THE CHEMISTRY SET – AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CHEMISRTY SET (Fruits de Mer) (2 x CD) (Release date: 9th May, 2025)

Founded in 1987, The Chemistry Set are veterans dating back to the cassette only label “Acid Tapes”, receiving regular airplay by John Peel. Here, Fruits de Mer present two and a half hours of music selected by band members Paul Lake and Dave McLean. Steeped in psychedelia ‘Silver Birch’ is a strong appetite wetting opener, followed by a real ear-worm in ‘Time to Breathe’ then a track highlighting of what strong vocal harmonists they were and ending with some phasing (naturally!) from the same EP, ‘Come Kiss Me Vibrate and Smile’.

Five songs from the “Elapsed Memories” (The third of which is a mystical cover of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Love or Confusion’ that does more than justice to the original and adds sitar and table, appropriately preceded by ‘A Cure for the Inflicted Afflicted’ with some stirring guitar work, a close cousin of the kind of song and sounds that The Bevis Frond have been perfecting) and “Lovely Cuppa Tea” EPs follow, the title track resembling a novel homage to the ‘cheeky chappie’ wordplay of Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake period Small Faces. There’s a cover of The Moody Blues’ ‘Legend of a Mind’. ‘Firefly’ is a heavy psychedelic number with fuzz guitar and wonderful Farfisa retro organ, ‘Sail Away’ has an eastern feel with tabla, 12 string guitar and slide, vocal buried somewhat in the mix in true psych style but discernible enough for the lyric and melody to be revealed (shades of Led Zeppelin), measured guitar solo, hand claps and lots of echo. I refer readers to my glowing review of Paul Lake’s version of Traffic’s ‘Dear Mr Fantasy’ previously on DISS. And there’s another mind-blowing excellent cover, of Kaleidoscope’s ‘Faintly Blowing’ by Dave McLean this time, with approval from Peter Daltrey. There also two mixes of ‘The Witch’, an acid folk classic by Mark Fry from 1969 with an insistent beat that shows the depth of The Chemistry Set’s psychedelic curating,

Psych music fans know that there loads of compilations out there, mostly of different groups with various degrees of obscurity, but it would be hard to find anything anywhere a compilation that is as consistently brilliant and so full of exotic instrumentation as this. (And that’s just CD one. Please also read the review of the second CD!)