https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkVH_garPs0
The Chemistry Set are a cult London psychedelic band. Composed of veterans of the late 1980s neo-psychedelic boom, the group received regular airplay on John Peel’s show, were covered in the mainstream and underground music press.
Their first official release was in 1988, an eponymous cassette of bedroom demos, released on the Acid Tapes label. This was followed by several flexi discs between 1988 and 1990, in which the band received an international fan base. The Chemistry Set were being featured in fanzines in the UK, Spain, Italy, Holland, Greece, Germany, Sweden, Japan, USA and Australia and New Zealand. Tracks also appeared on compilation LP’s in the UK, Spain & Germany.
The band made tours throughout the UK, Europe and the United States. Highlights include playing the CMJ Festival in New York, Brixton Academy with Hawkwind and touring with Robyn Hitchcock, plus regular gigs at London venues like the Rough Trade record shop, The Marquee and The Borderline. In the UK, the band’s single “Don’t Turn Away” broke the UK Indie Top 20 the national Top 20 in Spain.
The band took a hiatus until Paul Lake and Dave Mclean reappeared in 2008, and their unreleased LP from 1989 “Sounds Like Painting” was uploaded onto various blogs and was downloaded over 8,000 times.
The Chemistry Set say they release EPs to maintain high quality control and consistency that is not always achieved in full-length releases.
On this EP, the Del Shannon cover comes from his obscure 1968 LP “The Further Adventures of Charles Westover”(Shannon’s real name). This LP sounds like Del’s version of “Forever Changes”, and Arthur Lee & Love are one of The Chemistry Set’s biggest influences.
The Chemistry Set experiment and adds twists to their music. Their covers include a cover inside a cover. Their version of “See Emily Play“ (for the Syd Barrett tribute “Beyond the Wildwood”) has a section of “Bicycle Rider” from The Beach Boys’s Smile inserted the middle. Cult Arranger/songwriter [and former Electric Prunes member] David Axelrod digs The (New) Chemistry Set, saying “Real Music! Music that makes you think and really listen to!” He loved how they added a symphonic section of his song “Sanctus” from The Electric Prunes’ masterwork “Mass in F Minor” into their reworking of Del Shannon’s “Silver Birch” (featured on the 2011 Fruits de Mer comp “A phase were going through”). Cover art is very important to the band and they work with a young Barcelona photographer and designer Blanca Viñas.
In 2011 the boys took to the stage for the first time in 20 years, augmented by musical friends from Spain (including DJ “Gato”). It brought a whole new dimension to their psychedelic-pop, with even more electronics than the Mellotrons and Farfisas that Chemistry Set fans might be accustomed to. Using instruments and methods old and new, acoustic, electric and electronic, they have been a surprise at European sumemr festivals and festival goers enjoyed the extraordinary spectacle of the visual work of VJ Matrona that accompanies the band, who has made installations and visuals in clubs and galleries in New York, London, Barcelona and Buenos Aires, she brings her exquisite modern psychedelic imagery in a nod to atmosphere of UFO club in London in the 1960s
Since the return, the second stage of the group has seen the birth of 3 new EP’s/CDs: “Alchemy # 101”, “This Day Will Never Happen Again” and “Chemistry is Just Numbers” that have gained good reviews and radio play plus numerous contributions to international compilations including a remix of their version of “See Emily Play” on the 3-CD box set tribute to Pink Floyd; “The Many Faces Of Pink Floyd”. The boys have recorded 3 vinyl singles for Fruits de Mer Records and have just recorded their 4th, “Elapsed Memories” that will be released in November 2014.
The Fat Angel Sings 