DIVING FOR PEARLS II

Club members who order the new Soft Hearted Scientists triple LP set will get a free copy of Mark Brady's updated FdM discography, which now runs to 80 A5 pages; and I thought Fruits de Mer was a labour of love...great work, Mark!

WHAT DID THE MEMBERS CLUB EVER DO FOR YOU?

If you're a club member and a regular buyer of FdM releases - and you buy direct from FdM or from Shiny Beast - you'll have received over six hours of free music on FdM exclusive CDs during 2023, you might have got in early for a special edition LP or short-run lathe-cut and you might even have won a competition prize.
Not a bad return for putting up with too many emails from yours truly.

COMING SOON...

...a double CD set that will be free to club members who order our early December vinyl releases - another 2 1/2 hours of great new music from artists you'll want to check out further once you've heard tasters of what they can offer - which you'll find if you click on the relevant pages.

19th DREAM AFTERMATH

Once we'd recovered from this year's three-dayer, I unpacked everything and offered up for sale the handful of lathe-cuts, special editions, t-shirts we had left to UK club members (sorry, international club members but I had so few left it didn't make sense to offer any through Shiny Beast).

Look out for a members club competition soon, with a few packs of FdM goodie-bag CDs to be won.

NOT MUSHROOM INSIDE

Marc Swordfish's Mushroom Project album 'Vortexion' was limited to 150 LPs, plus 17 promo copies - the main run has sold out but you can win promo copy 17, signed by Swordfish in the latest members club competition - if you think you're a club member and you haven't received an email with details, please email me direct

BACK WHERE WE STARTED

I recently found a spare copy of Schizo Fun Addict's first single on FdM, which also happens to be the first record we ever released!
The 'A' side was a cover of George Martin's 'Theme One', you can win the single in a new members club competition

THE WORLD ON CD

I'm in the process of sending out early promo copies of 'TALL TALES : SHORT STORIES' to the artists responsible for the music across the double CD set - parcels will be going out to England, Scotland, Wales, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Phillipines, Canada, USA, Mexico and Argentina!

LONDON BUS SYNDROME

You wait ages for another members club exclusive to turn up, and then two arrive at once - 'Tall Tales' and 'Short Stories' will combine to make a double CD set, free to club members who order our July vinyl release nice and early (not yet, give me a few weeks, I'm still putting the final touches to the compilations - it looks like the combined running time of the two will be around 2 1/2 hours!)

CRAB NEBULA

The first club member freebie this year will be a compilation CD, 'Crab Nebula' - free to members who order nick nicely's LP nice and early direct from FdM or from Shiny Beast (we'll start taking pre-orders at the start of Feb)

WELCOME TO THE CLUB

Welcome a bunch of new members who joined the club over Christmas, obviously under the influence of cooking sherry. Lathe-cuts, exclusive free CDs, competitions, irritating emails from me - what more could you ask for?

CLUB MEMBERS-ONLY

coming soon, a lathe-cut EP of covers of classic folk songs; it'll be very limited, and club members will get priority - and even then I suspect we'll not have enough to go round, which will mean more work for the FdM virtual hat.

ANOTHER CLUB MEMBERS-ONLY

..or at least that's what I expect when I offer up Jay Tausig's festive five-track lathe-cut set of Jethro Tull acoustic covers; I'll have less than 70 copies for sale and club members will be invited to stake a claim for a copy - probably at the start of December. If there are any left, I'll offer them up more widely - but it's not going to happen, is it?

MEMBERS CLUB EXCLUSIVE

Club members who ordered all our late-November vinyl releases direct from FdM (if you're in the UK) or from Shiny Beast (if you're not), and did so nice and early - will get a free CD entitled 'Sign Of The Crab'; it contains nearly 80 minutes of music that is new to FdM, by artists who will be mostly new to you; these compilations are funded entirely by FdM, which means that you only get music that I think will appeal to followers of the label - there's no paid placement/backhanders involved here

Artists featured include General Winston, Sotomonte, Heavy Moon, We Are Wood and Doctors of Space.

'ACTIVE' CLUB MEMBERS GOT SECOND DIBS

Whatever special editions, lathe-cuts, t-shirts and polo shirts we had after the 18th Dream festival were offered up to UK club members who had been 'active' recently ie they had been regularly buying stuff, entering competitions - there were so few items left I couldn't offer them more widely - very sorry about that.

