Review: Postcards From The Deep - Fruits De Mer Boxset

Yesterday saw the arrival of the latest Fruits De Mer products (a week early, now how often does that happen!) Fruits De Mer is one hell of a label, it's releases never fail to charm, surprise and excite, and this month's offerings are no exception.

First up is the ace 'Postcards from the Deep' boxset - a beautiful collection of ten flexidiscs (remember them!?) with the accompanying titular postcards (one for each track) and a CD of the tracks 'cos, as cool as flexidiscs may be, they are not known for their crystal clear audio.Oh, and there's a poster too! The artwork, by Mick Dillingham, is fantastic.

The basic premise is that some modern bands cover old songs by some 'cult' artists. The songs in question vary from the instantly recognisable 'Psychotic Reaction' (if you are unaware of this tune - why?!) to more obscure offerings from the likes of Satori and The Hippies. As ever with Fruits De Mer the results are strange and wonderful.

The Luck Of Eden Hall take on Count Five's 'Psychotic Reaction' and give it a good pummelling, it is a raw workout and certainly gets the blood pounding. The Loons bring some authentic 60s garage/psych with their version of Dragonfly's 'Celestial Empire', all fuzz and reverb. Fred from Earthling Society gives an airing to his new/other band The Crawlin’ Hex and bring a real sinister feel to Calico Wall's 'I’m A Living Sickness' (it would seem that everything that man touches turns to musical gold - like a spacey King Midas). The Thanes deliver some more 60s garage with 'LSD'; (The Pretty Things) and The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies add some sci-fi to 'Time Machine' by Satori (if you haven't checked out their album "12 Theories of Time Travel" do so soon - it's good stuff. It can be found on the Active Listener bandcamp site). The Past Tense give us their take on The Hippies' 'Soul Fiction' and do a pretty damned fine job while Schizo Fun Addict add more than a dash of haunting, acid grooviness to 'Take A Heart' by The Sorrows. The mood mellows, slightly, with Crystal Jacqueline's catchy garage take on “You Just Gotta Know My Mind” (Dana Gillespie/Donovan). Now, one of my fave tracks of all time is 'Brainticket' by, erm, Brainticket from their 70's krautrock opus 'Cottonwoodhill' - an album of pure sonic weirdness. I was curious, and a tad worried, when I saw that this was being 'reimagined' in this collection. My worries eased as it is Astralasia who are doing the reimagining and they deliver the goods. Distorted vocals and some otherworldly synths do justice to the original's freakiness. Rounding things off is ' The Avengers‘ Theme' as interpreted by Icarus Peel, and it is a full tilt, guitar-driven interpretation and is the ideal way to draw to a close what, in my mind, must be THE compilation of year.

If 'Nuggets' had never happened and Lenny Kaye were to compile it now then 'Postcards From The Deep' is exactly what it would sound like. Think of a superlative and it would apply here....Good work Keith and all at Fruits De Mer. And the good thing is it doesn't end there - arriving with 'Postcards...' came the next Fruits De Mer 7" and what belters they are....but more of them soon.



Links:

Fruits De Mer