Formed through a shared love of all things counter-cultured, for nearly four decades The Chemistry Set has achieved phenomenal underground success with some of the finest neo-psych to emerge from the greying days of the twentieth century.
Kick started in 1987 on the capitol’s live circuit gigging at venues such as The Camden Falcon and The Mean Fidler, The Chemistry Set released their initial recordings on alternative Manchester imprint Imaginary and the cassette only label, Acid Tapes. Success followed both home and away as the band toured Europe (alongside the likes of Robyn Hitchcock, Bevis Frond and Hawkwind) and made several appearances in the US, garnering a healthy pre-WWW fanbase; countless rave reviews, flexi-disc inclusions and features in fanzines in the farthest reaches of the Far East. They even secured several high-profile endorsements from the likes of David Axelrod, Inspiral Carpet’s Clint Boon, John Peel and Factory Records’ Tony Wilson, who picked the band for a guest appearance on his TV show.
After several line-up iterations the band took a break in the latter half of the decade and reformed as a duo circa 2008 after discussions in a Morrison’s car park. Despite having an unreleased album in the vault (1989’s Sounds Like Painting) the pair pushed on with new material as they sought to build on an increasingly exalted discography. Their comeback album, 2009’s critically lauded Alchemy#101, was seized upon and celebrated by BBC Radio 6 Music and XFM and as with all their output since, was produced at The Laboratory; a recording studio on an island in the middle of the River Thames. (Armed, as you might expect, with all the Farfisas, Mellotrons and vintage gear a band could wish for.)
Whether recording originals, cover versions, foreign language remixes or solo endeavours, The Chemistry Set has hooked up with countless labels and passionate individuals throughout Europe. Releasing albums, singles, compilations and even the occasional ultra-limited-edition boxset packed with experiments, candy-filled test-tubes, psychedelic periodic tables, and assorted paraphernalia. To date, their discography stands at fifty-four releases since their formation in 1987, with every single and album snapped up and sold-out upon announcement of sale. Just one look at the high prices commanded for said records on eBay and Discogs is enough to prove the band’s worth in the eyes and ears of fanatical followers everywhere.
Thirty-eight years on, The Chemistry Set has released a double CD retrospective – An Introduction to The Chemistry Set – on the equally cherished Fruits de Mer Records (read our review here), who have worked with the band since 2010. Regardless of the decade, the year or the changing of the seasons, they rank as one of the greatest psychedelic bands of the genre and if you don’t quite know that yet, it’s never too late to learn.
Paul Lake and Dave McLean from the band provided us with three releases that have played a huge musical influence on the band…
The Red Crayola – The Parable of Arable Land
Paul Lake: Maybe this album is a bit too esoteric for most tastes, certainly not something you’ll hear in your local gastropub, but for Dave and I it contains flashes of brilliance unlike any other album made before or since it was recorded in April 1967.
The band were a trio from Texas, a seeming hot bed of embryonic psychedelia in the mid-60s. In fact, fellow Texan, Rocky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators, even plays the swirling tripped-out organ on Dave’s favourite track ‘Hurricane Fighter Plane’ with its hypnotic pounding bass riff and proto-punk raw power.
The tracks are interspersed with, and at the same time fused together by, various numbered ‘Free Form Freakout’ pieces performed by The Familiar Ugly … fifty or so followers of the band who sing, talk, shout ,rev-up power tools and hit anything lying around to create a cacophony of psychedelic weirdness, latterly labelled “industrial music”. This really creates a whole sub-genre of its own, again totally original and bizarre for the time.
The highlight of the album for me is ‘Free Form Freakout No.4’ leading into the brilliant ‘Pink Stainless Tail’ with its monumental riffs, driving percussive electric guitar, Middle Eastern sounding 12-string and thunderous drums and bass all backing an English sounding accented vocal with some exquisitely unusual lyrics (“your creamy self as you continue without fail, in that veil”). Musically it’s somehow a little redolent of ‘Peggy Sue’, by another Texan, perhaps it’s what this might have sounded like if Buddy Holly had been able to drop acid.
