The Organ Mag  www.organart.com made US & THEM single of the week, and wrote... 

US AND THEM – Fruits De Mer Volume Eight (Fruits De Mer) – Now this series is always worth checking out, this fine series of singles always throws together an ambitiously interesting set of well thought out treats. They don’t hit the absolute spot every time, they’re always worth checking out though. This eighth one might just be the best of the series so far. Us And Them are a Swedish boy/girl duo, she, Britt, sings and he, Anders, plays all the instruments. The instrumentation is simple, glowing acoustic guitar with some delicate warm keyboard textures underneath – minimal tunes that leave plenty of space for Britt’s beautifully intimate voice to breath and glow, Us And Them are always good, this single is extra special.

            Now this is a Fruits De Mer single so there’s always a story and a slightly left-field song or two covered, always something extra to explore... they don’t just throw out singles, this is all cleverly planed and considered and this time a treat of a musical coach pulled by six white horses...  Us And Them does automatically pull thoughts towards Pink Floyd and the lead track here is a meltingly beautifully version of the relatively early Floyd classic Julia Dream, only it isn’t quite that either because this almost seven minute version is a little bit more than just a cover.

Seems the original Floyd version’s melody was loosely based on a traditional folk lullaby called All The Pretty Horses, this is a gorgeously seamless and deliciously enchanting coming together of the two songs as one. The original traditional English lullaby and the quiet Floyd sound become one melting piece of must play again and again perfection called Julia Dream (All The Pretty Horses). Just right for curling up with, and yes hibernating until Spring with. You just have to hear it, the beauty can’t be described here on

(electronic) paper, words are not enough. The Pink Floyd starting point is rather beautiful anyway, never really heard a bad version of Julia Dream, this version is right up there with Rebsie Fairholm’s, this is a special, a perfect mix of traditional folk and Floyd psychedelia... All so simple, all so clever, all so gorgeously rewarding...

        And of course there’s more, this is Fruits De Mer, the other two songs here are equally as interesting and almost as good (come on you couldn’t expect these next two to be as good as that sunlight bright upon their pillow can you? Almost though, very close).

         Tudor Lodge were one of those obscurely classic early 70’s British acid-folk bands. Us And Them cover a Tudor Lodge song here called Home To Stay, a simple folk song that instantly has us scurrying to the web in search of more (seems they’re still doing things). Meanwhile Dialogue is a Jackson C. Frank song - there’s quite a story to him, big influence on Nick Drake (and an equally tragic figure so it seems), reputedly the person who persuaded Sandy Denny to pack up nursing and take up music full time.

Dialogue comes from his much loved by those who know 1965 album. One of the darker tracks and one of the most beautiful, all we can say here is Us And Them have done Dialogue justice, and you know what, might just have been wrong about this not being quite as good as the lead track - definitely wrong, this is painfully beautiful. Easy to see how his songs influenced Nick Drake. And that Tudor Lodge song is beautiful as well, once again Us And Them have covered it in glowing style – all dreamy and intimate and just all so perfectly right. Pretty difficult to imagine Us And Them making anything that wasn’t gorgeously glowing, that wasn’t alive with almost perfect beauty.

        This is a very special three track single, a play again and again and again piece of treasure that you really should check out. As always with the Fruits De Mer series, the single will be a very limited 7” pressing so don’t hang around. One of the best singles for a very long time... Almost too good, must be something wrong here, nothing is this perfect? Oh yes, boring artwork... there see, we are being objective (actually the cover is an 8pp 7 1/2" square booklet, which we kinda like, with lyrics and stuff - but we only had the cover-shot available when we sent a review copy to The Organ)

Most people don't want challenging music, meditative music or even albums of music anymore. The public wants bubblegum, lots of it, just so long as it can be remixed to a house beat and played in a continuous mix whilst they swallow Sours shooters down the local grease pit, then they are happy. I'm sorry, that's just people, I see them everywhere like cattle chewing cud into mobile phones, all of them with about as much taste as a used lollipop stick. This  unfortunately means that most people won’t like Us & Them, which is a shame as they make beautiful, haunting music, a bit like The Wicker Man soundtrack being sung by Capser the Friendly Ghosts mum. All of the songs on this EP are covers, ‘Home to Stay’ by Tudor Lodge and ‘Julia Dream’ by Pink Floyd have become, in the hands of Us & Them so fragile you stop breathing in case you break them. The third cover. ‘I Want To Be Alone(Dialogue)’ is covered in the same way, unfortunately losing the immediacy and emotion of Jackson C. Frank’s original, though still pleasant nonetheless. Highly recommended to anyone who doesn't watch X-Factor

Unpeeled www.unpeeled.net

Fruits de Mer Volume Eight

Us & Them

Us & Them are Swedes, Anders and Britt. They’re Swedish because they come from ....Sweden..... Britt sings and Anders plays instruments. They are a Swedish boy-girl duo!

Us & Them had two stunning covers of Tudor Lodge “Home To Stay”, and “Dialogue” by Jackson C Frank (also known as “I Want To Be Alone”). That was simple enough – the two tracks would make a sensational 7” single, all done with minimal effort as they were already in the can and just needed a little tweaking on the mix. I was immensely pleased with that. Both tracks have beautiful instrumentation and arrangement, all topped off by Britt’s exquisitely intimate vocal.

Tudor Lodge, of course, produced a classic, and highly collectible, British acid-folk album on the Vertigo label in the early 70’s, although “Coming Home” comes from a reunion of the band.

“Dialogue” is one of Jackson C Frank’s masterly-crafted pieces. He had an influence on Nick Drake, and was a similarly tragic figure. He reputedly persuaded Sandy Denny to pack up nursing and take up music full time! ‘Dialogue’ comes from his 1965 album, and is one of his darkest tracks.