ARNALD PAUL RARITY

I've spent the day starting to get a few things together for this summer's Dr. Sardonicus festival and for Fuchsia's return to the Half Moon on August 14th and in the process I found a black vinyl copy of the Arnald Paul 'Transparent Ideation' lathe-cut; I thought it would make a good one-off prize in an FdM members club competition.
There were very few black vinyl copies of this one cut - just a handful for me and for the artist - none have been offered for sale, so it's a bit of a rarity!
To have a chance of winning it, you just need to tell me the FULL TITLE of Fuchsia's second album ('Fuchsia II' will not suffice!) - answers by email to fruitsdemer7@hotmail.com by June 10th; all correct entries will go into the hat and Liz will draw out one winning name.

WHEN GOOD BANDS GO BAD

The latest members club competition was looking for examples of usually-reliable/consistently excellent artists having momentary lapses or judgement or good taste, and committing them to vinyl (or CD). Even the best bands have bad hair days and we wanted to see and hear them. There were bundles of FdM goodies for the winners, who were drawn at random from all the entries received.
On one morning, I received videos of Alice Cooper doing a love song and Brian Wilson doing rap - it all got very ugly and I've begun sharing the pain under the tab 'When Good Bands Go Bad' - lots more to come, but the music is best taken in very small doses and this is possibly the worst...from the band responsible for so many classic hits, The Hollies wiggle that wotsit...god save us all

CLOUDED JUDGEMENT

Club members who wisely decide to pre-order the new Chemistry Set album from FdM or Shiny Beast once we open up for business at the start of April will also get a free double CD of music from artists who I think deserve to reach a wider audience.

Some of the band names will be familiar to you, many of them won't - but that's part of the fun of these compilations, I hope.

ST KRAUT TRIPLE CASSETTE SETS

Every club member who has pre-ordered the St Kraut 3CD set has automatically gone into the FdM hat to have a chance to win one of 25 triple cassette packs produced in Russia for FdM by the band (apologies to international club members...the fragility of cassettes, the hassle of potential customs duties and the postal costs mean I've only offered these to UK club members). Names are now being drawn out of the hat - and will be over the next week - there's no pressure on anyone to buy, I appreciate that cassettes are an acquired taste, so if you haven't heard from me yet, all is not lost - yet.
There won't be any more sets produced for Fruits de Mer beyond this run of 25.

EARWORMS

A new compilation CD for club members who ordered the St Kraut CD set early on from me, or from Shiny Beast
New-to-Fdm artists such as Kevin Robertson and Tibetan Miracle Seeds rub shoulders with Jeremy Morris, Anton Barbeau and The Telephones; the set includes two exclusive new recordings, from Custard Flux and Us&Them
There are two versions of the sleeve, but only one version of the music.

RIGHT BAND, WRONG LABEL

Our latest members club competition looked for examples of well-known artists (artists who would be familiar and liked by FdM club members) who have appeared in unexpected places - or to be more accurate, on unexpected labels.
I've already posted a selection on the site, look out for joyous lapses in bad taste from the likes of Windmill, Hallmark and MfP and local German labels.

COLOUR ME POP

A nifty little free compilation CD of originals and covers are awaiting club members who buy the Hobbit House Collective set direct from me, or from Shiny Beast; how says we can't give our stuff away?

There are two versions of the sleeve, but only one version of the music

GET A HEAD

The latest FdM members club competition has as its prize one of the two skulls I photographed for the cover of the 'Heads Together' set - a one-off in the sense that I'm keeping the other one.

MODEL NOT INCLUDED

If you're in the UK, the special edition of Fishheads includes a t-shirt and a beanie hat, as well as an extra CD; if you're not in the UK, I'm sorry but there's no t-shirt or beanie-hat - and definitely no model (blame Brexit).

HAVE YOU BEEN ORCHESTRATED?

A lot of artists have been over the years and the latest members club competition is looking for prime examples - new, old, classic, obscure - and the suggestions are flooding in.
A goodly selection (goodly?) have been posted on the website under the convenient heading of 'Orchestrated'

AMPHIBIANS LATHE-CUT

Once again, offered club members an exclusive 7" lathe-cut containing two tracks from a club-exclusive compilation CD and it's been hugely over-subscribed. The FdM virtual hat came into play again as Liz drew some lucky names out. Don't worry if you missed out, there'll be another one along soon.

