An Introduction To The Chemistry Set is the latest in the series of retrospective CDs from Fruits de Mer Records anthologising a band or performers’ back catalogue on the label. These are highly useful and desirable collections given the ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ nature of many Fruits de Mer releases and this, compiled by the band, has to be one of the best so far.

The Chemistry Set, predominantly the duo of Dave McLean and Paul Lake, have a long and storied history. They came out of the Splash Of Colour milieu in the mid 80s – McLean was a particular fan of The Playn Jayn – with a neo-psychedelic sound which really should have dove-tailed into the baggy scene and put them on a rocket to stardom but somehow didn’t.

There was an eponymous debut cassette on Steve Lines’ Acid Tapes imprint, a nine-track Spanish 12” Wake Up Sometime!, and a projected album Sounds Like Painting, which never materialised though Phil McMullen reviewed it in Bucketfull #29 in early 1989 and there was a free flexi of ‘Some People Never Learn’ with the same issue. They also had connections with Alan Duffy’s Imaginary Records and another track ‘Telephone’ appeared on a four track EP compiled by that label and given away with Bucketfull #37 two years later.

They gradually disappeared from the scene and it was only in the mid-2000s as the Sounds Like Painting tracks began circulating in the blogosphere that they remerged. This Day Will Never Happen Again came out on Dead Bees in 2010 and then inevitably, given their shared interests, they linked up with Keith Jones at Fruits de Mer. Singles and compilations followed along with a pair of albums The Endless More And More in 2016 and Pink Felt Trip in 2022.

The double CD features tracks from both of them along with five from This Day Will Never Happen Again plus singles, compilations cuts, solo covers from last year – McLean’s ‘Faintly Blowing’ and Lake’s ‘Dear Mr Fantasy’ – and the two sides from their Hypnotic Bridge 7”.

The CD set is cheap as chips, and although scheduled for 9th May release you can pre-order for the UK from Fruits de Mer’s website already; and if you’re elsewhere it’ll point you to the appropriate distributor. Unwise to delay as it’s a limited run and it will sell out.