MUSIK psychedelia features the older and decidely less internet-savvy half of Fruits de Mer Records on a busman's holiday - no hard sell... well, maybe the odd gentle plug for whatever we're up to next at Fruits de Mer - one of our current singles is now playing on this site, you can get the latest news on releases from the likes of The flaming Gnomes giving The Zombies and Caravan a serious going-over, or Mark Fry revisiting his acid folk classic 'Dreaming With Alice with the help of Nick Franglen at www.fruitsdemerrecords.com, if you have a few moments to spare.
...but mainly it's just me digging up some old memories, some even older jokes and, once a few like-minded souls have linked in, a haphazardly-updated mix of sounds and images that have made me a music junkie since I heard 'Bend Me, Shape Me' by the American Breed, realised how much better it was than the version by Amen Corner, bought it, then flipped it over and discovered 'Mindrocker' on the b-side and i thought i'd discovered psychedelia!
What an amazing 40-odd years of music it's been; everyone has their own start-point, mine was '67. Once The American Breed had me hooked, I became increasingly aware of psychedelic music although, to be honest, at the time anything much beyond The Lemon Pipers was out of my league. Prog rock was my era, especially krautrock (first discovered in a very 'smokey' Virgin Record Shop in Birmingham in 1971/2, with Cluster 2 on the headphones); the late-seventies saw me, the tail-end of punk and London get together; the eighties slipped by pretty uneventfully until KLF and The Orb changed everything...
...the last 20 years has seen my record collection expand at a ridiculous rate - 'new' labels such as Rising High, Fax, Sublime, Good Looking, Kompakt, Morr, U-cover, Cactus Island, Ampoule and many, many more have once agin demanded my trainspotterish devotion (Vertigo, Neon, Brain, Ohr, Charisma and Harvest revisited), while ebay has enabled me to re-create most of a vinyl collecion that suffered from 1979-1989:the poverty years.
At the moment, I get most of my vinyl and CD kicks from online stores such as Piccadilly Records, Norman, Juno, Smallfish, Heyday, Aquarius and Boomkat: comfortable, armchair collecting, but it's not the same as tracking down an early Fax CD in Brussels, a Pink Floyd bootleg in San Francisco or a Beatles Fan Club LP in a car-boot sale in Surrey - but that's progress for you.
...and of course, I'm having fun burning cash co-running Fruits de Mer Records, a license to spend money but the ultimate ego-trip for a vinyl junkie like myself.
Anyway, you have other sites to visit I'm sure, I hope you enjoy your time here - if you do, drop me a line, suggest some additions, add a link, pay a return visit - at the very least, I'll try to ring the changes with the videos.
Meanwhile, give www.fruitsdemerrecords.com a quick visit as a favour to a new, albeit old, friend.
Cheers
just in case you've got this far, I thought I'd give you that soft-sell anyway on Fruits de Mer; there's lots more at:
www.fruitsdemerecords.com
www.myspace.com/fdmer
www.myspace.com/fdmer2
but for now, here are our releases to-date, always on 7" of colour vinyl, always restricted to 300 copies and always $8 a time including postage to anywhere in the known universe.
Let's start with our new release - so new it won't be out for another three weeks!
Mark Fry - 'Dreaming With Alice'/'The Witch'(live)
Mark has re-recorded his 70's acid-folk classic with the help of Nick Franglen, it's truly magical stuff.
ON SALE NOW
The Flaming Gnomes - 'Care of Cell 44' (The Zombies)
'Love Song With Flute' (Caravan)
The Gnomes take two slices of classic pop-sike of psychpop and give them a breathe of fresh studio air - with the help of the meanderings of a local eccentric called Maurice, who committed his ramblings to cassette many, many years ago
Stay - 'Rainy Day, Mushroom Pillow' (Strawberry Alarm Clock)
- '2,000 Light Years From Home' (The Rolling Stones)
- 'Chicago' (Graham Nash)
Spain's finest neo-psych band take three unforgettable tracks from the sixties and play them with love, affection and sitars
Alison O'Donnell w/Head South by Weaving
- 'Day is Done' (Nick Drake)
- 'Frozen Warnings' (Nico)
Alison, ex-lead singer with seventies cult acid-folk-rock band Mellow Candle gives her very personal interpretations of songs by two singer-songwriting legends
Schizo Fun Addict
- 'Theme One' (Van Der Graaf Generator/George Martin)
- 'Ogden's Nut Gone Flake' (The Small Faces)
This is where Fruits de Mer Records started - over a year ago - with two personal favourites reinterpreted by the Schizos. Loved by pretty much everyone who has heard them, including Mick Taylor and Wapping Wharf magazines - the ultimate experts on all things Small Facey.
COMING SOON
Vibravoid's 'Krautrock Sensation' ep - four superb pieces of krautrock history brought to you by Dusseldorf's finest. Fans of Can, Amon Duul II and Kraftwerk need look no further. On sale in August/September - send us a message to reserve your copy.
Cranium Pie - 'Baby You're a Richman' + 'Madman Running Through The Field' - progged and psyched up all the way to 11, Cranium Pie bring you 10 minutes of cool and crazed sounds to bring a smile to your face. On sale in September/October - again, send us a message to reserve your copy
Rush off now to www.fruitsdemerrecords.com or www.myspace.com/fdmer2 to place your orders
Fruits de Mer Records
hear the tracks...buy the vinyl...smell the fish
