!

     Two tracks from the 6 May 1986 radio broadcast from the Rainbow Tavern spotlight Lawrence’s unheralded guitar wizardry (and a rare Lennonesque lead warble on ‘Falling Through The Hole’), as Kelly switches over to bass and Bruce Haedt joins the band bringing keyboard embellishments (including a swirling calliope of a solo on “Falling…“) to the mix. (Original bassist Joe Ross had temporarily left the band at this juncture.) A pummeling ‘Murder Of Crows’ (also originally on 1986’s Book Of Hours) again finds Lawrence shredding his six-string, with Kelly’s bass pounding and maniacal drumming from Wilhelm delivering one of their early live highlights and evidence that this was one tightly-oiled machine.

     ‘Peppermint Stick’ from the Hall of Fame in 1987 feels a little rushed, but shows more flashes of Lawrence’s shell-shocked soloing on guitar while Kelly once again smoothly slides over to bass and Wilhelm makes his drum kit pay for merely being in the same room as this master manipulator of the sticks. By the time of the Seattle Center Mural Amphitheater gig (26 August 1990), Ross had returned and the Kelly-Lawrence-Ross-Wilhelm lineup tear up the joint on ‘End Of Love’ (from “the new record” Ghosts Of Love, which Kelly announces in “finally out” having been recorded several years before). The occasional Neil Young comparisons for Kelly’s rip-roaring guitar destruction are apparent here - a sort of Paisley Underground Crazy Horse!

     The obscure B-side ‘I Have Touched Madness’ (also available on early rarities collection Indian Winter) brings the same lineup to bear on another sweatfest with ear-shattering soloing from Kelly and a nagging melody hiding in the maelstrom that sticks with you halfway through the next track, the aforementioned Terrastock performance of ‘Three-Way Conversation’ (from the essential 1997 reunion album Strung Behind The Sun). This live version really stretches out for some energetic soloing from keyboardist Eric Lichter and chunky guitar strangling from Kelly, as Ross and Wilhelm continue to hold down the fort as one of the finest rhythm sections in town. As Kelly says, “That’s one thing you don’t get on the album is the rock ending!”

     Scott Vanderpool and wife Laura Weller joined the band by the time of the countrified ‘Lost Girl Song’ and Weller adds backing vocals and a slide guitar twangerooski to the proceedings at the Sunset Tavern on the day after New Year’s 2004. Showing no signs of year-end celebratory dipping into the “salad”, the band is in fine fettle for this Northern Gothic (2002) highlight. The band’s biggest “hit” ‘Kim The Waitress’ gets a fine makeover, removing the sitar-like foundation for straightforward rawk ‘n’ roll. The quintet lineup adds another powerful dimension, resulting in an even fuller sonic attack to this cherished chestnut.

     ‘Wild Pony’ (fresh from the previous year’s Northern Gothic Season 2: Box Of Secrets) rips out some more effects pedals and crash-boom-banging from Vanderpool at Jules Mays Saloon on 9 March 2008) before we jump forward almost exactly nine years (on Bevis Frond’s Nick Saloman’s birthday, 11 March 2017 to be exact) for the muscle-flexing ‘Ten Million Light Years Away’. The set concludes with three tracks from what was advertised as their “final gig ever”, 2018’s 29 June performance at Slim’s Last Chance. A reunion with Haedt brings ‘Higher Than I’ve Been’ out of its 1987 mothballs and he, er, rises to the occasion for an obviously pleased-to-be-here enthusiastic shout out while another reunion (Wilhelm returns to the kit) is flat-out, balls-to-the-wall insanity with Wilhelm “blowing shit up” on ‘I Wish That It Was Christmas’. Kelly doesn’t disappoint in his own string-shredding solo, and everyone, despite shitty stage monitors “ended up drunk and happy”. Now THAT’S rock and roll! As Ross pronounces at the end of his ‘Graduation Day’, ‘That was fun!”

     So, a live Green Pajamas album that was only over 30 years in the compiling delivers in spades what we’ve always suspected but rarely seen or heard - that the Green Pajamas were (and are) one of the most formidable live acts to emerge from the Paisley Underground scene, through Byrdsian jingle-jangle harmonic pop, Beatlesque melodies to die for, a touch of Crazy Neil Young shenanigans, and ending up with the pure white-lightning adrenaline rush of rock and roll. Hopefully circumstances will soon enable them to take to the stage again (wherever it may be) to the cheers and fist-pumping adoration that’s only hinted at in this welcome addition to their discography and a perfect finale to this three-volume collection of mouth-watering goodies from the bottom of Jeff Kelly’s closet.

Jeff Penczak

KEITH SEATMAN – SAD OLD TATTY BUNTING

Castles In Space limited vinyl LP www.keithseatman-cis.bandcamp.com

Keith has gradually risen to the top of the pile of the hauntology genre, releasing a few records on his own label and through labels like A Year In The Country. He was formerly a member of the Portsmouth band Psylons. For this new album he has collaborated on a few of its songs with Ghost Box’s Jim Jupp and Broken Folk’s Douglas E. Powell. It’s an album of wonky, kaleidoscopic psychedelia and has some genuinely scary moments on offer.

