The Chemistry Set<\/a>. He recently cut a single (remember singles?) for the venerable Fruits de Mer label. And while I make a point of not reviewing singles, for every rule there is an exception, and in this case McLean\u2019s new track is just that.<\/p>\nWhat it also is, is a cover of Kaleidoscope\u2019s \u201cFaintly Blowing.\u201d the title of their second LP (not on streaming services, it would seem), the tune is a fine example of British psych with some heft. It\u2019s not dark and doomy, nor is it a piece of fluff. It strikes the sweet spot in between, making use of phase shifting and other trappings of the era, all applied to a sturdy tune.<\/p>\n
McLean\u2019s reading of this semi-obscure classic does a neat trick: it faithfully conjures the lysergic aura of the era in which the song was originally created, and it arguably improves upon the original, with more muscular instrumentation and a rockier all-around feel. There are all manner of qualities that make it special, but the hypnotic bass lines and the in-a-cave stacked vocal harmonies stand out among them. The tune\u2019s extended ending takes things into a kind of modal psych-jam territory, but unlike many such instro-breaks, for the listener it\u2019s a trip well worth taking.<\/p>\n
For those who prize such things, the single includes a monaural mix of the recording. The vocals are more out-front, and there are other interesting touches including a wonderfully swooshy phase effect; it\u2019s more than simply a folded stereo mix.<\/p>\n
Do check it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When it came to \u201860s psychedelia of the British variant, the prevailing approach was a kind of twee popsike (if you will). Songs with titles like \u201cToffee Apple Sundays\u201d from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,57,62,65],"tags":[5436,4861],"class_list":["post-27622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-psych","category-rawk","category-review","tag-dave-mclean","tag-the-chemistry-set","cat-49-id","cat-57-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27624,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27622\/revisions\/27624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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When it came to \u201860s psychedelia of the British variant, the prevailing approach was a kind of twee popsike (if you will). Songs with titles like \u201cToffee Apple Sundays\u201d from groups with monikers like Toby Twirl seemed more the rule than the exception. And while there\u2019s an undeniable appeal to that sort of stuff \u2013 hey, I<\/i> love it \u2013 there were\/are plenty of listeners who desire something a bit more substantial.<\/p>\n