CLASSIC KRAUTROCK

I recently asked club members to come up with some glorious examples of krautrock - old and new - and they have delivered in style. Over 100 recommendations are now posted here on the FdM site - look under 'krautrock' in the index - there's lots to enjoy, including some hidden gems, and there'll be more appearing on the FdM Facebook page.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER LATHE-CUT

I offered club members an exclusive 7" lathe-cut containing two tracks from the 'Birds Of A Feather' compilation CD and it's been four times over-subscribed. The FdM virtual hat came into play again as Liz drew some lucky names out - apologies to everyone who has missed out.

SIGNED PINHDAR PRINTS

Cecilia and Max have kindly signed a bunch of 12" prints of the new Pinhdar LP and we'll be slipping them randomly into copies ordered direct from FdM or from Shiny Beast.

But I've also put a couple to one side for a members club competition, which I'll tell you about just as soon as I've thought up a suitable subject for it.

MUSIC FOR AMPHIBIANS

FdM continues to shower club members with gifts - 'Music for Amphibians' is another of our compilation CDs and it'll be free with early orders for our September vinyl releases

You can check out the artists involved if you follow the links to 'Music For Amphibians' and we'll post a few links to the actual tracks

BEFORE ONE COMPETITION ENDS, ANOTHER ONE BEGINS

While the Euros run their course, we're almost up the the end of the first half of 2021, so it's as good a time as any to ask club members to recommend their best/favourite new releases/reissues of the year so far. No FdM records, even I'm a but more subtle about self-promotion than that, but the best of the rest!
I'll be posting links to as many of them as possible on the FdM website in the next week or so...

EUROS UPDATE

38 games in and 101 goals scored, which suggest the club member competition is heading towards a correct total score of around 125-140 goals. Of course, the knock-out games could go into extra time, so maybe a total of around 140?

EURO COMPETITION

Club members have a chance to win a set of Sendelica 'Cromlech IV' test pressings by guessing how many goals will be scored in the European Championships - estimates of the total number of goals scored throughout the competition (excluding penalty shoot-outs) range from 51 to 207, and the most popular choices of finalists are France, Italy, Spain and Germany.

C'mon the Villa.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Club members who order the new Sendelica double LP direct from FdM - or through Shiny Beast - nice and early (not yet - we won't start taking pre-orders until June!) will get a free copy of an exclusive FDM compilation CD called 'Birds of a Feather' - and very nice it is too.

More details soon.

MAGIC COBRA

FdM club members can win the new cassette EP by Magic Cobra, who are featured on our 'Bare Essentials' CD. If you haven't received an email explaining the competition, you're either not a club emmber or I've disappeared into your spam box again

CAUGHT ON CAMERA

A recent FdM competition has been looking for images (photos, paintings. digital art, illustrations, cartoons) that I can nick for the FdM website and Facebook - and I've already starting to use them

THE BARE ESSENTIALS

This will be our first members club exclusive CD of the year - 10 tracks by artists that are all new to Fruits de Mer, and might be to you too (although we do have a couple of legendary krautrockers in there somewhere, so maybe not).
The idea of these CDs was to introduce you to bands and music that I'd love to put out on vinyl but haven't got enough hours in the day/space in the FdM global warehouse/funds in the FdM piggy bank to do everything...I think 'The Bare Essentials' fits the bill rather nicely.

A SURPRISING NEW COMPETITION

Pop goes freakbeat, genius goes soap opera, bubblegum goes into reverse - club members are unveiling the hidden talents of artists best known for one thing, but who tried their hnds at something completely different.

Check out the 'Hidden Talents' tab

THE FIRST MEMBER CLUB SPECIAL OF THE YEAR

Although the first FdM vinyl release of 2021 is still some way off, I've just about finalised a members club special - it's another compilation CD, 75 minutes of rather fine music and with the slightly different spin to previous ones in that all the artists involved are completely new to the label. more news soon...

UNEXPECTED GUESTS COMPETITION

Our first competition of 2021 and this one is the result of a youtube video sent to me by Allan Fredrickson as an entry for the last competition! Allan sent me a truly dreadful Finnish version of Y.M.C.A. – but what made it stand out was the appearance on bass guitar of Finnish jazz/rock legend Pekka Pohjola!
...so the new FdM members club competition is to send me examples – with youtube links – of well-known musicians, who will be known to FdM followers, making guest appearances in the most unlikely of places

THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS

..in FdM members club free and exclusive CDs anyway - a bumper bundle.