The influence of this album on our music is quite profound as it has opened us up to the concept of having the freedom to experiment with sound and go beyond the confines of what is considered ‘normal’ in a recording studio with the resulting chaos creating its own force of nature. It’s a truly unique and original sounding album, a masterpiece of chaotic psychedelia that can never be replicated. Although if you listen closely to our cover of Mark Fry’s ‘The Witch’ you will hear some references from The Red Crayola.
Jimi Hendrix – Axis Bold As Love
Paul: When I was aged about fifteen, a classmate at school gave me a cassette to listen to full of Jimi Hendrix songs.
At that time I was getting serious in developing my lead guitar playing, and listening to that cassette was like finding a new religion, it opened up an incredible musical frontier for me and I soon bought the three studio albums Hendrix released in his lifetime and listened to them voraciously.
For me, it is his second album Axis Bold As Love that had the biggest influence on me, which I still believe showcases Hendrix’s songwriting and musicality above all other releases, as well as the potential sound that a trio of musicians can deliver.
From the mellow wah infused jazz of ‘Up From The Skies’ to the power of ‘Spanish Castle Magic’ and ‘If 6 was 9’ , the latter containing some of the greatest lyrics he ever wrote, to the soulful psych funk of ‘You’ve Got Me Floatin’ and ‘Little Miss Lover’, the mellow blues of ‘Little Wing’ the searing highs and lows of ‘One Rainy Wish’ and phased brilliance of the title track. The album contains everything you need to know about Hendrix and essentially all you will ever need to understand about the diverse beauty that can be created by an electric guitar.
My favourite track is ‘Castles Made of Sand’. The inverted chords, strummed licks, backwards guitar phrases and emotional vocal delivery encapsulates Jimi in three minutes of pure magic. Genius.
The Perth County Conspiracy – The Perth County Conspiracy (Does Not Exist)
Dave McLean: When I’m asked about my favourite album or influences, I usually say Forever Changes or HP Lovecraft 2. But I want to use this opportunity to share with you an album that I only discovered a year ago and it gives me the same goosebumps as my favourite albums do.
The Perth County Conspiracy were a Canadian psychedelic folk group, who began in 1969 and continued until 1975. Their first album is a stone-cold absolute classic. Fifty-three minutes long with incredibly beautiful songs, musicianship and production. The problem with some of the ‘unknown’ albums from the 1960s, is they may only have one or two stand out tracks, with the rest, at best average and production is often poor. The opposite is the case with this album. The group was formed in 1969 by two Englishmen, who had relocated to Canada: Cedric Smith (guitar, vocals, poetry readings, maracas) and Richard Keelan (guitar, vocals, timpani, keyboards, dulcimer and tin whistle). Augmented by Canadian bass player Michael Butler.
They were the trio that recorded the album, but The Perth County Conspiracy was more than just a performing or recording act. At the heart of the coalition was a “rural way of life”. Their name a spontaneous happening and loosely knit community between seven farms of around thirty permanent residents in Perth County, Ontario, and many more who were constantly in flux, who met together at the local coffeehouses, talked, played music, and shared vegetables, bread, nuts, toys, and similar necessities in a communal setting. Keelan explained at the time that “People are always asking us how many people are in this group?… We don’t know. It just happens. You may be here for two hours, or you may be here for two years.”
Cedric Smith had a fascination with literature (gave many recitals) and theatre (performing at many alternative theatres in Canada throughout the mid to late 1960s). It was Smith’s idea to incorporate passages of Dylan Thomas and Shakespeare onto the album. Which may sound pretentious, but it worked brilliantly. Columbia records sound engineer Terry Brown helped to interpret what the group wanted to create and achieved a lush psychedelic folk soundscape with the stunning vocals and soaring harmonies of Smith and Keelan with beautifully textured and layered instrumentation. It was recorded in Colombia Studios in Toronto, using an 8-track recording machine. The album still stands up today, both sonically and creatively.
So, what does it sound like? Well, a lazy description would be a Canadian Crosby, Stills and Nash (before Young) but it is so much more complex, intricate and downright eerie. But I would say it is closer to the majesty of Pearls Before Swine. It also has a warm West-Coast sound at times, a thousand miles from cold Ontario. The songwriting, poetic passages, strength of vocals, adorable melodies, harmonies and production make this an album for repeated listens.
Search and you will find.
Open your ears and listen. You will be rewarded.
Thanks to Poodle Bites for the discovery and community life references.
