Bronco Bullfrog on Fruits De Mer Records

Fruits De Mer Records is one of those home grown DIY operations I'm always glad to hear is still putting singles out. Started back in 2008 they've been pressing local UK psych bands singles and have started to get some attention and based on ebay auction prices they should have pressed more. But you can't see something like that coming, you can't plan on pressing something that will sell. The best audience is yourself, if you sincerely want people to hear it chances are they will feel the same way about the things you're passionate about. Bronco Bullfrog, named after the '70s indie film about East London hoodlums, is a UK based three piece who have absorbed all of those '60s psych sounds and

"Time Waits for Norman" has a real attention to detail of that late '60s and it's the kind of thing that Paul Messis would be into. Theres something about the drum recording from that era and the way they bend down that electric with a wah, sliding in and out of different tempo's all smooth with major backup vocals. The main vocal from Andy Morton all doubled and airy with that dreamy harmony quality the lyric stream of consciousness and weird word associations. They even going as far as running the whole arrangement through a phaser for a verse or two or slowing down the mellow paisley kaleidoscope to then pick it back up into a heavy dance tempo. It's slightly manic sounding this track with something of a Kinks feel. "Rocking Horse Mender" is actually a song about a guy that fixes rocking horses - so sincere but I also have to think they were a little tongue in cheek about this, it's so earnestly describing all the different horses and how they ended up in the shop with a slow soft harmony, I mean what kind of crazy world are they living in? Fingerpicked guitar and those rolling brushes on the snare with a high hat and alternating rim shots. Who doesn't want to live in that ridiculous world where the only problem is the damaged rocking horses, it's such a crazy dream.

B-Side's "Listen To The Sky" is a cover of a track from The Sands and is a little bit heavier with that analog distortion that jumps into jangle crunch bursts, picking up on the nuances of that time period. You can hear the black and white appearance on top of the pops. I get how the individual pieces should sound but putting it all together is where they get this right; that bass has no effects on it at all, the guitars are sustained and distorted following the march snare beat for a second an then flipping that rocker switch on the fretboard for a feedback psych. I'm also hearing a lot of the Lilys later pop indie psych stuff even.

Get this from Fruits De Mer Records.

Schnauser on Fruits De Mer Records

Progressive rock is not something I think would still be explored in 2014, but Schnauser on Fruits De Mer Records is reworking the form on two covers for this single. It's the first release on Fruits from the four piece out of Bristol UK and they must have something to prove choosing a track from Yes, "Astral Traveller" and "As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still" from the Soft Machine.

A-Side's Yes cover "Astral Traveller" opens on a phaser wah powered wakka wakka guitar riff that fades into a harsh treble organ and the psych part for me comes from these vocals. This could be early Lilys in it's extreme changes and shifting eq'd vocals back and forth across the channels, pure English psych like the Earlies. Aable to hit the high stuff for those angelic harmonies in bizarre timings coming from all kinds of directions, they give this original a crazy carnival farfia and warped electric, dragging the rock tempo back into this kaleidoscope of melodies like pressing the different voice buttons on a casio as it plays through the demo. An exercise in how many different ways they can arrange this thing, some kind of math-psych can that be a thing? Is that what prof rock is? Crisp and pushing all the bent sounds to their current technical limits. Make no mistake they won't let you think this is from any other time period then today.

The Soft Machine cover "As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still" on the B-Side deceptively opens on organic powered acoustics and lower tempo bass. Like early Beck it's got that same kind of heavy historic knowledge and skill while applying it to his wacky interpretation of 'psych' from the outside. A little bit funky jumping from effect to effect, measure to measure, a heavy ride cymbal and massive wah to chorus to phaser, whir the vocal manages amazingly in both of these cases to hold the tracks together in tone. A warm fuzzy distortion extends to the horizon and the vocal washes off into sustain with a complex wah keyboard solo? Too much psych to even sift through really taking every last hint from that history leaving themselves time for huge plateaus even on the length of a single. Thought out and played to a perfect T.

No CD's and no digital downloads from Fruits De Mer Records. Sold out at the source, but check their distro links page here.

Samples of a previous album on their Facebook page.