EVEN THEIR MOTHERS WOULD HAVE HATED THEM FOR IT

Our last competition of the year looks for covers of classic songs that should have been buried in concrete and thrown into the Mersey but somehow found their way onto vinyl (or CD)...the unbelievably bad, and worse...
It's club member Till Wolff's fault - he came up with
...I thought it was impossible to top it (or bottom it), but I was wrong; entries closed on Christmas Day and then the dross started to be revealed - they are posted under the tab 'covers of shame' at the top of the page)

PHIL THE LATHE-CUTTER IS CONJURING UP ANOTHER 20 COPIES

I've been swamped with club member requests for copies of 'Life Of Stanley'.
I'd asked Phil at 345rpm.com to cut 70 copies, which meant I'd have 50 for sale to club members (once the band, Nick at Heyday and I had grabbed some for posterity); but Phil has kindly agreed to cut a further 20 as a special favour - he was due to pack up for the year - so I'll now be able to let 70 club members enjoy Prof. Unwin in full flow.
My apologies in advance to everyone who misses out.

LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMOS

There's a quick members club competition running right now to win copies of some recent promo CDs that didn't make it into the hands of reviewers/DJs/bloggers. If you're a club member and you haven't already received details of the competition, please email me

ROTATEY LATHERS

A wonderfully mad members club-only, ludicrously-limited, luck-of-the-draw, members only single-sided lathe-cut 7" to end the year, thanks to Pete Bowman and The Arthur Park.
Are you sitting comftybold two square on your botty? Are you ready for excerpts from exclusive interviews with the wondrous Professor Stanley Unwin, with a little light instrumental backing from The Arthur Park? More news soon.

PICK UP THE PIECES

Club member Ron Backx won a 'Band for All Seasons' jigsaw in a club competition earlier this year - and he took time off from listening to the 4CD set to put it together - good work, that man!

ONE FOR THE ROAD

We have one more members club exclusive CD for you this year - and it's a bit unusual.
As you know, Swordfish has been having fun with the Soft Hearted Scientists' instrumental tracks this year; well, he did one more mix - except this was less of a mix more of a...er...mash-up? The starting points were the SHS back-catalogue and the soundtrack to a film that both Marc and I love - except we were thinking of different films...

more soon...

50 SHADES OF GREY

For the Soft Hearted Scientists vinyl extravaganza I ordered ‘completely random’ colour vinyl from the pressing plant and had no idea what I might get in return – and I still didn’t really know when they arrived as the sets reached me shrinkwrapped and were posted out shrinkwrapped that yway (unless club members asked otherwise).

From the few sets that I HAVE seen, most copies seem to be on rather subtle/muted/tasteful shades of grey vinyl...so the latest members club competition asked for club members to show me what I'm missing by sending in vinyl selfies of 'Continuing Escapades', with a prize of a complete set of test pressings as the prize. Here are a few examples of what you sent in...


...perhaps the prize for the 'best' slab of vinyl should go to John Parry, who might have used a bit of artistic license to come up with...

...unfortunately, there isn't a prize for 'best' photo - sorry John!

IF FdM CLUB MEMBERS GOT THEIR HANDS ON RSD 2021 - PART 1

Club members have suggested a host of records that would make excellent reissues and previously-unreleased tracks that could be unveiled on vinyl for next year's major label and ebay flipper fest...sorry indie record shop benefit gig.
I'll post a few at a time here and on the FdM facebook page - decent record labels, please take note...


SPIROGYRA – Bells, Boots & Shambles (suggested by Seb Krier)... AZITIS - Help (from Timelord Michalis)... THE DAMNED - L.A. Woman (from Chris Dale)

IF FdM CLUB MEMBERS GOT THEIR HANDS ON RSD 2021 - PART 2

Club members have suggested records that would make excellent reissues and previously-unreleased tracks for next year's indecent cash-in - decent record labels, please take note...


Grannie (Theo Hassenewert), Landberk - I Nattens Timma (Gary Farber), Petards - Out In The Rain (Andrew Young)


The Poets ' Wooden Spoon' - Pete Banahan, Sunfighter 'Golden Eagle Of Illumination' - Kevin Chown, Gong '2032' - Rob Whitaker, The Portsmouth Sinfonia 'Play the Popular Classics' - Roy Bennett

IF FdM CLUB MEMBERS GOT THEIR HANDS ON RSD 2021 - PART 3

more club member recommendations for records that would make excellent reissues and previously-unreleased tracks that could be put out on vinyl for RSD 2021...



