STRANGE FISH TWO

UK label FRUITS DE MER records was formed back in 2008, and have since the onset specialized in a small select field: To release new versions of old classic and forgotten jewel tracks of a psychedelic and cosmic nature on limited edition vinyl singles. As the label have grown in stature they've also started to release some original material, and in 2013 they launched their most ambitious project so far: A series of four full length album productions to be released on vinyl albums, two of them double features, and a fifth bonus album on their first ever factory pressed CD made for those who buy all the vinyl releases. All of these containing new, original material.

Strange Fish Two is the first of the double features in this series, and the common denominator for the tracks selected for this double vinyl LP is that they are fairly long, averaging at about 9 minutes, and that they are instrumental apart from a few non-verbal vocal effects and an instance of a sampled voice used as effect. Cosmic vibes also appears as something of a common denominator for the 10 compositions spread over four album sides here.

Moonweevil's Condentia kicks off with a brief electronic freakout of a kind that didn't inspire me too highly I'll readily admit, a construction with a presumably limited appeal. But Vespero's Red Machine was a much more inspired choice to my ears, sporting a bass foundation that gave me dub associations, percussion and and later drum patterns supplementing nicely amidst psych-dripping guitar soloing and cosmic effects. Organic Is Orgasmic's At Dawn Of Men another inspired choice, from the initial jazz-tinged saxophone soloing spiced with cosmic effects to a sparsely arranged bass and drums driven affair with reverberating guitars alternating with inserts of cosmic and psych-dripping arrangements of different kinds. Sendelica's 80% Neon Bridge Of Sighs reference the Robin Trower classic quite nicely flavored with psychedelic and cosmic effects, the emphasis being a song inspired by the classic rather than Sendelica's take on the actual song unless my ears have been mislead, while Temple Music's From The Serene Republic is a nice and steady going space rock affair built upon a blues based hard rock foundation sporting psychedelic dripping guitar soloing and cosmic effects in an expected but well performed manner. The Grand Astoria's Space Orchid vs Massive Drumkit earns my first note of brilliance here, the tribal inspired slow rhythms and layered folky guitar arrangements with a touch of raga developing beautifully into a compelling harder edged space rock creation complete with beefy guitar riffs and suitable amounts of cosmic effects.

Cat Frequency's The Fragmentation of St. Veronica's Veil opens the second vinyl album with a construction that is more of a rollercoaster ride in terms of interest for me, with a droning organ as the constant presence supplemented by cosmic sounds throughout and with Mellotron, psychedelic tinged guitar soloing, Tangerine Dream oriented melodic electronic percussion and Mellotron again as the dominant lead motif providers, with a sombre dual organ feature tucked in there too. Julie's Haircut then ends this album side with Tarazed and Asioli, the former a nifty circulating affair book-ended by frail arrangements with a careful bass and rhythms driven section in between while the latter opens with eerie angular piano notes and cosmic effects that settles into a sparse arrangement with bass and percussion as the backbone building up to layered richly cosmic construction, reverting back to a similar sparse construction and then building up again, ending with a return to the sparse arrangement again now supplemented by sirens and sound effects.

The fourth and final vinyl side has been given to Mechanik for their triptych Kwangmyongsong/Radian/You Yourself Are The Teacher And The Guru. A splendid epic length construction it is too, from the compelling bass and drum construction at the heart of Kwangmyongsong with suitably psychedelic guitar soloing and effects, to the gentler cosmic vibes of Radian and the sampled voice at the start of You Yourself Are The Teacher And The Guru and the following construction revolving around a light toned, post rock oriented frail guitar motif, slowly growing in stature and intensity for a dramatic eruption, then slowly dying away into silence.

While some of these contributions are somewhat uneven there's more than enough high quality material present for this double album to be well worth considering if you enjoy instrumental psychedelic in general and cosmic laced varieties of it in particular. The close to 25 minutes long three part epic that concludes this compilation a good enough reason in itself to seek this one out, and I suspect Sendelica's Trower-inspired creation is another goodie that many will be curious of. A somewhat uneven double album, but truly brilliant at it's best and even the contributions that doesn't quite work out are interesting compositions that will find many fans even if they didn't always convince me.