That was it – we had a brilliant record, except...

...we wanted even more – a Fruits de Mer ep.

Thus a brainstorming session ensued between all parties whereat various suggestions were thrown into the pot. I think we were all subliminally drawn to Pink Floyd because of the band name.

As it so happened, an acquaintance of Us & Them had once mentioned “Julia Dream” as ‘a good track for them to cover’,  Anders and Britt threw it into the mix and so it was agreed. Everyone was happy.

Then I remembered something I once read, about how the melody was based on the British traditional lullaby “All The Pretty Little Horses”. A quick internet search and a site that rhymes with Dicky-Media confirmed everything, though they claim the lullaby as being Am..eric..an, I’m not having it.

As it happens, myself and Us & Them are fond of such things in music, and mention was made of the “Fuzzy-Felt Folk” album out on Trunk a few years back. And so it was agreed, the final piece in the puzzle would be a merging of the tracks to give us, “Julia Dream (Of All The Pretty Little Horses)”.

Away Anders and Britt went with a concept, and two weeks or so later, a rather nervous email with an attached file arrived from Us & Them, along with a Swedish quote about ‘buying a pig in a sack’ (bought unseen, in other words).

That was many days ago, and I haven’t stopped listening to “Julia Dream (Of All The Pretty Little Horses)” since. It is absolutely unb..eli..evable. It’s music to hibernate with.

So there, you have it – a Fruits de Mer ep for the cold, wintery nights ahead – we hope you’ll love it as much as we do.

Britt was raised in Sorsele, a small village in the north of Sweden, near the Arctic Circle. A place which is dark almost all day and night in the winter and it never gets dark in the summer. Anders is from ....Motala.., ..Sweden....’s first industrial town, a fact that still characterises it. On their own they developed a big interest for music in general. In their early years they both became very fond of ....England...., and especially English music. For many years, they’ve been based in ..Sweden..’s capital, ....Stockholm....

In their own words, “Us & Them is a combination of experience and newly found curiosity. Anders played and made records with a couple of bands during the years. Britt has worked as an actress, and to sing and play herself is a new thing for her. For the both of them Us & Them is fulfilling a dream. Anders has always got a passion for folk, psyched..eli..ca and baroque pop which wasn’t always the easiest thing to convince his earlier band colleagues that it was the way to go. Britt, who always loved music, has a way to practise something she always wanted.

“Us & Them’s music is dreamy and otherworldly but at the same time there is an everydayness and intimacy which give the same fe..eli..ng as a letter from a long gone friend”

................................................................................

Release date: December 2009

7” ice-vinyl 33.3 rpm EP.

features inconveniently-sized

7 ½” square 8pp full-colour lyrics booklet in place of ‘normal’ sleeve

“Julia Dream (Of All The Pretty Little Horses)” [Waters/ Traditional]

“Dialogue” [Jackson C Frank]

“Home To Stay” [Whiteland]


 

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Record Collector mag has reviewed Vibravoid's 'Krautrock Sensation' ep on our label - i think they like it, although i'm not sure about the reference to the band as "a hairy bunch of psychedelic motherf*ckers from Dusseldorf"(mind you, they ARE from Dusseldorf).


 
(and yes, we know it's almost too blurry to read - blame myspace!)

go on, make a bunch of hairy psychedelic motherf*ckers happy - buy it from us today at www.fruitsdemerrecords.com

Ok, so it's a passing reference of 'Madman Running Through the Fields' in a review of 'A Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble Volume 2', as compiled by Amorphous Androgynous (aka Future Sound of London), but it's the first time any of our tracks have got a mention in Uncut, so we're making the most of it....


"...mind-expanding sounds..."

...that's it...three words, and two of them hyphenated, but it's a start - and anybody buying 'MPB2' (as us in the know tend to call it) will only get half the track - and only the half that's played mainly forwards (with a bit of backwards guitar) - rather than the whole track which also includes all of the first half replayed but backwards (except for a bit of forwards guitar) - pay attention at the back, we'll be asking questions later.

Now go and put yourself on the mailing-list for the first copies off the presses - head over to www.fruitsdemerrecords.com, and no dawdling at the back (Watts, stop playing with Willis)

"...a seriously groovy ‘lounge’ take on ‘Baby You’re A Rich Man’ upcoming by Cranium Pie, backed with a rather strange/experimental version of ‘Mad Man Running Through The Fields’…The style of music is as different over both sides of the single as The Beatles used to be, and just as interesting too…Fab!"

Heyday
www.heyday-mo.com

I love pie. I had a small pie yesterday that cost me 4 pounds. Pricey but worth it. Sometimes in your life you've got to treat yourself and spend over the odds on pie. I once spent 5 quid on one in Brighton... After the feeling of being ripped off, I ate my pie and enjoyed it. I didn't think it was worth the 5 pounds.....AND YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE AWARD WINNING! I don't think I'd fancy a Cranium Pie though and that is coincidentally the name of the artist on the 7th Fruits De Mer 7" with their cover of 'Baby You're A Rich Man'. It's a hammond organ tastic cover with it sounding just like Booker T & The MG's and Procul Harum (the press release is spot on...). The flip is a cover of Dantalian’s Chariots ’Madman Running Through The Fields’ which is insane 60's psychedelia and clearly the product of vast drug consumption. Am well jealous....

Norman Records
www.normanrecords.com

really like richman....mellow hammond instrumental bobs along nicely and the climatic ending with mellotrons sounds great when cranked up. madman....mad!- in a good way. a trip.

Wurzel (a guy passing by the Norman site)