Neil Young 'Eldorado', SAHB 'Hot City', Stereolab 'BBC Sessions', Tripping Daisy 'Jesus hits Like The Atom Bomb' (all suggested by Craig Palmer)


The Mystery Meat - Mark Sorrell, Andy Roberts 'Nina and The Dream Tree Sequence' - Robert Musgrove, It's A Beautiful Day - Malcolm Best, National Head Band 'Albert 1' - David Hodgson

IF FdM CLUB MEMBERS GOT THEIR HANDS ON RSD 2021 - PART 4

'Itchycoo Park' - The Enid 12", 'First Cut Is The Deepest' - The Koobas 7", 'I Found The Sun' - The Klubs 7" (all suggested by Pete Banahan)


My Solid Ground - Zil Bareisis, Auntie Pus 'Halfway to Venezuela' - Kevin Shepherd, Mama Lion 'Preserve Wildlife' - Steve Smith, The Flies 'Stepping Stone' - Pete Banahan

IF FdM CLUB MEMBERS GOT THEIR HANDS ON RSD 2021 - PART 5

'My Clown' - July 7" (Mark Colwill), 'Metaphysical Meditation' - Holy Angels LP (Andy Pernet), 'Abandon' - Deep Purple LP (Andy Butler)

Astralasia 'The Politics Of Ecstacy' - Gavin Turnbull and Hairy Dave, Tickawinda 'Rosemary Lane' - Christopher Majewicz, The Elastic Band 'Expansions On Life' - Dave Smith, The Bevis Frond community CDrs - Alan Last

IF FdM CLUB MEMBERS GOT THEIR HANDS ON RSD 2021 - PART 6

Keef Hartley Band - The Time is Near, Oliver - Standing Stone, Rupert Hine - Pick Up A Bone, Shusha - Before The Deluge
...LPs recommended by Brian McMaster

IF FdM CLUB MEMBERS GOT THEIR HANDS ON RSD 2021 - PART 7

Lon & Derek Van Eaton - Brother, Jane - Lady, Flower Travelling Band - Made In Japan, Michael Armstrong - Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Pink Floyd
...LPs recommended by Dave Lovatt

IF FdM CLUB MEMBERS GOT THEIR HANDS ON RSD 2021 - PART 8

Glastonbury Fayre (Nik Williams), Nancy & Lee (Kees de Roder), Sun Dial 'Other Way Out' (Tony Miller), Man 'The 1999 Party Tour' (Andy Thomas)

IF FdM CLUB MEMBERS GOT THEIR HANDS ON RSD 2021 - PART 9

Wally (their first two albums) - Andy Young, Harsh Reality 'Heaven and Hell' - Steve Pateman, FM 'Black Noise' - Matthias Lang, Ars Nova - Iain Norris

IF FdM CLUB MEMBERS GOT THEIR HANDS ON RSD 2021 - PART 10

'Zodiac : Cosmic Sounds' - Terry Flynn, The Petards 'Out In The Rain' - Stephen Young, Cardiacs 'A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window' - Phil Rogers, Peter Green 'Heavy Heart' - Wayland Workman

IF FdM CLUB MEMBERS GOT THEIR HANDS ON RSD 2021 - PART 11

Uve Schikora 'Das Gewitter', Les Fleurs De Pavot, Dale Kahr & Christy Boughn 'Black is Black', Novalis 'Banished Bridge' - all suggested by Till Wolff

SOUNDS FROM THE UNDERGROUND

We've lined up another club members-exclusive compilation CD for club members who buy the vinyl goodies we're releasing in early November - this one brings together friends of FdM old and new...from Eastern Europe, South and North America...and Birmingham

The full artist list is:

Yaatra : Culto al Qandor : The Sugarman Band : Jay Tausig : Arcade Messiah : Vision Eternel : Bruce Hendrickson and The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies : Stray Owls

click here for earlier members club postings from 2020...

check out earlier members club missives at www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/membersclubrecentarchive.html

older members club stuff at www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/membersclubarchive.html

and even older ones at www.fruitsdemerrecords.com/membersclubancientarchive.html