SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS – The Continuing Escapades Of The Soft Hearted Scientists (2020, 4LP Fruits de Mer Records/Regal Crabomophone)
RELEASE INFO:
Label: Fruits de Mer Records/Regal Crabomophone
Format: 4LP, Album, Color Vinyl
Release Date: 28 Sep 2020
While waiting for their new album (scheduled for release sometime in 2021) here’s a first-class opportunity to “dig” to “learn” to “explore” the Soft Hearted Scientists, with this mind-blowing 4LP kind-of-Best Of!
Here’s what the press release of Keith from FdM Records says: “In 2013, we released a double LP retrospective of the wonderful Welsh psychedelicists’ early work – it was their first airing on vinyl; the set was called ‘Whatever Happened To The Soft Hearted Scientists’. I’ve been talking to their frontman Nathan Hall about returning to their back-catalog ever since and I managed to persuade the band that a second retrospective needed a new track to complete the package (they’d somehow not made it into the studio together for three years); the resulting track, ‘Please Read Me’ was so damn good I had to put it out as a single last year – and this set includes an extended version of it… Rumor has it the band enjoyed themselves so much we could be hearing more – much more – from them in 2021, but that’s for another time…
Here you have a double LP of some of the Scientists’ most beguiling songs – most of them taken from their more recent albums – but, more than that, you have in total a FOUR LP set, including a second double LP, this time of Soft Hearted Scientists instrumentals – songs stripped-down and then sewn back together in magical style into four sidelong pieces by Astralasia’s Marc Swordfish for a completely different perspective on their music, unveiling aspects that might otherwise have remained hidden behind Nathan’s lead voice and lyrics”…
So, this is a 4-LP Record set by the Welsh cardiologically-inclined alchemists, The Soft Hearted Scientists that will certainly make you start “digging” on all of their previous CD/LP releases. There’s dreamy Byrds-era psychedelia on “Midnight Mutinies”, sophisticated soft prog on “Westward Leading”, trippy cool weirdness on “You There Standing In The Shadows”, Folkie Welsh Psychness on “Drifting Away”, amazing uplifting country-folk magic on “Songs From The River”, alt-bubbly underwater folk-pop on “Seaside Sid”, colorful Brit late 60s psychedelia on “Panorama”, acoustic magic on “On A Clear Day”, dreamy coolness on “The Creeps”, excellent delicate surfy pop-sike on “Surferalla” and so many more wonderful moments are gathered over here… And of course I do not need to mention some of the greatest instrumental psych-poppy magic, that is collected here, more than 80 minutes and divided to the 4 sides of this second double vinyl! An Astral Adventure indeed! One of Wales’s best-kept secrets is revealed! TimeLord Michalis
Tracklist
LP 1
1. Midnight Mutinies
2. I’ll Be Happy, I’ll Be Waiting
3. Westward Leading
4. You There Standing In The Shadows
5. The Up and The Downs
6. Drifting Away
7. Cwm Cadlan
8. The Black Dahlia
9. For You
10. Hawthorn
LP 2
1. Song From The River
2. Seaside Sid
3. Panorama
4. On A Clear Day
5. Golden Omens
6. The Creeps
7. Surferalla
8. Crystal Coves
9. Please Read Me
LP 3
1 Astral Adventure 1
2 Astral Adventure 2
LP 4
1 Astral Adventure 3
2 Astral Adventure 4
Fruits de Mer Records has sold ALL copies on Pre-Order but there’s a chance to grab a copy through Shiny Beast
Thanks for the kind words. Nathan from Soft Hearted Scientists.
Keep up the good work, Nathan!