Album opener ‘A Swish Of The Curtains’, is a bit too full on for me, like ingesting too many E numbers, but things thankfully calm down for the following ‘The Grand Alchemists Parade’, a mad, wack- a –mole, marching tune, with sampled vocals and whirring synths. ‘Mr’s Lawes & The Late Mr Pomfrey’, carries on in a similar vein, a frightening trip down a carnival ride, leaving me giddy and confused at the bottom. I stagger over to ‘The Gnome Zone’, it’s like some mad, arcade feature, informed by glistening synths and birdsong. The title track ‘Sad Old Tatty Bunting’, does little to stabilise my condition, there’s what sounds like a wonky ice cream van doing its best to get my attention through a blizzard of foggy, whirring synths and ghostly voices. ‘Tread Carefully And Say Goodbye’, seems like sound advice but is easier said than done, and I am again caught up in a seemingly never ending fairground nightmare, this time with fat beats and loping giant steps, before long I end up in ‘Jumpy’s Playroom’, it’s a bit calmer in here, but there’s a ton of synths and backwards guitar riffs vying for my attention. 

Side two opens with ‘In The Fields Round The Back’, which is where I presumably stumbled, trying my best to clear my head, but to no avail as a new kind of aural nightmare takes hold and I feel particularly queasy and have a bit of a lay down. This song is a little calmer and I can hear distant, reassuring church bells. I decide to get up and take part in ‘Farthing’s Chase’, this seems to do the trick and I’m back on track, until I hit the final corner where I spin off. Dusting myself off I find myself watching a man ‘Building A Hole With A Saw And A Bowl’, it’s a bit like tripping to an episode of the TV show the repair shop.

This mad but great fun album ends with me witnessing a ‘Burial At  Bevill’s Leam’, sounding not a million miles away from the recent music of Duir!  It’s inspired by an article which appeared in the Peterborough Echo newspaper dating from 1983, about a farmer who dug up some bones along with a species of crab, long thought to have been extinct; it was apparently being used in a burial ritual, to accompany one Alan Gilbert safely to the underworld.

(Andrew Young)     

SOPHIA DJEBEL ROSE   – MÉTEMPSYCOSE

Oracle Records on Limited LP (500) and CD (500) www.sophiadjebelrose.bandcamp.com

Debut album by French singer Sophia, she was one half of psychedelic folk duo An Eagle In Your Mind for a good few years. Since going solo she has released a lathe cut 7”single on the Future Grave record label. Sophia studied philosophy and understands that words can be weapons; she has a love of the classic poets of the French language such as Léo Ferré and Charles Baudelaire.

 Sophia has written, played and arranged this LP, even making the cover herself. The album is in the acid- folk realm with all songs sung in her native French. It’s a fairly singular, stark and haunting album, which can be likened to the recordings of Nico or Catherine Ribeiro. The songs are mainly ballads which tell tales of love, death and revolt and informed by her obvious love of nature, invoking clear mountain streams and deep dark forests. The songs stand alone, adorned by little else but her arpeggio guitar strings, harmonium and organ with some bass and analogue synth by Raoul Canivet.

Opening song ‘Le Palais’ tells of a visit to an abandoned building in the depths of winter, I’m reminded in her tone of the singer songwriter Jesse Sykes, she has a rich, deep sonorous voice delivered with no frills, ‘Liberté’, is a visceral dream of a Mediterranean summer, of Sevilla and of a past love. Next ‘Venus’ is more French dreaming, a little more up tempo in style, with a wish to inhabit the world of mysteries, it is left very plain and austere with only strummed electric guitar for accompaniment. ‘Le Diable Et L’Enfant’, essentially a dark tale, of changing from a girl into woman, this has some synth underpinning her forlorn vocals, a dance with the devil and of lost innocence. ‘La Louve’, is another stark tale, about the anguish of a she-wolf, in general being an outsider.

Side B opens with ‘J’Appartiens’, a tale of transformation from a hare into a deer, of red grapes and blue seas, sparkling with Azure promise, but also of flesh and of blood. ‘Le Clairiére’, Is essentially about getting lost and of letting go, the first part is heavily amped strummed electric guitar, which yields to a lighter style of arpeggio notes in the second half of the song. ‘Blanche Canine’ tells the tale of the pupil and the tutor, of the classic poets Rimbaud and Verlaine, of rebelling against structure and limitations. The album ends with ‘Nénuphar’, a beautiful song ripe with nature and of the elements, of rivers and valleys, of wind and rain and swimming naked under waterfalls as light and free as a water lily. Here she double tracks her vocals to fine effect; it provides a suitable ending to this quite singular album.