The Chemistry Set on Fruits de Mer Records

The Psychedelic genre has taken just about every possible direction since it's inception in the mid '60s. Fruits de Mer Records is doing their best to document a big piece of this ongoing scene and Keith at Fruits de Mer Records has recently launched a side imprint of his psyche label, Regal Crabomophone saying:

"ok, now this is exciting - we've created the sister label we've long-discussed, with the intention of giving a few of our favourite bands the chance to premiere some of their finest new material on strictly-limited vinyl. We're going to do our best to ensure we keep up the standards we've tried to build over the last three years."

Their first release is from "The Chemistry Set", who surprisingly broke up in 1991, are back to pick up the pieces of that Stone Roses, Happy Mondays acid house, post-shoegaze sound. A combination of psyche grooves, and repetitive ground rhythms to improvise the haze over, while keeping the focus relying heavily on the dance beats, it's one of those genre's that arose out of an unlikely combination. The Chemistry Set is pulling those old beakers and flasks out of the closet to see what kind of bubbling, smoking beakers and accidental explosions they might get.
"Impossible Love" starts out with a reverse sounding harpsichord and a heavily sampled trip hop type beat comes right in immediately over this devolving looped sample. Taking the trip-house a step further they even introduce a horn section which takes off in the chorus along with the huge sounding backup choir. All the elements of classic psyche are present....heavy use of the tambourine, the hammond organ, guitar solo… along with a rolling along, heavy dub sampled beat.
It's impossibly long at 6:40, this one has to be pressed at 33, but I'm glad they could find it in them to cut this down and held back in order to fit the 7" format...I hear a 12" dance mix rising out of the fadeout on this one.

Didn't get a chance to hear the B-Side but Regal Crabomophone says "The Chemistry Set's cover of The Rolling Stones' 'We Love You', renamed 'We Luv You' by The Set; if you think you know it and love it from their latest album, you haven't heard this remixed version - Manel Ibanez has psyched it to the max (which is 100% by the way, we don't go in for 110% and the like) to create the 'Put That In Your Pipe And Smoke It' mix - the perfect companion to 'Impossible Love'."

Going fast, better get this one imported from across the pond from Fruits De Mer Records.

Cranium Pie on Fruits De Mer Records

Got a couple of singles the other day from Fruits De Mer Records out of the UK, and this single from Cranium Pie is actually the final release on their splinter label, Braken because it sounds like the fruit of the psycheadelic sea were too tempting and have completely taken over his operation over there. Two 7" labels!

'Rememberrr', the A-Side: There's the kind of psyche that sounds like a memory. It's a little scratchy, there's some layers of age all over it, you can imagine it's a undiscovered single from 40 years ago, just an overlooked band. Like The Fresh and Onlys who are just a few steps removed from that era with the sensibility, maybe it's the harmonies, but even Hawkwind doesn't sound like this. Cranium Pie is so immediately a part of that sound, it belongs in that time period. Like looking at black and white photographs, it's easy to forget that there was ever color. This is full production, extreme experimentation, in it's initial construction and way after the track is recorded even. It has a massive crystal clear intensely separated sound.
They're playing around in such a major way, the vocals verses back and forth between far off phaser and chorus vocals, it's a page out of Ween's Woman and Man. There's a massive smooth Rhodes organ, and meandering guitar solos. The whole track is done in these different acts or movements. They work into different grooves and let the whole sound slowly fade to transition into something else entirely with liberal use of channel fades and some menacing spoken word right before the massive band jam takes it all out.

There's even an old school computer printer whirring away, the paper is torn off which turns into a crashing wave sound...it's rooted in that old school psyche, but there are great contemporary experiments like this that take it into Flaming Lips territory.
How this fit onto a seven inch is almost defeating the point of the format. It's endless.

'Mothership' on the B-Side takes the tempo down with a rimshot beat and up front uneffected vocals, they even work the Braken label into the lyrics. It slowly builds into a massive chorus 'Take a trip on the mothership somehow.' Atmospheric electronics are in full effect, the ship is taking off, and they almost abandon the 60's era entirely with the chunky synth bassline. It goes without saying you get different experiences with headphones or cranking the speakers. This isn't just a particular slice of this sound they've wanted to explore as part of a bigger direction for the band. This is a seriously sick obsession with this sound, it has to be, because they pull it off so authentically.

Get it from the late Braken Records, pretty amazing one man underground scene going on with these two labels, just as much of an infatuation as Cranium's sound. Home grown, personal 7"'s, the best kind.