(Andrew Young)

VARIOUS ARTISTS – SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED) – ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK

(LP/CD on Legacy Recordings)

Amir “Questlove” Thompson’s 2021 film documenting the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival went stratospheric, sweeping up a slew of awards climaxed by the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.  If you haven’t already seen it, I strongly urge you to check it out – it’s riveting viewing.

In case you’ve somehow missed the back story, on six Sundays from June 29 to August 24, 1969, the Harlem Cultural Festival took place in Mount Morris Park, now Marcus Garvey Park, before an estimated audience of 300,000 people.  The lineup covered a wide spectrum of soul, jazz, pop, R&B, funk and gospel stars, all seemingly at their peak.  Festival organizer and host Tony Lawrence hired television producer Hal Tulchin to capture the event, which he did on about forty hours of videotape.  There were two one-hour TV specials from the tapes aired that year, and never seen again.  Tulchin tried to interest others in the complete tapes for a number of years, but got nowhere.  So they sat in a basement for 50 years.  New producers eventually learned of the tapes’ existence, gave the project life (it was an agonizingly long affair dating back as far as 2006), and Questlove eventually came aboard in his directorial debut.  The story that has emerged is that while a similar sized crowd, film, and soundtrack albums about that other festival in New York around the same time made an indelible stamp on our cultural zeitgeist, this rather fascinating one was all but forgotten until now.

Of course, a major underlying theme is sadly how little progress has been made in civil rights in the ensuing decades, as many of the artists compel the audience to listen, sing and pray with them of their plight.  If the message up the NY Thruway in Yasgur’s Farm was all peace and love, the one here seems to be “that works much better for you folks than us, but today we’ll celebrate in our own way.”

The performances are stunning.  The Chambers Brothers kick things off with “Uptown.”  Set to the tune of The Miracles’ “Going to a Go-Go,” the rewritten lyrics are about Harlem, and serve as the perfect introduction.  There’s no lysergia like the Brothers’ “Time Has Come Today,” but the song does end with a psychedelic guitar solo.

B.B. King’s brief “Why I Sing the Blues” references life on a slave ship and on a plantation with a man bringing a whip down, and lets you know this festival will be unvarnished, and lay it all out in the open.

The Fifth Dimension and David Ruffin’s songs that follow have an underlying tension that the film’s interview segment with Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr explains, namely how would their #1 hit pop songs gobbled up by white audiences be received in Harlem?  The answer seems to be a resounding welcome, much to the artists’ relief.  “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” which I’ve always LOVED, has an added benefit; those gorgeous voices, removed from their studio sheen and without the Wrecking Crew, no longer blend squeaky clean into a single strand, and you can hear their individual timbres and intonations.  “Don’t Cha Hear Me Callin’ to Ya,” which this writer is so ancient he can recall was the flip side to “Aquarius,” having owned a copy as a kid, is full of brightness and punch.  By contrast Ruffin, a year removed from being dumped by the Temptations for a litany of problems, seems all alone on “My Girl” without his former bandmates and somewhat Vegas-y compared to the down-home authenticity of the other artists.

Listen to The Edwin Hawkins Singers’ shining performance of “Oh Happy Day,” and you’ll see why George Harrison said this was the song that inspired “My Sweet Lord,” not that other one.  On The Staple Singers’ “It’s Been a Change,” when they sing “one of these days, there’ll be a man on the moon,” Pop Staples mutters off to the side “I tell you, he gonna get there next week.”  Talk about history coming alive right before your eyes and ears.  Take in the mighty power of Mahalia Jackson with Mavis Staples on “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.”  Gladys Knight & The Pips’ take on “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” while faithful to their studio version, remains the command performance of this much covered track.  (Her interview segment in the movie is delightful).  Herbie Mann brought a remarkable band featuring Sonny Sharrock on guitar and Roy Ayers on vibes.  Their flute jazz rendition of Sam & Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Comin’” is another highlight.  Sly & The Family Stone were on a tune-up for their show-stopping performance at Woodstock, and are no less incendiary here, performing “Sing a Simple Song” and “Everyday People.”

The most astonishing performance is saved for last, the incomparable Nina Simone.  Throughout the collection, you hear a continuum of commentary on race relations, ranging from anguish and pain to prayers to God to hopeful “we’ve got to live together” vibes.  But nothing prepares you for the bite, the no apologies call to action from this one woman force of nature.  The one-two punch of “Backlash Blues” and her musical reading of a poem by David Nelson “Are You Ready” rightfully bring the house down.  “Are You Ready” contains blistering lines such as “Are you ready to kill if necessary?” and “Are you ready to smash white things?  Are you ready to build black things?” “Are you ready to call the wrath of Black gods, Black Magic, to do your bidding?” before an enraptured crowd.

According to Questlove, originally there were no plans to release more footage or music from the 40 hours of tape, but the demand has been overwhelming and they are making plans for follow-up releases.  Certainly, they’ll be no less brilliant.

(Mark Feingold)